How To Bunny Hop On A Mountain Bike – GMBN's Essential Step By Step Guide

Today, we're going to look at a really
comprehensive guide on how to bunny hop. Talk about lifting both wheels
individually, how to do that, what the most common mistakes are, and if you're
struggling at one way or another, I'll try and address that. The bunny hop is an essential technique
you need to use on a mountain bike. It's something that I use all the time for
getting over obstacles, something like a very slippy route or a
rock section. Rather than driving the bike into these things, you start taking weight
off the wheels, maybe jumping that section

completely or maybe just un-weighting
slightly, so you're carrying speed over these edges. Also, it's the key technique
you need to use to make heights on a jump. This technique should be exactly the same
on whatever bike you ride hardtail, full suspension, also peddles, flats to
clips. Good technique is good technique. So, let's break the bunny hop
down into a couple of parts first. It starts a with pump and a manual. This
is where you go from your neutral

position, stood up in the middle of the
bike, you pump down into the bike and then you use this L shape to the back of the
bike or your hips. Exactly the same is the manual technique. Down and back, that's
going to take your weight right over the rear wheel and that should lift the front
wheel. It's really important that your arms go straight as you go back. So
actually, you're using your weight to lift the front wheel. and you're
not using your arms to lift the front wheel. If you use your
arms to life the front wheel,

you'll then find it really hard
to lift your back wheel. If you've got that nice L shape thigh and back,
you should think about it again, really loads that back tire. Because from
there to then lift the rear wheel, all I then need to do is stand up and
forward. So actually, my legs extend, my hips go up towards the bars
and that pops up the back wheel. If you're too high with your L shape, it
feels like you have to sort of swing your hips forward, and that isn't a very
feeling on the bike, swinging your hips towards the bars. It's much more natural
just to stand up. That's really going to

help with your rear wheel lift. That's
probably the hardest part of a bunny hop, is getting really good at lifting the rear
wheel. Remember, it's all about using your weight, weight is your hips.
People cheat with their rear wheel lift, especially with clips, and they just
pull up with their feet, but it does work, and it's okay. But the
main reason you don't want to use that is you pull up with your feet, your hips
still remain over the back tire.

So if you get the timing wrong and dropped
that back wheel into an obstacle that you don't want to hit, all your weight is then
on that back tire, so there's a good chance that if it's a jump, you're going
to end up casing that jump really hard, and it's going to be a really heavy
landing. Also, if you're relying on pulling up with your
feet to lift the back wheel, you'll only be able to pick up your
back wheel that much until you run out of space. So it's much better
to use your hips up and forward, and then lift the rear wheel as much as
you want. That's what I call a spot hop,

because most people with SPDs do this.
You'll then draw a square shape with your wheels rather than get this nice
shaped front wheel then back wheel using your hips. So if you are using that square
shape SPD hop, that's not really going to work if you're trying to get over an
obstacle like a root, and you're going slow, because you'll need to get really
quick to clearance with both wheels. So, a really great way of practicing doing
one wheel at a time is get an iron stick, putting it on the trail and roll in really
slow at it so that you lift your front

wheel up and over, pause, wait for your
rear wheel to get close and then stand up and forward to lift the rear wheel. So,
you're doing one wheel at a time. Don't worry too much if your wheel just
hits the stick, just try and make sure there's no weight on that wheel when it
does hit it. So, the right technique is standing nice and tall, big pump that does
help with the full suspension bike so you're going to squash suspension in.
Same technique with hardtail, but you go straight down then back in the L
shape to your rear tire. Remember,

nice and low to that rear wheel then stand
and forward, that's going to pop the rear wheel off the floor. Timing is a
really important part, so actually, you're standing up and forward as
the front wheel is still coming up. Lots of people do this too late, so
they've done their manual, the front wheel is now dropping, and
then they go with it. And that's too late. It will feel natural if you're
going with the front wheel, but actually, you need to come up
and towards the front wheel as

it's just about to peak. Then start
rolling quicker at the stick still doing one wheel at a time and, you should
find that it starts turning into a proper bunny hop, so both wheels are in the air
at the same time but you're still using front wheel then back wheel technique,
not doing two at the same time. If you're struggling with lifting
the rear wheel, just practice getting nice and low to that rear tire
and using your hips up and forward. And also, maybe try and use a little bit
of a scoop as you do that.

You can practice just doing the rear wheel
for now, forget the front wheel. Get really confident lifting the rear wheel,
and then it's all about timing, fitting it all in one go is the hard part. The
bunny hop is almost the third piece of a puzzle really, so to do it nicely, you
need to be able to pump and manual first. So, for more videos from GMBN, you can
click up here for our "How to pump" video or click down here for "How to manual."
Also, you can click on me. As always,

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