180 And 360 Bunnyhops

[tris]

ive been trying to do 180 hops for a while now and i cant seem to get enough spin. by doing a normal hop i can turn maybe 120-130 degrees but i cannot get to the 180 point!!!

also i cant american hop and turn whatsoever!!! i can american really well (like 2+ foot) but i cant turn whilst im doing it.

i really want to learn to 180 hop of things and fakie out, and eventually do 360's.

can anyone explain tips?? thanks.

(i did a search but couldn't find owt)

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

It's mainly about the preload, that is kind of initialising the spin before you take off and twisting your head and shoulders in the direction you want to spin... can you do 180's/360's from a trackstand position (i.e. stationary)? That would be the starting point and then try them rolling slowly once you've sussed out what you need to do. Not sure if that's of much use but just keep trying and you'll get there.

Doubt it's of much use either but here's a vid of a fat American BMXer with bad facial hair explaining how to do 180's...

[Alex@Flawless Bikes]

I found speed helps the faster you ride into the spin the less pre-load you need!

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

But the worse it is if it goes wrong!

[Alex@Flawless Bikes]

True but i can never get enough pre-load so i cheat! Plus you get used to falling off at speed after a while.

[Tomm]

i cheat!

You can cheat in two ways.

Firstly, really "carve" into the turn before you take off, you can get 30 degrees or so of turn on the ground (I.e. now you only have to hop 150, not 180).

Secondly, think about how you're landing - make sure your front wheel is turned in the correct direction to continue the spin when you're going backwards. If you spin anti-clockwise, turn the bars to the right (right hand towards you) slightly so when you're rolling backwards, it'll continue the spin (and vice versa for clockwise, obviously). This means that when you land, you hopefully won't stop so abruptly and you'll carry on rolling backwards. Don't forget to pedal backwards at this point.

To do 'American' bunny hops is a bit trickier, I find, but if you do it right you can get loads more 'pop' - you'll spin more and get more height too. The key is to start as if you're doing a manual in a circle, then suck the back up and give it the full rotation.

[Mark W]

180's are all in the hips, 360's are all in the knees.

With 180s, just lift the front end up, then as you hop the back wheel just kick your legs around to get the spin going. Snap your hips out to the direction you're gonna be landing in, and you should get the back wheel round far enough to get the roll-back. It's always that last little bit it takes the longest for people to learn, and it really is just about snapping your hips round so you kick the back end out right.

With twists, just do the same as you would for a 180, but carve a little more aggressively. As you lift up, keep turning your head, and keep your knees bent with the bike tucked up underneath you. It'll feel weird as hell at first, but once you get it dialled you'll keep both wheels up, and you'll be doing proper 360s, not the 270 to tyre-tap 90 most trials riders try and get away with

The key thing for any spin is not to carve too much on the ground. If you carve more, you lose the momentum gained from the spin, and that'll kill your hop. So yeah, just find a line on the floor and try and ride along it and keep as close to riding along the line as possible when you go for the hop

[Yorkshire Dale]

dude go at a jogging pace then pull on the bars looking where u want the front wheel to lands the as u do the hop flick ur hips and u should get round no probs! longer bikes are harder to do it on so just perciveir!!