manual63
03-23-2005, 07:57 AM
I was riding to school last night and I saw this big snowpile in my way. I decided to bump jump it.....and it was a blast. I did land a little too far onto my front wheel, mostly because I am out of bump jump practice over bigger items.
So what's a bump jump? This is a tough one to explain, but it's basically a manual into a smaller to mid sized object that you can launch your rear wheel off of and catch air. The tricky part of this whole process, as I stated when I did it last night, is to keep the front wheel up. If you have been reading my info on how to manual, something you should be able to do at least 10 feet or so before trying this, and how to hop onto something and manual across it, a lot of this will be very similar.
The best thing to learn these on is speed bumps. Ride up to the speed bump, or selected object, at a medium speed (about 10 MPH). About 5 ft before your front wheel gets there, start to manual. Keep your weight way back over the rear tire during the manual. You should have both your elbows and knees slightly bent. Once your rear tire gets to the bump pull up evenly on your handlebars and hop with your rear wheel. It's like a bunny hop with the bike in a manual position, but you need to keep that front wheel up, so you have to pull hard on the bars and keep the weight back. If you let your weight go forward at this point, you will come down hard on your front wheel and your rear wheel will get kicked into the air. A speed bump probably won't flip you over the bars, but it is possible. So it's important to keep your weight back and front end up....mostly by keeping your arms bent and pulling on the bars the whole time. As your rear wheel comes up off the ground, you need to compress your knees up into your chest like you would to do a normal bunny hop. Once maxed in the air.....the rest is standard issue bunnyhop. Keep a steady pull on the bars and straighten your knees to land the rear wheel first. Once you get that down, try landing back into a manual after the speed bump......that one is tough and I have only pulled it a couple of times. But I have seen riders, BMXers, do this before and it looks sick. That video Buck posted had a guy bunnyhopping a barrier and landing back into a manual.......so it is possible to do.
To do a rear wheel jib, you must bunnyhop before the speed bump or other object and you must go much higher than that object. You do everything as normal to hop over it. The only difference is that as your rear wheel gets above the object you straighten your knees and tap the rear tire onto the top of the object. Then recompress your legs back up agian to bring the rear wheel back up. The whole time you need to keep that front end up in the air. So you need to keep a constant pull on the bars and when you need to pick up that rear wheel a second time, you will probably want to give another bunnyhop type yank on the bars to keep the front wheel up. It's like a second bunnyhop while you are in the air, only your rear wheel will be much lower than your front wheel, so it is similar to the manual to bump jump in that respect.
Both of these moves are fairly advanced. You will want to be really good at bunnyhopping front wheel first to rear wheel, BMX style, before you try either one. You can not do these moves if you bunnyhop both wheels at the same time. Once again....for your safety.....don't use clipless pedals when learning these moves.....so yes....you need to know how to properly bunnyhop without being locked onto your pedals. If you need pointers here, they are in a previous thread about bunny hopping.
Have fun.
So what's a bump jump? This is a tough one to explain, but it's basically a manual into a smaller to mid sized object that you can launch your rear wheel off of and catch air. The tricky part of this whole process, as I stated when I did it last night, is to keep the front wheel up. If you have been reading my info on how to manual, something you should be able to do at least 10 feet or so before trying this, and how to hop onto something and manual across it, a lot of this will be very similar.
The best thing to learn these on is speed bumps. Ride up to the speed bump, or selected object, at a medium speed (about 10 MPH). About 5 ft before your front wheel gets there, start to manual. Keep your weight way back over the rear tire during the manual. You should have both your elbows and knees slightly bent. Once your rear tire gets to the bump pull up evenly on your handlebars and hop with your rear wheel. It's like a bunny hop with the bike in a manual position, but you need to keep that front wheel up, so you have to pull hard on the bars and keep the weight back. If you let your weight go forward at this point, you will come down hard on your front wheel and your rear wheel will get kicked into the air. A speed bump probably won't flip you over the bars, but it is possible. So it's important to keep your weight back and front end up....mostly by keeping your arms bent and pulling on the bars the whole time. As your rear wheel comes up off the ground, you need to compress your knees up into your chest like you would to do a normal bunny hop. Once maxed in the air.....the rest is standard issue bunnyhop. Keep a steady pull on the bars and straighten your knees to land the rear wheel first. Once you get that down, try landing back into a manual after the speed bump......that one is tough and I have only pulled it a couple of times. But I have seen riders, BMXers, do this before and it looks sick. That video Buck posted had a guy bunnyhopping a barrier and landing back into a manual.......so it is possible to do.
To do a rear wheel jib, you must bunnyhop before the speed bump or other object and you must go much higher than that object. You do everything as normal to hop over it. The only difference is that as your rear wheel gets above the object you straighten your knees and tap the rear tire onto the top of the object. Then recompress your legs back up agian to bring the rear wheel back up. The whole time you need to keep that front end up in the air. So you need to keep a constant pull on the bars and when you need to pick up that rear wheel a second time, you will probably want to give another bunnyhop type yank on the bars to keep the front wheel up. It's like a second bunnyhop while you are in the air, only your rear wheel will be much lower than your front wheel, so it is similar to the manual to bump jump in that respect.
Both of these moves are fairly advanced. You will want to be really good at bunnyhopping front wheel first to rear wheel, BMX style, before you try either one. You can not do these moves if you bunnyhop both wheels at the same time. Once again....for your safety.....don't use clipless pedals when learning these moves.....so yes....you need to know how to properly bunnyhop without being locked onto your pedals. If you need pointers here, they are in a previous thread about bunny hopping.
Have fun.