Learning the Side Hop

I have been trying to learn the "side hop" for the longest time. Ever since Oct 23 last year, I have been trying and trying and trying... to learn this elusive skill.

During that time, I basically did what I called the "chicken" side hop... LOL. Basically, I just pulled the handlebar up and backward to pivot back, and then hopped onto the wooden pallet. It looked nothing like the Ryan Leech's Side Hop video. I did not have the guts to pedal down to bring up the front wheel... which is why I called it my "chicken" side hop... Hahah.

Anyway, early this month, I decided to try learn the skill again. This time, I concentrated on just pedaling down to bring up the front wheel before extending my arms to bring up the rear wheel, similar to a bunny hop... but as stationary as I could possibly managed.


This video showed me trying to learn by pedaling down to bring up the front wheel before extending my arms to bring up the rear wheel.

I practiced that for about a week, but could only managed to side hop onto a single level of the wooden pallet and rather inconsistently at that. Today, I decided to try a different way to do the side hop. I started in a rear wheel hop position and then side hop onto the wooden pallets. On the first try, I could managed it beautifully!!!

You could imagine how happy I was... Hahahah. I was stoked! I did it a couple more times and decided that I must take a video of this new milestone... LOL.


Joel had to stop doing his homework to help me take this video... I dun think he minded at all... LOL


Far from being perfect, the side hop from another camera angle.

It is quite obvious that I still have a long way to go to master this new skill. From the Ryan Leech video, one could discern how useful this skill would be when riding a rock section. I just cannot wait to be able to side hop consistently and doing the many variations of the side hop.

The day will come when I will be able to put all these BikeTrial skills together in a symphony of synchronized movements to conquer a section!