I have read the threads about rolling hop technique, yet I’m stuck at one particular issue i.e. maintaining forward momentum. Therefore I can only make small rolling hops. (Smaller than ‘stationary’ hops.)
If I ride slowly and try to do a rolling hop, my wheel comes to a full stop during the hop probably due to the backwards torque. It is as if my forward riding is interrupted with an ordinary stationary hop. After the landing I ride on. You should use the upcoming pedal to launch yourself right? But since forwards momentum is killed I hop only a puny distance.
If I ride faster, my wheel may not come to a full stop during the hop but it still slows down a lot. Therefore I get to lean forwards and have to get the wheel back on the ground quickly to correct. So that doesn’t work either.
So I would hop with the cranks vertical? How does the pedal launch me then? Its motion has no vertical component at that moment. I thought the thing with rolling hops as opposed to stationary hops is that you can convert some of your forward momentum to upwards momentum.
Sorry I worded that badly. Really badly. Also remember I’m not 100% on what I’m saying is making sense. Anyway, thats
the position you are in when you start the jump. Before then you’re basically just driving. When you are there, (the position) push down on the high pedal, simultaneously compressing the tire and giving the wheel that extra boost. Bring your body low, then pop out. Remember a lot of it is lifting the wheel too. I hope thats better. And maybe I’m completely wrong and if I am someone has permission to attack. Its what works for me anyways. I have a about 2’ vertical rolling hop. But I’m getting better.
Try compressing your whole upper body down and forwards to compress the tyre in one movement. I asked a similar Q a while ago and from the results I decided that applying pressure to the cranks just before they get to vertical works best for me.
See if you can find the frame-by-frame stills of Dan Heaton hopping onto a car bonnet. That’s really good to analyse. Andrew Carter has it on his tips web site (which is very good BTW!). Good luck!
I find rolling hops to be the hardest to explain. Thus, I won’t try. If you practice enough you’ll get it. I remember having the same problems you describe, but I got over them (I don’t remember how).
I’m attempting to attach the frame-by-frame of Dan Heaton’s hop. Hope it works.
The one thing missing in that frame by frame analysis is in frame 20. Notice how Dan has dropped the heel of his bottom foot down. Dropping the heel down like that helps you to lock the leg and get a stronger spring up as the pedal comes up.
I was having problems with the rolling hop for a while. I usually point my toe down at the bottom of the stroke because that makes for smoother pedaling. That’s the exact opposite of what you want to do when doing a rolling hop. On that last turn of the wheel you want to drop the heel of your rear foot and lock your leg as you spring up. Once I got the hint to drop my heel my rolling hop started to come together. My rolling hop still sucks (my jumping in general still sucks), but at least it’s happening.
Yeah, I got that pic from your gallery, John. Sorry, I should’ve credited you. Dropping the heel is an important thing indeed. I’ve never thought about it, but that is a major part of rolling hops.
What’s interesting to note in than in frame 25, when he’s still on the ground but extended, see where his head is relative to the treeline, and in the following shots as well. Clearly he’s not jumping – in terms of actual vertical lift – that far. He’s massively sucking the uni up beneath him and angling it out forward. IOW, a lot of the heigth is in this mid-air accordian job he does to with body, like a skier sucking up mogals. Going from full extention to hunched over crunch–while angling the uni out in front–is a key part of this sequence. He’d never gain this kind of altitude without that body English. There’s a lot of separate moves to all of this, and getting them all fluidly synched up is the magic.
I agree that the tuck is really really important, but if you’re going by the height of his head it will look like his whole body is moving less far vertically because he’s tucking up. His hips tranvel quite a distance vertically. Plus that’s an old jump of his and these days he seems to be going much higher still.
It’s not an issue of me needing the credit. I just wanted to link to the gallery so people could get the video too.
Dropping the heel is important enough that I just made a decision to edit the frame by frame analysis picture to mention the dropping of the heel in frame 20. I hope Rhysling doesn’t mind. Go visit my Miscellaneous Stuff gallery for the updated picture. The file name and the link have stayed the same. Just the text for frame 20 has changed.
I’ve been considering doing the same type of frame by frame analysis of Dan’s big jump on to the stack of pallets in Universe 2. I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it. Getting the frames off the DVD will give a much cleaner set of pictures than the video of Dan jumping on the hood of the car.
My DVD player software on the computer can take snapshots of single frames. All I’ve got to do is step through that sequence on the DVD and hit the snapshot button on the DVD player. It’s just a question of taking the time to do it. If you get motivated first then go for it. It’s been on my todo list for a while.
I’ve just transferred this part of U2 onto my computer via my digital video camera. I’ve set up the 9 key frames on top of each other but haven’t started writing the ‘steps’ for each one. I’d like to get Dan’s permission first as this is different from the free-for-all Lutkus videos.
umm, i think what he’s trying to say is that you need to hop at what you think is the pedal vertical position, however by the time you actually hop, your pedals will be at the perfect position to hop. i use this technique in breaking for still-standing hops
But It’s not really different to the free for all video. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that that particular part is on the trailer, so you should be able to go straight ahead right?
I recently started doing rolling hops, albeit with only some success.
Heres what seems to work for me in half my attempts. I first did it by angling towards a curb, not riding directly at it (90 degrees to curb). I angled towards the curb on my stronger hopping side. I tried different angles of attack. I had a hard time getting any consitancy, but it did work better than riding directly at the curb. Trying to be aware of the leg position, I would move closer to the curb depending on when I felt the time to be right. That “right” time is like what vivalargo said, " It’s magic to bring it all together. Sorry about the poor description.
Another way to think about it might be this. I can time my rolling hops OFF a curb better than when going up. I find a sidewalk that is right next to the street. I then ride parallel to the street while on the sidewalk. When I feel that same position of the legs that feels like it’s going to work, I make a sudden turn or angle into the street and hope to time my pedals to a jump off the curb. I have had more success with this way. I figured if I could time the rolling hop off going off the curb, then I would think about it timing it up the curb. I gain height when I roll off the curb, so I if I could get height going off, I can get the same height going up from the street. It seemed to work today.
I can’t analyze my pedal position worth crap, but it’s just been a lot of time on the uni and then continuely trying. Oddly enough, I got some of the timing from riding off a 21" high drop. The lead up was about two meters. I rolled back the MUNi so I varied the distance to the approach until “it” worked. Once I had the pedal position for landing, then I worked on timing what I call the pull up on the seat. I can’t sense the push down of the tire yet. I did this slowly, just enough to keep momentum. I put the pedal positioning together with the pull up of the seat and, voilla.
