Beginner
Trackstand
Rear Wheel Pivot
Pop Front Wheel Up Without Brake
Up Stairs Pivoting
Hopping In Place
Getting Up Stuff
Experienced
Sidehop Drop Off
Rear Wheel Hop Backwards
Rear Wheel Hop In Palace
Pedal Kick
Rear Wheel Drop Off
Pedal-Up
Bashguard To Rear Wheel
Bunnyhop
Surge

Trackstand[back to top]
The very first thing you need to learn is the trackstand. This is where you balance on your bike, trying to move your wheels as little as possible. This is the hardest thing for most people to learn , so don't get frustrated at yourself when you suck at it. The most important thing when you try these techniques is practice, practice, and more practice,the more you try to trackstand, the better you're going to get at it.
1.Find a slight uphill on concrete.
2.Figure out which foot is your "chocolate" foot, the foot you are most comfortable having in front.
3.Get on your bike and roll forward, put your "chocolate" foot forward.
4.Roll to a stop (don't use your brakes at all in this excerise).
5.Keep your pedals level with the level ground.
6.Turn your wheel opposite of your "chocolate" foot about 45 degrees.
7.Try to maintain your position on the hill by pushing lightly on your front pedal.
8.A rocking motion will probably help... Push on the pedal enough to go forward, then let off and roll back a bit. Rinse and repeat.
9.Keep your head way forward, almost over your front axle
10.Keep your arms close to locked straight
11.Keep your front leg pretty straight
12.Keep your back leg bent a little, and use it for balance along with turning your wheel and shifting whatever body mass you can around over the bike.
13.Look about 6 feet forward, it's easier than looking straight down
14.Practise, practice,and more practice.

Rear Wheel Pivot[back to top]
This is where you hop your front wheel either to your left or right, keeping your rear brake locked.
1.Keep your rear brake locked
2.Squish your body and arms over the front of your bike
3.Then push up and lean back a little
4.After you get the popping your front wheel up thing down, try leaning to one side when you squish down (so if you didn't bounce up, you would fall off your bike to that side). Then when you pull up, you'll automatically pivot that way.
5.Another thing to remember is that if you land with your weight directly over the bike and with the bike straight up, you'll lose your balance in that same direction. So land with your weight away from the bike, and maybe with the bike angled a little bit, so when you land and soak up the impact sideways like that, you'll be perfectly trackstanding again.
6.Try going around in a complete circle with little pivots. You won't be able to make it all the way without practice, so do it until it makes sense.
7.Once you've got that down, try to get further in your pivots.

Pop Front Wheel Up Without Brake[back to top]
This is handy for getting up curbs, and starting to learn how to bunnyhop. Pretty much you want to do the same thing as the rear wheel pivot... squish your arms, then push and pop your butt back and down, and voila, the front wheel will come up.When you get good, you should be able to pop it up so high that you fall off the back of the bike (another good reason NOT to be using clipless pedals).Try going up a curb. Don't worry, if you hit it at 5 mph, it isn't really going to hurt you or your bike.Right before you reach the curb, pop up the front.Here's where we separate the roadies from the mountain bikers or trials riders...As your rear wheel approaches, put your head over your front axle and sort of jump up a little bit (called unweighting the rear), so when your wheel hits, it bounces up and over the curb. Not the best way of getting up a curb, but it works for now, until you can pop your rear wheel up. This is handy for getting up curbs, and starting to learn how to bunnyhop.

Front Wheel Pivot[back to top]
This is where you hop your rear wheel either to your left or right, keeping your front brake locked.To do this, you want to turn your handlebars away from you so when you land, your handlebars are straight in front of you (so, opposite of the way your rear wheel is going). Instead of the suspension being your arms, it's now more your legs. With your front brake locked, you must squish down a bit, pop forward and to one side, and move the bike with your hips (push it out toward your landing spot). I think the hips thing is key to getting any amount of distance. A lot of trials is about throwing your body mass a certain direction, and then letting the bike follow or pulling it with you. This is especially true with the sidehop. You won't have to think about that for a while, though...

Pop Rear Wheel Up Without Brake[back to top]
This move is, as far as I'm concerned, the foundation of the bunnyhop, and will just plain make lots of moves you want to learn easier and make more sense. Your weight back while just rolling along slowly, jump and throw your weight way forward and push down and forward on the handlebars. You "unweight" the pedals... You'll learn it. You just have to get a feeling for how little weight you can put on the pedals without your feet flying off. When you're doing this move well, you can get your rear wheel surprisingly high, in which case you can probably do 180s on the front wheel now, so try it by rolling along and mixing together the front wheel pivot and this move.

Up Stairs Pivoting[back to top]
So, you think you're pretty good now, huh? You're all rear wheel and front wheel pivoting... Great! Now get accurate. I'd recommend going up stairs first, just because if you lose your balance going DOWN stairs, you might hurt yourself. Which reminds me, just stick to the first 2 or 3 stairs in a staircase. Pivot your front wheel on the first stair, then pivot your rear up and on the first stair... This is hard, so practice it. Come back down, too, rear tire first, then front. When you get good at this, go rear wheel up first, then front. Then front wheel down first, then rear wheel.

Hopping In Place[back to top]
Hopping in place is handy for keeping your balance on off-camber things like rocks. You try to maintain your balance, but when you start to lose it, you hop to correct your balance. Both brakes locked, squish down and push on the pedals and pull up, then absorb the landing with your whole body. If you've learned to bring up the rear wheel without brakes, you should be able to do this. Once you've got hopping in place down, try hopping up stairs. Put your front wheel one or two stairs up, and lean your body the direction you want to go, and hop. Hopefully you'll get your rear tire up one stair, and your front tire will go up one more stair, too... Trying going down the same way. Stairs are awesome for doing weird stuff like this, and they're very safe compared to rocks. Another way of keeping your balance when trackstanding isn't an option is pivoting. Keeping both brakes locked you make little pivots on either your front or rear wheel (you've gotta figure out which in what circumstances yourself) when you lose your balance. I generally try to pivot on my rear as much as possible, since it requires less energy than moving the rear around. This is also handy for inching your way over to the edge of something to drop off, or orienting yourself right to do a big move like a sidehop, or getting your aim right and your balance set before you do a pedal-up or whatever.

Getting Up Stuff[back to top]
Now that you can go up and down stairs, you can go for bigger things, too, just as long as you can get your front tire on it (well, it's difficult to get on really high things this way, but this'll work up to around 14" objects...). Pivot your front wheel onto it, then work your way around so you are facing the object with your front wheel on it. Roll forward and put your good pedal down on the object (if your bashring hits, go back and do a little hop (like lifting your rear wheel) while rolling forward to get it on top). Now this is the fun part, getting up. You need to have your weight directly over the the bottom bracket, then shift all your weight forward onto the front pedal (like you're trying to pedal into the object) and pull the bike up and forward. The bike should roll up under you. Your first time, you probably will only get a little bit of your wheel up, and then roll back, but keep going at it and thinking about it, and you'll get it soon enough.

Sidehop Drop Off[back to top]
Safest way to drop off something before you're really comfortable on the rear wheel (rear wheel drop offs are easier on your bike and body when you do them right (explained later), but much more dangerous if you mess up). Pivot to the edge of the drop, crouch down and let your balance sway over towards the landing spot, then when you're ready (you don't have all day, if you take too long, the wheels will get stuck and you'll fall and the bike will hit you), jump up a bit (or pull the bike up off the ledge by the handlebars if you want to do it the advanced, better way) to get your wheels off the ledge, then as you start falling towards your target, pull the handlebars toward your chest and push your legs out towards the ground. This way, you'll land rear wheel first and make it nice and soft. Try to absorb most of the impact on the rear wheel, your bottom bracket and cranks (and your body) will thank you. You can make 5 foot drop offs look like nothing when you get this technique down.

Rear Wheel Hop Backwards[back to top]
When you're ready to start learning the rear wheel hop and pedalkick, you should learn to rear wheel hop backwards first. Just lock the rear brake, lean way forward, then just pull back (no hop, just pull back) and start hopping backwards. If that doesn't quite get you back on the rear tire, then try this: Put your butt down a lot more, cuz from what I remember, the butt has a lot to do with it (I kinda forget, it's second-nature now). Once you get that far, toss a pedal-kick in, and then learn to stay in the same spot on your rear wheel (keep your arms BENT, otherwise you'll WASTE your lower back and shoulders). Then learn pedal-kicking forward..

Rear Wheel Hop In Place[back to top]
Once you get that far, try to stop hopping backwards and stay in the same place. It's hard, but eventually you'll get it. This is also a good time to work on your form. You'll want to keep your arms BENT, not straight, otherwise you'll WASTE your lower back and shoulders. Another good tip is to keep your cranks LEVEL with the ground... If your front pedal is higher than your rear, you almost have to hop backwards. Best way to fix that is to use a pedal kick to get yourself on the rear and your cranks level with the ground. If you have a hard time keeping them level, you're probably leaning back to far, so you should pull the handlebars toward you more (like I told you to... ;-p).

