The front end of my bike that is.
A while back I had a Kinesis decade which was pinched so i got a replacement frame and bits. Opted for a Fire eye Flame…off CRC which was going pretty cheap at the time and it’s ok. Put some 150mm Sektors on it and some silly wide bars. Now I know the frame is a different geometry and the forks are longer than my old 120mm plus the wide bars so with this in mind would it explain why I have to heave like a crazy man to lift the front end?? I could post a pic at some time of the set up but my thinking is long travel hard tails with wide bars may not make for a trials machine. It feels fine going down hill but my riding is mainly singletrack and arsing about on the street so I wanted something I could hop and manual etc. I may have answered my own question but there may be something more inherent with the fire frame…angles n stuff which mean regardless of forks and bars it will never be easy to fling about?

I’d check the seat stay length – if it’s much longer it’ll shift your weight forward and make getting the front end up.

Overall weight placement is most likely the issue. IE: where your centre-of-gravity over the bike is.

Short chainstays affect the ease of pulling manuals, and lofting the front end.
Chances are the chainstays are longer on the new frame. Seat tube angle might have put your weight much further forward too!

With regard to stuff like wheelies, the pedals are the key to getting it up. a short sharp half turn of the pedals should loft up the front wheel with little pulling on the bars.

Trail manuals often have to be done without this technique, so short chainstays are important to aid weight transfer backwards