When someone who has talent in the rolling hop area takes off it seems as though their pedals are always in the correct position. I on the otherhand very seldomly have my pedals in the right position, if ever. Is there a technique to getting it to work out for you, or do you just have to get a feel for it?
This question originally posten in the thread about Dan heatons rolling hops by James_Potter, but i would like to know as well so i took the liberty of starting a new thread.
When I got good at stationary hops I began to stop while riding and then hop. Eventually I could go very fast, lock the pedals horizontally and do a rolling hop. It’s not hard to stop suddenly and hop in the horizontal position because that is where you feel the power in your legs and the tire because your feet are level. So, basically just keep practicing and the timing will come to you.
Rockey, that’s how you do just a rolling hop. But if you’re riding towards something that you want to hop on to, then how can you get the cranks horizontal right when you want to jump on to it?
What I always do is I do rolling sidehops. I ride a long side a big up, and then hop when I want to. But it would be much more practical to be able to do it more or less straight on.
I found it was mostly just practice. I started doing rolling sidehops, which are a lot less scary as it doesn’t involve pedalling hell for leather towards a solid concrete wall or something.
Gradually the line straightens as you work out where you need to jump, how to curve slightly so you get to the right spot and where to start going for the jump in the first place.
If I’m going for something that’s higher than what I’m properly confident with, I find a mark on the ground to start from. Then I ride up to the object to work out where I need to start from relative to the mark to make sure the cranks are in the right place when I need to jump.
Phil
I think the best way is just to “wind up” from where you want to hop. Basically ride backwards from your “take-off” point, then mark your place for future reference. You can’t just roll your unicycle backwards cause the wheel is compressed when you’re on it. I think this is the standard way to do it, though Nick from HoW (grinspoon) has a different method that I don’t understand. I can usually “eye-ball” one rotation, which is convenient for dropping into ramps, but doesn’t let me get enough speed to hop onto things or clear stairs.
I place the uni about 6=10 inchis closer to the object than where I want to hop from then roll the wheel back. if that doesnt work then I use some trial and error and mark my spot and such.
so Fluff what happened the other day? I was really looking forward to you comming… we’ll have to try again some other time.
I know that it works to roll the wheel back from where you want it to be, but I want to be able to do it spontaneously. Ya know?
I guess the best thing for you is to get really familiar with pedal rotation distances. By this I mean get to know how far one, two, three… pedal rotations take you so that when you are riding toward something you can zig zag a little to get it to line up. I started to get the hang of that a while back but winter came and destroyed it all…
john
You could crankflip in the air so you land comfortably but thats pretty tuff.
its not the landing that gives me trouble with crank position, i could care less…I need them to be in the right position for when i lock them and take off.
its not the landing that gives me trouble with crank position, i could care less…I need them to be in the right position for when i lock them and take off.
Same here.
I understand your problems - I used to have difficulty getting them as well. Everyone would say “its all timing” and “it takes practice” but I’d heard that before…
Its good to know your uni, how many revolutions it takes to get a distance - I dont mean go out and physically measure it or anything silly like that, but eventually you’ll get the feel for it.
The other thing is the jump itself.
Try rolling hops onto flat ground - try and get further and further, higher and higher. Now, often, when I’m cruising around and want to hop onto a gutter (kerb) or something higher (maybe a seat to do a grind on) I jump from the closest possible point I can lock the wheel in my fave position (right foot forward). Then, if I’m too far away, I jump further than normal…if Im too close, dont jump as far.
I think its important to be able to react to variable conditions and have a good variety in your hops so you can make it even if you stuff up the timing.
The next option is moving the pedals to landing postion in mid air.
Ok - you know when you first learnt to drop off a ‘kerb’ (Im assuming you can do that), you probably worried a lot about crank position. After a while, once you got better, you could probably ride off any kerb without worrying about it too much. A higher drop (say a metre) you might worry and get your feet setup properly for the landing, but on a kerb drop, it doesnt matter after a while.
As you get more comfortable with your rolling hop, youll find you can hop from variable positions other than just the horizontal crank setup.
I often make my rolling hop when the pedals arent in their power position, and then move them in mid air till they are - for example often, to get extra momentum going into a grind, I’ll push off the front (right) foot harder than normal, the pedal needs to be moved back to a horizontal position in mid air before I hit whatever it is im grinding.
I good way to practice this is to try a static hop and move the pedals in the hop - maybe land with the cranks vertical, or the other way around, or even simply move your forward hopping pedal down so you land mid downstroke, then pedal out of the hop.
Like I said, its important to try and make your abilities more varied so you have more options to suit different surroundings.
Oh, and practice.
