The origin of the term bunny-hop, as posted to rec.bicycles.misc by
Mark Hickey of Habanero Cycles:
Actually, the term originated in a small town in Pennsylvania. The
locals rode high-wheeler and would often congregate at the local
public house, drinking beer and bragging about their exploits on the
bike.
One night, after a particularly long night of drinking and bragging,
one of the locals claimed to have jumped a mother duck and eight
ducklings during that morning's ride. Few believed such a feat was
possible, and much posturing and insulting language followed (proving
that things really haven't changed in the last century).
Finally one of the more reasonable (read, sober) participants in the
discussion suggested recreating the feat. The party stumbled out into
the street, but were unsuccessful in a search for any ducks or
ducklings. In a flash of genius, one of the patrons suggested using
bakery products as stand-ins for the ducks. This was agreed to all
around, and soon, the road was adorned with a "mama" loaf of German
rye bread, and eight smaller buns to represent the ducklings. The
participants began to get somewhat sentimental about the hapless
bakery-supplied "victims" and named the loaf Gertrude. There was much
discussion about naming the buns, but in the end, no one could agree
on that many names, and they were simply named A, B, C, etc.
The claimant climbed aboard his unwieldy bike, and after accelerating
wildly down the cobbled street, lurched upward with all his might,
pulling the heavy contraption under him skyward. The high wheeler
soared over the mama loaf with inches to spare, much to the amazement
of the gathered crowd. It seemed for one shining moment that the bike
might actually clear the assembled bakery products, but alas, the rear
wheel touched down early and the last two bun "ducklings" were
transformed into rubber-marked crumbs.
"Not bad", said the bartender. "You may not have cleared all of them,
but you managed a pretty good Bun E hop". The crowd decided a round
of cold brews was in order to celebrate the event.
Who knows? If the cyclist had been a bit more skilled, he may have
invented Bun G jumping a century early!
Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken