when you drop or jump in muni how do you time it right?
cause the cranks have to be horizontal to jump so how do you time it so you come up to the edge of something and jump off it with your cranks in the right position?
or is this what you use that whole prehopping thing for?
if u have enough time and space ride backwards from the point or just prehop
Actually, the cranks don’t have to be horizontal to jump. It’s just easiest to jump with the cranks in the horizontal position. When riding street and urban trials you’ll usually have all kinds of space and time to set up your moves. When riding muni you should forget this mindset and focus on “going for it”… riding non-stop, handling any obstacles you come upon without stopping. This doesn’t mean riding as fast as possible; you want to make sure you’re in control and in balance throughout the whole ride, and forward motion makes this easier.
With this in mind, you’ll have to work on taking drops from all pedal orientations. It just takes lots of practice, on the trail, to master. It’ll be easiest to land drops with good roll-outs (landings onto slopes, not onto flat). If I have enough momentum coming off a drop I’ll use it to re-orient my wheel while in midair… if my cranks are vertical when going off the drop I’ll quickly rotate them 90 degrees (making them horizontal) to make the landing easier.
After practicing the drops from different pedal orientations you’ll be able to start practicing small rolling hops. First I worked on “wrong” foot back rolling hops, then hops from random pedal positions… just jumping over small roots and rocks. Again, rotating your cranks while in-air (as I described above) can make for easier landings. And again, lots of practice is required to become comfortable with non-horizontal take-offs.
The key to landing the drops and hops is to be IN BALANCE before you leave the ground. If you’re off balance when you hit the drop then you’ll biff the landing, guaranteed. As you’re riding up to the drop / obstacle, make sure you’re centered over the wheel and in total control of the uni. If you’re going off a drop that’s on a curve, start the turn, but then straighten out (to ride straight ahead) just before the drop. Land the drop, then finish the turn. You can’t turn in mid-air, so don’t try to take a drop while turning!
The only tip I can give for off-horizontal rolling hops is to focus on moving your body and not pushing on your pedals so much… lift your body up and off the seat, then pull the uni up underneath you. As you get better with different orientations, you can work on using some pedal back-pressure to help you get up off the ground.
Prehopping / riding backwards is for street / trials riding. Muni is about making the trail one long line on which you never stop pedalling. Stopping in the middle of a muni run to line up your pedals kills the flow of the ride, kills your momentum (making rolling hops harder), and takes more energy than just rolling through technical sections.
that is exactly what i try to do Maestro,
but when my feet feel like they are in the wrong spot for me to land a drop, like one pedal is all the way down and the other up, i just pedal slowly in the air if i have time, it will allow me to roll out better, and my foot position will just kind of happen. If I dont have time to pedal in the air to get to a comfortable position, I don’t stop pedaling off of the drop and act like i am on the ground and let the wheel keep rotating
yeah, you can drop without the pedals being horizontal, but it tends to hurt the ankle that’s lower. at least in MY experience it does.
With practice you’ll either start pedalling to horizontal in midair, or rolling out of landings with the pedals in weird positions… I can usually land drops with the pedals vertical, provided that I’m not rolling off a picnic table or something 
This has definitely been my experience as well!
if the pedals are in a wierd position in mid air just pedal in th eair after you jump til they are in the right position, it might take some practise getting used to it though. also try practise rolling hops with the pedals in weird positions.
If you land with the pedals on the ball of your feet, it will bend them down wards, so try jumping form big drops with the middel of your feet on the pedals. that way it doesn’t bend them.
i have a problem in the trails because i cannot jump/hop forward well but i can do side jumps/hops better so whenever i come to an obstacle i always need to come to a stop and hop to a position where i’m side by side with the obstacle and then jump over it. (even if its a small rock)
Anyone have tips on how to do static or rolling forward jumps or hops? I just cant seem to do it…
Just practice it, I used to not be good at hopping forward statically, rolling I can do fine, not that high if in a different pedal position.
When doing them forwards, try to really lean into it and jump, swinging your legs forward, and tucking the uni as much as you can.
Look at Zack Bladwins riding, or there was a recent video from trialsuni that has him doing a great line while doing forward hops.
For a good place to practice, look for the rock pathways, and just hop rock to rock, not sideways, but forwards, then start skipping a few rocks, and what I found to help, are no pre-hops, I usually do some while side hopping, but when I am going forwards, its just a clean, fluid motion, jump, lean and land, lean into the jump, jump.
me 2