I was at Bike Park Wales this weekend and while at the top I was looking at the start of enter the dragon at the stone drop at the start.

Some guy rolled up to the edge on his bike (Orange Alpine 160 I think) to have a look to and I passed comment that it looked too big to roll over.

He then backed up a couple of feet and started to ride at the drop at a walking pace, I thought he was going to roll it at that pace but proceeded to ride over the edge keeping his bike perfectly horizontal until the back wheel left the lip and landed the bike flat, the whole thing was done at walking pace and looked effortless.

So how did he do it, if I’d rid dent at the drop at that pace I would have just gone over the bars!

Wheely drop? As you get to the lip you give a powerful pedal stroke at the same time as pulling back on the bars.

he has awsum skilz

Try it off curbs to begin with.

he’s the Devil himself!

wheelie drop

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9U8bnENgGI[/video]

In physical terms it’s called a dynamic weight transfer. Although your Centre of Gravity (and hence your mass) remains between the wheels, by either pumping hard or putting in a rapid hard pedal stroke, you can negate the turning moment around the rear wheel, ergo, the bike doesn’t immediately start to “nose dive”.

In high traction conditions, the pedal pump works well, and effectively the chain tension holds the front of the bike up. If it’s slippy, then you’ll probably need to use the pump technique, to preload your bike into the ground, and during the rebound, effectively reduce the weight on the front tyre to zero.

The key is the word “dynamic”, as this cannot be kept up indefinitely. To do that, you actually have to move your CofG to the middle of the contact patch of the rear tyre, a technique applied for a “Flat Land manual” where there is no pitching moment around the rear tyre and the bike can “unicycle” along continuously 😉

technique, it’s worth trying

Magic. Kill him and drink his blood and you to will have the same skillzz

Start small,
[video]http://youtu.be/sZ6m4A7PoQs[/video]

Cheers for answers I’ll go have a practice at some point.

Used to do it without thinking on a BMX.
On a big squishy mtb…no chance.
I’d bow to his Gnar.
(Not a euphemism).

Was it Elbry?

OP – What are you doing riding drops without being able to at least manual off a curb? Or even being aware that it is a possibility?

You’ll get yourself in a lot of trouble very quickly if you simply ride off drops and dont do anything.

The amount of trouble being able to manual and hop, second nature, has got me out of is priceless.

No trolling or intentionally attempting to be harsh, it’s pretty scary to me knowing that there’s people out there, riding stuff like BPW and being so ill equipped/aware technique wise, as above, you’ll get yourself into a lot of trouble very quickly.

PS – all the rider did was a manual drop. You never, ever want to use pedal force to keep your front end up on drops on trails really.

Deanfbm – I admit I’m not great with drops, if I take them at speed (and when I say them I mean relatively small ones) I am able to un-weight the bike enough to get me over them.

I’d like to be better at them and I intend to try and rectify this.

The thing that impressed me most about the guy at BPW was there was no obvious shift in weight and no apparent pulling on the bars etc, it just looked ‘magic’

I wasn’t about to ride the blacks, in fact partially due to the people I was riding with just stuck on the blue runs all day.

Wait till you see a good paddler pull the same move – known as a “boof”…,

Yes, that is 12 foot of canoe he is managing to all but jump out the water. All to do with c.of.g. And weight transfer/kinetic energy.

Boof baby, boof by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

max.
You torque a good talk.
Almost had me convinced until i saw a pic of your “riding”. 😉

LOL at the Captain. Just don’t mention “his” name again.

You use the same technique to drop of a curb or a cliff
The slower you go the more you have to shift and hold your your weight back until the rear wheel drops over the edge.

The wheelie technique is not one to perfect on anything bigger than a foot!

At least with a bit of momentum and a ‘shove/manual’ you aren’t having to create the momentum as well. It is so easy to under cook the wheelie and nose dive or over do it and land then start to loop backwards, especially if the landing is a downslope.

wheelie technique is bad we only ever did if we were jumping off walls and things where you had to start pedalling on the thing you were jumping off.

