The bunny hop is to cycling what the ollie is to skateboarding – a jump where both the vehicle and the rider move in apparent synchronicity so that both move as a whole. If done properly, the pedals appear to stick to the feet of the rider. It looks cool and Kyle claims April can learn it in a day.
Kyle’s detailed drills have me convinced that even I could learn to do it. I’m just struggling to think of any practical application of this trick, though. If you could jump on a bike, what would you do?
The practical application for Danny MacAskill is that he earns decent sponsorship money making videos of himself jumping obstacles found in the ruins of a once-industrialised island community. That’s not exactly going to help make your commute. Give me a good, honest road bike any day.
Ah, OK. I guess the benefits of bunny hopping are directly related to the kinds of obstacles you may want to avoid making contact with. A tour cyclist like Nibali uses bunny hops to avoid wet tarmac. And now I come to think of it, I wish I’d learned to bunny hop before encountering those tramlines in Manchester. Maybe I should give Kyle’s tutorial another look…