Re: Rolling hop technique
On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 06:32:26 -0600, “fluffinator007” wrote:
>I on the
>otherhand very seldomly have my pedals in the right position
I can only make very puny rolling hops and have the same problem. I
think once you can jump higher and further, it doesn’t matter so much
if the takeoff point is not at an ideal location. Of course one should
be able to rolhop with any foot forward.
I think profile should make some stronger 145mm cranks - Ryan Atkins
ok guys, a few things:
firstly, what the trials riders do (ie, kris holm, dan heaton, etc.)you’ll never see this in the videos, but if you see them ride in person you get to see all the tricks:
they ride up to the obstacle, hop so their feet are in place, then ride backwards away from it till theyve got the right run up distance, this way, their good foot (or chocolate foot as the great sam calls it) will always be right where they want it
but this isnt much use if you’re in full flow, so, you have
what the street riders(like me) do
instead of jumping at the obstacle, you look at a point about 2 foot in front of it as your take off point, then, if you chocolate foot isnt infront when you get there, or just before, you can carry on rolling half a revolution or so till it is. you just have to learn to jump a bit further.
you should learn to jump small obstacles such as kerbs with your feet in any position, including one up one down, as this all keeps the flow, and its all about flowing.
oh yeah, one last thing, the cheating method,
pre-hops
instead of trying to get the foot positioning right at the right time, hop when you know it is right, then make your jump, if that makes sense:
so you roll up to your park bench for example, your good foots forward about three foot away, so you hop forward into position, keeping the good foot forward, then imediately hop again up onto the bench… see?
man that was long winded, but i hope it helps.
hope to see you all at buc, and take you on in the freestyle!
I still cannot always get my feet lined up right…Sometimes I roll the uni backwards and then go from there. But eventually if you do rolling hops enough you will be able to tell almost exactly where your pedals will be from your take off point(for me this is almost subconcsious) and once you can tell your pedals won’t be in the right place you can swirve a little to put them in the right place. It all takes time…
"firstly, what the trials riders do (ie, kris holm, dan heaton, etc.)you’ll never see this in the videos, but if you see them ride in person you get to see all the tricks:
they ride up to the obstacle, hop so their feet are in place, then ride backwards away from it till theyve got the right run up distance, this way, their good foot (or chocolate foot as the great sam calls it) will always be right where they want it
but this isnt much use if you’re in full flow, so, you have
what the street riders(like me) do…"
If you are sessioning an area it is best to mark different spots with tape or learn which bumps/cracks on the ground set you up… otherwise it is fairly easy to feel if you are going to be on or not when you are within 3 or 4 revolutions of the object.
I guess this just takes practice, but it allows you to curve into the obstacle to hit it right, or to do a quick forward hop while riding to be lined up.
For videos, yes, we do line up a lot of stuff, but that is just to make it easier and because some of the hops are fairly high.
For the most part there isn’t anything bad about setting up, but it is vital in street unicycling to learn to feel if you are going to be on and adjust because you will be pulling together trick sequences.
-Dan
When I rolling hop up stuff, say curbs, and I don’t want to have to take the time to line up the pedals, I just ride up to the curb at a bit of a slant/angle. Er, I dunno how to say it, but I do something in between riding sideways (parallel) to the curb (as if I were getting ready to do a side hop) and riding staight up forwards, perpendicular to it. This way, I can still have my speed up pretty good, like in a forward rolling hop, rather than less speed with a side hop. The technique is pretty much the same as a forward rolling hop, but, if you’re not gonna line your pedals up, itz less scary than riding straight up to the curb. I find that itz easier to be riding up to a curb diagonally and then have to turn, curve and swerve a little to make the pedals line up right, than to curve while riding straight toward it.
~Sara Chastain
The problem with side-rolling hops is that you can’t jump as high. Also, you have a harder time jumping onto skinnies.
I almost always measure. When I don’t it’s ehtier cuz the rolling hop’s not that big or I just don’t care and am just trying to do a quick demonstration of the moves on a uni.
My question for Dan:
How do you get so much speed fo those huge close-together rolling hops in U2. I was practicing a 3’ drop followed about 5’ away by a 2’ rolling hop, and I just couldn’t build up enough speed to get the hop. How do you do such a quick setup for you rolling hops? I usually like to have about 12’-20’ of setup space to arrange myself and build up maximum speed. You seem to need as little as 8’. I just don’t get it.
What I have noticed, is that Dan runs REALLY low pressure… Jumping about 30" he practically bottoms out. he 180’d a 6 stair and hit rim. I think rolling hops have a lot to do with getting the tire compression just right.
-Sabin