Never ever done it on a trail because you would be going to slow IMHO to do the move safely anyway.

Can’t agree with Junky or DannyH on this. I’ve used the move a lot on tight, twisty steep stuff where you cannot build up enough momentum on the trail in sufficient time. It’s no more risk-laden than a manual. It either a manual or a wheelie drop go wrong it can be bad…

Can’t agree with Junky or DannyH on this. I’ve used the move a lot on tight, twisty steep stuff where you cannot build up enough momentum on the trail in sufficient time.

+1

Practice practice practice this technique op. You should get the hang of it fairly quick and easy and you will be laughing at how much more fun riding a bike can be.

pulling back on the bars.

Don’t do this. Manuals are done by pushing the bars forward and shifting your weight back to allow the bars to come up.

Just yanking them up pulls your weight forward so you”re more likely to nose-dive off the drop.

how a big a drop you doing like that ? I assume you could just roll it or given the speed stop and do it faster next time.

If you lose real wheel traction doing that the result wont be pretty

pulling back on the bars.

Don’t do this. Manuals are done by pushing the bars forward and shifting your weight back to allow the bars to come up.
Just yanking them up pulls your weight forward so you”re more likely to nose-dive off the drop.

Well that’s not how I do manuals … Pushing the bars forward will push the front down too!?!? You wanna have straightish arms and snap into a manual and then control it with your hips and the back brake.

I dont think they mean an actual manual wheelie there i think they mean a manual drop – ie a drop without pedalling though I dont think that is really a manual = as the objective is to keep the wheel level once it off the ground/when the ground ends rather than raise it up

I’d have a look at some coaching days in your area, if your near the pro ride guides then I can totally recommend them

Can’t agree with Junky or DannyH on this. I’ve used the move a lot on tight, twisty steep stuff where you cannot build up enough momentum on the trail in sufficient time. It’s no more risk-laden than a manual. It either a manual or a wheelie drop go wrong it can be bad…

Some people will disagree with anything, won’t they?

Which part of this post is so contentious?

The wheelie technique is not one to perfect on anything bigger than a foot!

At least with a bit of momentum and a ‘shove/manual’ you aren’t having to create the momentum as well. It is so easy to under cook the wheelie and nose dive or over do it and land then start to loop backwards, especially if the landing is a downslope.

eeerrr, it’s perfectly possible to do a bit of both. Mostly unweight, and use the pedals to lift the front.

op – just ride/practice. start small.

It’s no more risk-laden than a manual. It either a manual or a wheelie drop go wrong it can be bad…

With a pedal wheelie I used to be able to land 3-4′ drop nice and smooth, but only ever from pristine take and landings, out on real trails with mud, rocks roots and alsorts of other stuff to chuck a spanner in the works, extra speed and manualing is almost always easier with more chance of riding it out if things go awry.

if the trail permits.

It’s a better technique but unless you practice it a fair bit it’s not one you’ll pull on a techy trail, manual/unweighting the front on the other hand most people do all the time so come more naturally.

I personally wouldn’t use the pedals to help lift the front wheel on a drop – you’ll potentially make yourself off balance (sideways) and that’s not a nice feeling going off a drop.

I’d manual off and would pull up on the bars a little if needed (speed and height of drop dependent). A good way to practice this in the safety of the street is to do a regular manual and try to stand tall (pulling the bars slightly – a bit like the pic below – but on a bike , not a horse 😀 ) it’s hard to hold for more than a second or two, but that’s all you need for this type of drop. Once you have it down, you’ll never go OTB again on a drop.

Some people will disagree with anything, won’t they?

I would like to think I wasn’t quite that argumentative! No insult was intended.

I think that it’s not black and white and that both techniques can work well or end badly. I wasn’t suggesting you were wrong but specifically highlighting where it has worked well for me. Thats about it really…

J