Now that the long lasting cold is over, I’m back on my bike practicing for the last few days. The latest theme is bunnyhop 360, the trick where you ride on flat ground, jump up and spin a full rotation around the Z axis.
The reason I’m doing this is, naturally, because I can’t do it. People have come up to me and say “Haven’t you been doing it?” and “Thought you had it wired long ago,” but the truth is that I can’t, though I can do something similar with a bit of cheating. Since the trick looks fun, all new school riders do it, and that’s one trick I’ve actually always wanted to do, I’m going to push forward now.
I’ve noticed there are three things required to practice. Guts, basic skills and good equipment.
Guts, no problem. If I were lacking in it, I wouldn’t be able to be an athlete in the first place.
Basic skills, covered. I can bunnyhop straight over 93cm or so. I can also bunnyhop 180 about as high as 70cm, and in both ways with little carving before takeoff if height is not needed. Such a good point to start from.
Good equipment, checked. I’ve got my awesome bike. It’s slightly on the tough side than light, but I’ve confirmed that isn’t the point when I borrowed my friend’s super light BMX and still couldn’t do this trick.
So, all that’s left to do is practice. I’ve asked for advice from Sapporo’s young guns on BMX like Ucchi and Yuya. Preparation was perfected by checking howto clips on YouTube as well. The best verbal explanation to me was this one:
The best and cleanest movement was captured in this one:
We are living in such a convenient time. It’s also way less pressure to try to do something that’s already known to be doable.
Despite all that I’ve just said, the first two days were miserable as I kept wiping and tumbling with no clue. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll find something after a thousand or 10 thousand attempts. I’m psyched.