Pedal Kick[back to top]
Once you've got that down, you should try pedal kicking. To do this, stop hopping and let your front wheel drop a little (maybe 1/4 the way to the ground at the beginning), then kick! The kick is kind of weird to learn, but you'll get it with time. The trick is letting the power of your pedal kick out with your brakes. With your rear brake locked, push hard on the pedal, THEN release the rear brake, keep pushing with your foot and shoot forward, then reapply the brake when you land on the rear. This is hard, I'll admit, but if you practice, you will get better at it.When this starts making sense to you, try dropping your front wheel more before you kick, and kick harder.. you'll get further. Then try putting your butt way the heck back, letting the front drop almost to the ground, then launch your hips toward the stem and kick when you're about halfway to the stem (maybe even closer to the stem: one beginner found that he could get 2 feet further by putting his weight more forward so to get more power out of the kick). You should be able to clear gaps of more than a wheelbase doing that. I can get about 6 feet, and I've heard of people getting something like 10 feet or more (look at the above video clip, cesar does like an 8 foot gap)Want more distance? Learn to surge well and you will get further.

Rear Wheel Drop Off[back to top]
Beginner: This is the best way to drop off if it is SAFE to do so. If you are at all sketchy (not sure) about the object you are going to drop off of, don't do it. You can go over the handlebars and seriously hurt yourself. Try this on something flat first. Urban stuff is great. Go for a curb at first. Front wheel at the edge, pedal-kick to the edge, let the front drop, pedal-kick again to go down. Land rear wheel first just like in the sidehop drop off description.
Advanced: Next try hopping closer and closer to the edge before dropping your front and kicking. The closer you are to the edge, the more important it is to let your front drop way down (level with rear tire) and the less important it is to kick hard. If you are right at the tip, you may not even have to kick, just let the brake go and push with your legs. The most advanced version of this drop is where you get all the way to the very tip, drop your front wheel a little past level with the rear while your body is crouched over anywhere from the frame to the rear tire (butt a little bit behind the bottom bracket is most comfortable for me), then kick or push your rear wheel down while pulling your handlebar towards your chest, and absorb the landing with your rear tire first, then a good amount with the front tire when it comes down (don't have your weight entirely over the rear or you'll make the drop hard on your body). Mimic this with your bike.. Lift it up, put the rear on the object, and let the front drop, then shoot the rear down and see that doing the drop this way actually makes the drop smaller in essence... You can make dropping off a picnic table look and feel like falling as far as you are when hopping off a curb (and you actually are only falling about that far if you're doing it right). Think of it this way, too, if you'd like. If you're on something high just on foot, when you want to jump off, do you just walk off, without bending your knees? No, you bend your legs a ton, maybe even let your feet slip off the edge and shoot down towards the ground... Same exact idea put into use on bikes.

Pedal Up[back to top]
This is where you pedal all the way through the jumping to get onto on object (either to bashguard, both wheels, or rear wheel (or front wheel, but I consider that kind of pointless)). A bunnyhop-up differs in that you first gain speed, and then coast along before you do the up. A pedal-up is useful when you don't have as much space for an approach. At first, though, just try rolling slowly forward with nothing in front of you, with your bad foot forward, crouch down, then pull up (not back) on the handlebars as you pump down hard with your bad foot to do the real work of bringing up the front, and continue your spinning to your front foot forward, and you should just pop up into the air... You don't even really have to lift your legs to get your bashguard onto small things, and you'll land good foot forward... If you push your handlebars up and forward and bend your legs, you can get both wheels up on something. If you just push the handlebars up and bend your legs, you can go to rear wheel. Just make sure you trust your brakes and that you stick your legs out so you can absorb the landing and not trust the grip of what you're jumping onto or the grip of your brakes too much... After you've learned doing it starting from a slow roll, try doing it from stopped about 1.5 wheelbases or so back from the object with your good foot forward. Use your good foot pedal stroke to pick up speed, then your bad foot to lift the front and get up, just like before. Then try a little closer. To pick up enough speed now, you're going to need to put your weight far back (almost so much so that your front wheel lifts), then throw your weight forward and pedal hard. Your good foot pedal still gives you the forward momentum, and then spinning fast on the bad foot pedal is the trick for getting up something in tight circumstances. If you have the problem of getting your bashguard on the object, but quickly losing your balance backward, you either need to lean INTO the object, or you need to start closer to the object (maybe both, that was my problem at first). Lean INTO the object: Now, this is scary, I must admit, and when I first learned this (trying to pedal-up to bashguard onto a picnic table (going the direction with the bench in front to be safer)), I planted my front wheel into the picnic table and stressed out my left wrist (didn't realize this til later), and later I smacked my front wheel on the picnic table when going head on, and smacked my head on the picnic table (I was wearing a helmet, thankfully!). But, you HAVE to lean forward, or INTO the object, to not lose your balance... I'd try to practice this on things that aren't too high so you don't run into this problem until you learn how to slide the front wheel over the object. At the last possible moment, you guide the front wheel up and over the object by pulling up your handlebars. The idea is that your body weight is way forward on the bike before you leave the ground, and when you start going up, you lift the handlebars up to get the front wheel to clear, and then push the handlebars forward to land the bashguard or rear wheel or both wheels onto the object, with your weight almost on top of the object (close enough so when you come to a rest, your body moves forward and balances perfectly on the object). When you've got this move perfect, you can pedal-up to bashguard onto a couple-inches thick wall without losing your balance over the other side (nothing to rest your front tire on, you see..). The pedal-up is one of the most useful moves I have learned. I can pedal-up to bashguard stuff that's a little higher than handlebar height on my Monty mod with a full spin (good foot forward in front at the beginning).

