jacos5

Might be hard to think about but I'm having a hard time improving my riding, mostly tricks. Seriously, I've been having most trouble doing bunny hops. Sometimes I'll start watching videos trying to learn it, then I go out and try it and wonder how in the hell they manage to get those movements down. It feels so demeaning, this is one of the hardest things I've ever tried to improve on. Should I make sure my wheelie is absolutely perfect before trying it? My wheelie's poor, I'll admit. When I first started practicing it I fell on my ass as soon as I landed it. Messed up my wrist (still hurts) and bent my rim nasty, it was unfixable. So I know a little bit of fear is getting the best of me. Not sure why, I've fallen a lot more at the trails lol. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

/rant

ca7erham

First off, I'd suggest that you practice in a grass field, secondly just keep trying. For bunny hops, specifically, I'd recommend watching those videos (like you said you did) and just keep trying. Set up something soft to jump over that wont knock you over if you hit it, eventually it will click and you'll start hammering them out like its nothing

jacos5

Yea, I'm thinking I'm just trying to take it way too fast. I'll probably try and get my wheelie laid down a lot better to get some confidence back. Thanks man.

cleon

Believe it or not...time in the saddle takes care of most of it.

electrik

Dufus rides over his head
Dufus imitates riders with way more experience
Dufus is always crashing

Don't be a dufus.


Haha, seriously.. the video are a good option, but the best is to find somebody else and session things. It's gonna take a lot longer than you expect to get good so pace yourself and master the less flashy stuff.. it's not always about amplitude.

Daspydyr 

17 posts in and you are discouraged? Wait until you have at least 500 posts. You are riding and trying. Keep it up. The day will come when you post something on Youtube.

Mr Pink57

I got through it with stitches, ti plate inserts, scares, bumps, bruises, concussions, with many others things we chalk this up to practice. As they say "you gotta risk it to get the biscuit."

3speed

What Daspydyr said. Hell, I used to do BMX dirt jumping, I feel comfortable hitting 4' gap jumps and doing 4' drops and have decent enough balance to get my front tire stuck on something during a climb and pause for a second and do a little wheelie onto the object and keep climbing. Still can't ride a wheelie or bunny hop for s***. My hops are getting better, though. I'll bet if you keep practicing yours will too. I'd suggest starting out hopping up onto a curb with grass on top, rolling at a medium speed. If you were to end up hitting the curb and wiping out, it's just dirt and grass on the landing.

commo_soulja

Time and miles on the trail. Practice. Ride with more experienced riders. TIME.

Huh? How does post count relate to bike skills? With that logic someone with a stoopid high post count would be a pro cycling god. Sorry, just doesn't make sense...

Bethany

Don't feel too bad about not being where you want. I was working on a wheelie and accidentally hit the brake and slid forward right into the front of the bike. Grateful I didn't flip over onto the pavement. I took some advice from a YouTube video and started trying a wheelie in my backyard since there isn't a grassy area nearby that I can use. YouTube guy was actually pretty good and within a short time I was doing a wheelie more than 3 inches off the ground. I was showing off to a friend and ended up crashing as I slid off the saddle and fell over. He was laughing so hard as he came to see if I was okay and I had some giant bruises that took several weeks to heal up. I haven't tried it since.

Video was by ZEPtechniques if you want to check it out.

pablosnazzy

if wheelies and bunny hops are the standard to rate yourself by, i am still a noob. i can bunny hop, i can wheelie, but not well.

jacos5 - do you want to be good? really, do you really want to be good? the guys in the videos doing all that awesome stuff...i don't think they are worrying about not being a noob. they love riding. they love riding so much it's what they want to do, they aren't worrying about getting better they are so stoked to ride, they just ride, all day, all the time, and so they get better, they can't help but get better.

if you ride 10-15 hours a day, not thinking about it, just doing it because you want to ride your bike, you are gonna get better whether you want to or not.

