in Beginners, Newbies, Noobz, etc (Moderators: imwjl, TheMayor1)

I ride with and without feet belts. Egg Beaters are my feet belts.

Say or think what you want but working at the skills with flats and sticky shoes helped my riding skills with or without my cleat setup. I've caught others expressing the same.

For all I do like about clipped riding, I discovered I hurt myself less with flats and shin guards. That may be because I lost abilities to balance after an ear problem and it got worse after age 50. It may also because of where I ride most.

The loss of balance and success after trying something different probably yield extra enthusiasm for the times I use flats.

If it's about learning I suggest trying both.

Well Rich you have a good point.

Tim, I think well said. Philosophical maybe, but well said. And not to worry, I am just jabbing you a little and using it as an excuse to be cognizant of the people we want to use this beginner forum. The goal is to have a forum people are not afraid to post on for fear of getting prosecuted. So we need to be gentle

agander: Also very well said. And I agree with you and Tim. I am sure many of us, myself included, are guilty of the hop method of pulling the back of the bike up with your clips. Kind of like a lot of things in life. It is easy to get "pretty good" at something. In this case pretty good might get you 6" to 8" of height over an obstacle. To get more you need to learn a true bunny hop. A true bunny hop also give you the ability to keep working bigger.

You don't shift your weight forward, keep it back or centered, just kinda push the bars forward a little to counter your upward jump with the rear of the bike.  I can do it just about as high with both wheels at a time as I can with the front wheel up method (which is more practical for almost everything).  And if your investing maybe, check out a 26 in dirt jumper, bmx bike for big kids!  There awesome!

Chuck I think your scale is a little low though, not to be negative or condescending in any way, but I think 6-8 in of vert on a bunny hop is not pretty good.  I think pretty good is at least a foot if not more.

Every time I tried bunnyhopping with clips the back of the bike whipped out a little on me and I didn't like that feeling, not sure why?

Chuck I think your scale is a little low though, not to be negative or condescending in any way, but I think 6-8 in of vert on a bunny hop is not pretty good.  I think pretty good is at least a foot if not more.

Chuck's idea of 'pretty good' is sufficient to get over nearly every obstacle on nearly every trail.

Sure, you'll get over most of the stuff, prob not clear it though unless your moving briskly and pull it off smooth.  8 inches for a 6 in log doesn't leave much room for slop, there are plenty of logs at camrock for ex that an 8 in bunnyhop won't clear cause there stacked deeper.  Picture trajectory.  Unless your booking an 8 in bunnyhop won't get you over a six in tall pile of logs, a foot and a half bunnyhop on the other hand means you can go alot slower (which I almost always am geared to low cause I'm lazy) and still clear stuff.  I still look at a bunnyhop as an urban trick and in that sense if your not clearing whatever your hopping over, your not rolling off of a log, your pinch flatting a stair corner or something.

There's a big difference in clearing an obstacle and popping your front tire over it and partly rolling the back half over it!

Please take a moment to review this website.  It may not help your riding but it will help.

http://wsuonline.weber.edu/wrh/words.htm