Hopping improved with recent study

General
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I’ve been trying to improve my hopping. I’ve zeroed in on that aspect in various videos. I’ve read some threads. I’ve watch my compatriots closely. Here recently, I found an article on
Muniac Manor (a site which should be on everyone’s “favorites” list).

Included on this site is an article by Kris Holm. Instead of using the popular pre-hop, Mr. Holm says start with a still-stand…compress and go. The still-stand only needs to be 1 second or less in duration. With this in mind, I was able to hop up a flight of 21 steps on the third attempt. (personal best). First attempt I made it 17 steps. Memphis is situated on some tall bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. The city has recently constructed several sets of stairs going up the bluffs. I’m guessing there must be over 100 steps on a couple of them…

And I credit these forums for another point that has made a HUGE difference. I had been exhausting myself because of shoddy technique. Expending too much energy. Pulling hard on the seat. Coming off the pedals. But there has recently been a thread on tire pressure where our resident brainiacs explained the rhythm of the bouncing tire. High psi…the tire returns to orig shape quickly. Low psi…tire returns slowly, allowing the rider time to perform. I got my rhythm matched up to the tire pressure (I chose a pressure just higher than bottoming out) and did the still-stand technique and ba-da-bing, I was on the next step up with surprisingly little effort.

To sum up: Relax, still-stand momentarily, find that rhythm relative to pressure, (i.e. don’t rush the hop) and zingo-bingo.

Going up, I like the balls of the feet on the pedals. Going down I prefer the arch of the foot on the pedals. But that’s a physics problem for an future thread. (anyone ever heard of an atlatl?)

This technique has also improved my MUni riding. Confidence is the key.

Next: two steps at a time. I now have confidence that this is doable. A little more practice.

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Re: Hopping improved with recent study

A spear chucker, if I remember correctly. When I told my mom about them, she went nuts (an avid Scrabble player.)

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Way to go T-Max! You’ll be amazed how quickly your smoothness will come now. Don’t you just LOVE a steep learning curve?!
Tommy

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Cool, Memphis!

At the local HS we have a long three flights of about 25 steps each, and they are narrow. We’ve only had one rider so far do all 3 flights in one go. My feeble technique has gotten me up 14 steps so far. The problem is not the height of the steps, which are easy, but the fact that they are narrow, and that there are so many of them.

When my knee heals up, I’ll be back working on them.

I hope to hear about your Epic Hop to the top of the bluffs.

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Once upon a time, I hopped up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum (the steps from the movie Rocky) on a 24" Miyata with rock-hard tire. Once you get the hang of stair-hopping, it gets pretty easy. Then you can do twosies.

Arches on the pedals for coming down can make sense, especially for older legs, as it puts less stress on the achilles tendon. Some people have problems with that and drops.

The KH-recommended momentary stillstand is a great technique for stairs, as it allows a pause for you to make sure you have the right amount of lean for the next step. The easiest way for me to go up stairs (on a regular uni with hard tire) is to do about one per second, a leisurely pace. What you want to avoid is multiple hops per step.