dbstreet

Hi, i'm new to the bike forums. I was wondering if anybody could help me with my bunny hop. I ride a diamond back bmx. Its 29 pounds and its pretty darn heavy. I can't seem to lift up the front enough to do a bunnyhop (the right way). I can lift the back up fine. but i just can't seem to lift the front high enough. i can't even bunny hop up a curve. i'm only five feet tall and only 13. so if i can have some help. my friends can't figure out why either. they say i'm not using my back enough. i'm kinda paranoid at this so if someone could help, that would be cool.

fuzzbox

Practice. You are probably to weak to lift.

bhkyte

Most of the bunneyhop height is due to good timing, keep praticing.

If it is an english bunney hop ,(both wheels together), then use a jumping action from your legs rather than than pulling on the bars.

If you start to get better at this then pull the bars up but forwards also to stop only the front wheel lifting.

This is a reponse I left to a preivous post

"Its all about weight tranferance.

This is for an "American"( I invented this term, but thats a differnet story! Very,very old skool).

Its easier to do well if going very slowly. But in theroy if you can make the same weight tranfer when going faster it should give you more energy and more height.This is what you need strenght for.else its all about technique. Basically you need confidence, as you are going to go from extremes of weight tranference very quickely and excellent timing to get a few more inches.Be brave and pratice on grass!

1.Make sure that the peddles are well set with the toe of your rear foot pointing downwards and your front toes pointing upwards. Start standing as high as you can, then bend elbows and knees to go as low as you can.

2. Pull up, and back on the bars as you go up to a standing postion,you should be over balancing here and falling backwards if you are trying hard enough.
3. Your weight will be thrown to the front of the bike deserately trying to counterbalance the bike from fliping backwards with the bars pressed in to stomach.bend head/stomach over the top bar to allow even more counterbalance.
4. now push the bars forward bend the knees and sit on the back wheel, or even behing it if you can. This corrects the bikes balance. Once under the bars push forward and upwards to gain some more height. If you have got this right the wheels should now just be level with each other in this tucked as far back postion. As soon as you untuck your body from sitting on the rear wheel for landing the rear wheel will drop very quickly ,and again you should have a real battle stoping the bike flipping backwards before you land. If you have commited enought to it you should be landing rear wheel first .You should only just be able to avoid it flipping backwards again on landing.ie you end up with the bars pressed in to your stomach again on landing!

If you have really got air off a ramp using a bunney hop, slowly stand up again so that you dont push the bike downwards , and tuck the bike in to your body again! IF you have used enought force you should still be going up at the first tucked postion, the second tuck does not really add any more height, it simply pulls the bike up slightlyin to your body.
hope this helps.

(In other words; move over the front then the back of the bike after giving a big pull on the bars!!)

Street rider

lift weights. and 29 pounds isn't considered heavy. heavy is over 35 at least.

minichamp31

I bet my GT is about 35 pounds. Thing's like a tank. 8 pound frames ftw.

bhkyte

lifting weights will not help the technique!
I suggest you concentrate on this.
Get that right along side doing any strenght training if you want to. But do not replace the pratice with strenght training.

If you want to try training work the biceps,traps and lowerback . Do squats for hip and knee extention.
However you can train these by doing bunneyhops also!

rnorris

Yeah, practicing your weight transfer will do the most good. I'm not a BMX rider but had some of the same bunnyhopping troubles as a small MTB rider (105 lbs., 29 lb. bike). It took me awhile to get the weight transfer idea down. To bunnyhop bigger stuff I really have to jump and lurch forward to get the back wheel up. On the MTB I can cheat and grab a bit of front brake too, which helps. It'll be easier too once you're bigger.

Street rider

you need to be able to lift the bike up before you worry about technique. he said in his first post that he could hardly pull the front end up. He definitely needs to worry about that first.