Bunny Hops, how'd you learn?
 

I can do very small ones, but cant get any sort of real height and it would definitely be helpful to be able to hop up curbs. I have no problem doing this on a road/mountain bike but I have a hard time doing it on a fixed gear.
How'd you learn? I've been working on balancing with wheelies and I'm hoping once I can do those it'll be easier to get my rear wheel to follow the height of my front.

Any tips?

Mountain bikes.

Of course, its all about timing with your crank rotation.
Start to pull up the front before your pedals are near the moment you'd normal bunny-hop on a freewheeled bike. Then when they're about there or there pull the rear up.

thank you for commenting without reading the original post.

thanks, I'll be trying this later (I think I could probably do this but I'd be real nervous about smashing my cranks as I ate it really hard once when taking a corner to hard)

I guess what I'm really asking though is how do you practice? do you just ride on the road and try to hop? set up small jumps? I honestly can't even remember how I learned to do it on a freewheel bike

np dawg

Didn't we all learn this when we were 5 years old? On 16" BMXs?

But I will admit that if I want to try and hit a small kicker ramp or something I will sometimes walk my bike backwards from the lip with the cranks in the right spot back to where I want to start. Lame? Yes, but so is the whole pursuit of jumping track bikes.

*raises hand* I didn't. I was 13. It took me ages to figure it out. Oh, and he's asking how to do it on a fixed gear, not a freewheel.

The only difference would be that you're not in your "comfort zone" foot-position-wise.
It's still possible to bunny-hop w/ your feet at 6 and 12. It's just the equivalent of hopping on one leg.

I have trouble hopping fixed. I can do it fine with a free wheel, but there are some road situation where you want to have the ability to hop. Keep practicing until it feels more natural?

Just do it slowly and build up speed as you learn?

I can do it fairly well, but I still would probably pack the **** out of my rear wheel on a curb if it came down to last second crash aversion via sidewalk.

Track bikes don't make for elegant flying machines.

i can do little ones on my fixed gear. but i don't like to because if i mess up my rear i don't want to go through the hassle of getting another 650c rear built. plus i nearly broke my ankle last time i did onein a hurry and got my leg pinched between the crank and the chainstay on landing. it is a matter of being able to do them ambi-dexterously from the 10-2 position and working on making your comfort zone bigger and bigger and practice. it just took practice and timing for me.

i learned on a bmx like 15 years ago

this is great though...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=780mImVjgfA

Hmm from that mtb video it looks like a very low, un-road-bike-like seat position helps a lot. Ahh well, it gives you a really good idea how it's done. I am going to try learning real bunnyhops instead of the little jumps he tells you not to do.

i learned on a bmx bike, or a mountain bike.

and then i transferred the skills over to tarck bixe.

hop over the lines in the center of the road.

wait till pedals are in your trackstand position or a little before and pull up while pushing forward on your stem

I learned on my mtb.

Its about timing for me. I can't hop at any spot in the pedal stroke, just the 2 6/12's. Its not always graceful (understatement).

My roommate does these enormous bunny hops on his track frame. I'm always catching him out of the corner of my eye FLYING through the air. Freakin BMXers! He does some fairly big transfers. I get a kick out of it. Goes through tubes like a bandit.

BMX. I tend to avoid doing it on my fixed gear, though.

theres a few ways to practice this. goto a place that has a small step and going really slow, parallel to the lip, pull up your front tire and place it on the step, but close to the lip so your still almost parrallel. And then right afterwards try to follow with your rear tire and place it on the step. Initially you wont actually be jumping because youll move the front and rear seperately. To bunny hop you basically have to do this motion faster, pull up the bars and move them over, and while your front is still in the air, lift up the rear.

Its alot easier to jump up things successfully from the side. to practice this use a small step or line and practice jumping over it, at progressively faster speeds, and landing both wheels on the other side. I also found that using toe clips isnt really neccessary for this and its better to learn how to grip the pedals properly than rely on the clips. Once you get good at going side to side just start hitting bigger steps and eventually youll get it.

Id recommend getting a thicker tire or else youll ding your rim practicing.

I do my best not to do them on a fixed gear. I've had a few too many close calls because of it.

ksyrius thanks a ton
i already have cross tires on for the nasty winter conditions so i should be set

I want to learn how to do this because I almost ate it on a serious pothole with a car next to me because I could only do a small jump.

the plan is to have this skill for emergency uses