How to hop?

jessebatty

jessebatty

Likes Dirt
Hi 'pro trials riders' well your pro to me anyway.
I have just started to get into a bit of trials and I can hop about half a foot high but i want a bit of advice as to how to hop onto a bench and just a bit of halp and a some tips.

Thanks Jessebatty.
 
tba

tba

Likes Dirt
Hey mate

Not exactly sure what you mean by "hop up onto a bench"
But i'm assuming since your starting out that the following will be most helpful.
I'd say the best place to start, is with a bench about a foot high, or something similar.

Roll up to it, with your bad foot forward. Cranking with your bad foot, get your front wheel onto the bench. You should now have your good foot forward. Keep rolling forward the hole time. However just after your front wheel is on the bench (and your rear one is coming closer), throw all your weight up and forward, and pull the bike up under you.

Hope this makes sense, i'm not great at explainging this kinda stuff on paper. I'm pretty new to trials myself, so some of the other guys on here may be of much more help ;)

Note: just in case you're not clear, your "good foot" is the one you naturally have forward. e.g. if you do a jump, or even if you just standing up rolling down a hill, which ever foot you naturally put forward is your good one.

Cheers
and enjoy :D
 
B

bellsy

Likes Dirt
Pedal-Up
Its a bit hard to learn getting the timing right of when to kick/jump. Best way I've found is to experiment a bit with your run up length. I start with my good foot forwards (or in a short run-up, down)
Start your pedal stroke, and once your bad foot is at the top, pedal a bit harder and lift the front wheel off the ground.
Once your good foot is at top, you want to preload with your arms and legs a bit then give your good foot a really powerfull kick on the pedals, and pull up the rear end (remembering your front is still in the air).
You get the height from you preloading and then lifting up (like a bunny hop) and the distance from your pedal kick.
As soon as your rear wheel makes contact, hit the rear brake.
This will either drop the front wheel if you have too much speed, or centre of gravity is too far forward, or will stop you looping out (flling off the back) if your centre of gravity is too far back.
Once you've mastered this you can 'pedal-up' to front wheel for huge gaps, or front wheel 'Tap' for big 'ups'

Easiest way though (and the way I learnt before I could pedul-up) is just to bunny-hop. I can bunny-hop anything bar height, but pedal-ups maybe only a bit over axle height
 
gbowen444

gbowen444

Likes Dirt
All the above is good advise and roll ups and pedal ups are both techniques you need to learn. I say this too everyone but get a video like mastering the art of trials. It really helps. At the very least it will help you understand the different names for each mover and will get you practicing the right moves.

That said..... Hopping generally means hopping on two wheels and is used to keep your balance, hop off stuff or to get up inclines that are too steep to pedal up. You don't actually use it to hope up large obstacles. For that you use a pedal up or roll up. Hopping on the rear is something different again and you can use this with a pedal kick to get up stuff.

A roll up just involves getting your front wheel on something and using momentum/weight shift to roll up something and as your not actually jumping you can't get up really high stuff. A pedal up is more like a bunny hop with your momentum/power coming from a pedal stroke rather than just rolling.

Hope that helps.
 
Povi

Povi

Likes Dirt
^^^^^^

thanks for that
really helpful advice..................



dont be such a dick to people asking proper questions

and learn how to type properly
 
pixelpuppet

pixelpuppet

Likes Dirt
fryzy said:
get some clip on shoes so the bike is stuck to u so u can stack and hop easily
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is some great advice right here... cleats?!? Seriously?!?

There's a few different ways to hop-up. Did you wanna just hop up onto the bench and land on both wheels or did you wanna pedal-kick up and land on just the rear wheel in a stall?
I could sit here and explain it but the best way to learn would be to get hold of a copy of 'Tricks & Stunts' (or Dirty Tricks and Cunning Stunts as it's more formally known) with Martyn Ashton and Martin Hawyes. It's a classic and will run you through everything, all the basics anyway. I started in Trials about 10 years ago and when this video came about it was the most helpful vid I'd ever seen, and I've seen heaps of apparent trials 'tutorials'. This is by far the best!
 