Bashguard To Rear Wheel[back to top]
Beginner: Learn with your front wheel resting on something, and your rear wheel completely off the ground. You do NOT want to hop forward. You want to hop STRAIGHT UP with your weight over the BB, pull the bike up into you and then push the handlebars up and out and aim the rear wheel for the spot your bashguard was. When you land, you should stick it (not immediately lose your balance forward or backward). If you have the problem of your front dropping down immediately after you try to do it, try thinking that you're jumping your body back a bit, and you should eventually get it just right. It's a power move, no doubt.
Advanced: Nothing under your front wheel. Same exact move as above. Think about it, you are jumping STRAIGHT UP with your weight centered over the BB. If your weight is really balanced like this and you go straight up, it doesn't matter if there's nothing under your front tire, or rear for that matter. The only thing about this move is that you don't want to do it on something particularly high until you are quite confident you can do it everytime. When I go bashguard to rear wheel on trashcans, I imagine jumping back a bit, so if I lose my balance at all, it'll be falling back instead of forward for a nasty crash, or sketchy landing...

Bunnyhop[back to top]
So, you've learned the pedal-up, but now you're trying to get up really big stuff, and the pedal-up isn't working for you, huh? What you want is to do a bunnyhop-up. Now, I haven't got bunnyhop ups down yet (you don't really need this til expert/pro), and I can only bunnyhop onto something like 2 feet high, but I know I can explain it pretty well (any advice anyone would like to add would be helpful!). I think it goes something like this: Pick up some speed far away from the object, coast a bit, then at the right time, crouch down on the front of the bike, shoot the BIKE forward with your butt down so the front comes up a bit, then shift your weight forward and spring up off the pedals from your crouched position while the front comes up MORE. As you start to take off, push the handlebars up and out and squish your legs up, clear the object (imaginary object when practicing at first), then stretch your legs out to absorb the landing. It's like learning to trackstand, it takes a while to learn it, and no amount of great instruction is going to MAKE you be able to do it. Practice it and you'll eventually get it. Getting up onto bashguard is essentially the same as the pedal-up, as far as maintaining your balance goes. Here's what Aaron Lutze had to say about it after practicing with Lenosky for a while - "A lot [of the height in a bunnyhop] comes from pushing the bike out in front of you, so your bike levels off, instead of the front wheel higher than the back... Normally, I lift the front tire over the top then just push forward as hard and fast as I can..."

Surge[back to top]
This move is very advanced, it's the kind of thing you'll see the Spanish riders doing all the time. It's useful when you have absolutely NO space for a run-up at an object. From rest, you put your butt way back and then thrust your hips forward and do an explosive pedal-kick, lift the front and land either bashguard, rear wheel, or both wheels on the object. I suggest doing this about 3 or so inches back from 1 foot tall objects when you start learning, but you need to move back when you try bigger things (don't want to plant your front into the object, do you?) When you go bigger, you may want to go at an angle to the object (like 45 degrees) and do a surge that's half-way between a pure sidehop and a pure head-on surge. You can either land the same way you started (45 degrees or whatever to the object), or turn in mid-air and land head on.. Depends on whether or not you think you'll catch your front tire on the object. This is a weird move, it'll take practice, but after a bit, you should be able to get both wheels onto an object at least a foot high from directly in front of it. Oh, did I mention learning this will do wonders for your pedal-kicking? You'll be able to gap big stuff if you encorporate this into your pedal-kick gap technique.