dsprehe89

Dude, I use to ride everywhere and do everything you can think of on my old BMX bike when I was a kid and still can't really do a wheelie. I can pop the front tire up all day long, but as for getting anywhere, I can (to this day) still only ride a wheelie about 20-30 feet and no more. Just keep trying on the bunny hop though, I learned how to do those pretty well after many years and many wrecks. I started out on homemade 1-3' tall wood ramps at a around 5-6 years old (had a brother that was 5 years older than me that could talk me into doing anything ) and doing the jump oddly enough is what taught me how to bunny hop. just keep practicing, and you'll get it.

dminor 

There are whole generations that would have benefitted by growing up on stingrays .

ed 

My favorite bike growing up was blue with a gold banana seat. That thing would shred. It was great in the air, too. I don't think they called it flick'able back then though.

dminor 

My best friend had a Monkey Wards then Schwinn Stingray; I had a Columbia Playboy (pic), where I guess my love of dual-crown forks began; and pretty much the whole 'hood was on some form of 20" banana-seat bike in 1967. The yardstick of wheelie mastery was if you could carry one for at least a full suburban block.






Intro clip from Bruce Brown's On Any Sunday. Watch the kid from 1:14 to 1:37; that's a wheelie.

samburger

You baby boomers are so predictable. Every thread about improving on skills is NOT an open invitation to go off on some nostalgic rant about your old Stingray bicycle!

Or then again maybe it is. What do I know? I'm just a kid

dminor 

Haha. Let's just say that wheelies were a basic, fundamental building block of bike handling skills (I guess like the bunny hop is today); so I never cease to by mystified by others being mystified about how to do one. You had two wheels, you made one go in the air - - pull on the bars and pedal.

samburger

^Same deal, different bikes. My friends & I used to always compete with each other to based on who could get the most crank rotations in a wheelie. I used to be good for at least six on command (six half rotations, not full), twice that on a really good day. The bunny hop was more just a basic skill for getting over curbs smoothly...we probably would have done them more competitively if there was an easy way to measure them on the fly.

The phrase "it's like riding a bike" is a bit misleading though, because right now I'm good for maybe half the crank rotations in a wheelie that I used to be. Granted I'm using much longer crank arms, but I can still tell I don't have that same balance point I used to. Practice makes perfect though, & I can still feel myself getting a little bit better every time I try.

dsprehe89

Hey, I'm only a year older than you and I had one of these when I was a kid. Was one of the coolest bikes I've ever ridden, you could ride a wheelie for miles (so long as you didn't flip it). It was both mine and my brothers (more so his if you would have asked him, but our mom paid for it so it was technically both of ours ) and then when we got older and he got his first car, he sold it with out telling anyone until after it was gone .

samburger

Shifter knob & everything

My friend had one of those bikes & I used to ride it around his neighborhood, until his brother converted it into a 2hp mini scooter that ran for all of a few days before it crapped out & no one ever touched it again.

dsprehe89

Ours was missing the knob, but had the shifter, and it didn't shift very well, and seeing as we had never seen or heard of a IGH at that time (I was like 8) we had no clue how to work on it so we just road it the way it was . I wish we still had it.

electrik

Daspydyr 

Apologies Dr. Spock, I should have been more blatantly logical. Your instructions are more to the point.

jacos5

Don't really know any other riders, but I agree that's probably one of the best ways to improve. I also agree with your last post, was a bit confused when I read it.

Yea I just see so many situations where the bunny hop would be very useful. I'll keep working though. Thanks!

It's not necessarily that I want to get good, I was just want to get some basics down so I could enjoy the rides even more than I already do. Me whining doesn't really mean I don't enjoy it. I'm sure those guys in the videos had their frustrated moments as well. Hope I'm not sounding rude, I agree with you 100% and I plan to keep working on it.

Dirt Farmer

This.

Just ride, without any tricks at all, for a good while.

It'll come eventually, and naturally.