pixelpuppet

pixelpuppet

Likes Dirt
gbowen444 said:
All the above is good advise and roll ups and pedal ups are both techniques you need to learn. I say this too everyone but get a video like mastering the art of trials. It really helps.
Click to expand...
Mastering the Art of Trials is a good vid but unless you already have the basic techniques down then it's not going to help you as Ryan Leech's explanation on things is a bit vague and he assumes you already know a lot. If you wanna get inspired and go for a ride though, Manifesto and Mastering the Art Of Trials are awesome but not to discredit everyone's feedback above, start with Tricks and Stunts.
I know I sound like a salesman for the vid but I've ridden trials for a long time and before you get to the flash tricks never underestimate the power of the basics.
 
jessebatty

jessebatty

Likes Dirt
pixelpuppet said:
Yeah, this is some great advice right here... cleats?!? Seriously?!?

There's a few different ways to hop-up. Did you wanna just hop up onto the bench and land on both wheels or did you wanna pedal-kick up and land on just the rear wheel in a stall?
I could sit here and explain it but the best way to learn would be to get hold of a copy of 'Tricks & Stunts' (or Dirty Tricks and Cunning Stunts as it's more formally known) with Martyn Ashton and Martin Hawyes. It's a classic and will run you through everything, all the basics anyway. I started in Trials about 10 years ago and when this video came about it was the most helpful vid I'd ever seen, and I've seen heaps of apparent trials 'tutorials'. This is by far the best!
Click to expand...
Yeah I ment hopping on to a bench and stalling with my back wheel.
 
jessebatty

jessebatty

Likes Dirt
Thanks for all the help peoples. I'm working on the bench thingies at the moment. And what would you recomend for a first time Trials bike? The 20 inch ones I've heard that they are hard to balance! How cheap could you get a Trials bike for (that could still do street riding) and that had a seat, I MUST have a seat.


Thanks for the feedback.
Jessebatty.
 
D

dylanm

Squid
jessebatty said:
Thanks for all the help peoples. I'm working on the bench thingies at the moment. And what would you recomend for a first time Trials bike? The 20 inch ones I've heard that they are hard to balance! How cheap could you get a Trials bike for (that could still do street riding) and that had a seat, I MUST have a seat.


Thanks for the feedback.
Jessebatty.
Click to expand...
Hey Jesse, everyone says they must have a seat at first. But think about it, in what mtb discipline do you actually need a seat? you don't. Pretty much every time you are doing something useful on a mountain bike you are standing up. A seat gets in the way, and adds at least half a kilo onto the weight of your bike. That being said, not many trials manufacturers these days even make frames with seat tubes. You can try and pick up a second hand planet x or echo which have seat tubes and seats.. If you want a new trials bike, a 26" will set you back around $1000, probably a bit cheaper for a mod (20").

If you ask these questions on www.observedtrials.net, you'll get a much better response there.

Also check out some bikes on www.trialshive.com , a trials dealer based in perth, and www.biketrialsaustralia.com.
 
gbowen444

gbowen444

Likes Dirt
dylanm said:
Hey Jesse, everyone says they must have a seat at first.....
Click to expand...
This is true. I thought so and while I still miss a seat when I am riding long distances (i.e. more than 1km) you get used to it and there simply aren't many trials specific frames that come with a seat any more.

Plus with a 22-18 gear ratio. you are never going to use it as a commuter....
 
gbowen444

gbowen444

Likes Dirt
fryzy said:
get some clip on shoes so the bike is stuck to u so u can stack and hop easily
Click to expand...
Ignore this suggestion. They not only give you bad technique, Being clipping in is just plain dangerous and completely unnecessary for trials. They are also illegal in trials competition.
 
C

craigh1

Banned
u can also learn to hop buy taking front whel off bike and hopping and if u dont want to wreck ur forks u will try to stay one back wheel and it will in the long run but maybe not ur bike , only try if u want to , craig
 
LIAM?!

LIAM?!

Banned
craigh1 said:
u can also learn to hop buy taking front whel off bike and hopping and if u dont want to wreck ur forks u will try to stay one back wheel and it will in the long run but maybe not ur bike , only try if u want to , craig
Click to expand...
That is absolutely moronic.
 
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