So who on here can manual properly? Like Dan Atherton properly? Any tips?

Can wheelie alright (and do mint skids) but I can’t for the life of me get the hang of manualling. Not for any length of time anyway.

My XC bike has a ‘long’ top tube but that can’t render a bike unmanuallable surely.

I tried it once, pulled up way too much and flipped off the back in the middle of the road.

That stung a bit.

Next time I try it will be on a nice soft beach.

a lot harder work with long TT. also you need your seat down to use your balls region for balance, else you will get stuck behind it and flip the thing.

can do cracking manuals with seat down, average ones with it fairly up, shite/scary ones with it all the way up.

to use your balls region for balance

this guy should be ace at it;

i don’t know if bigger balls helps! just thats the (ahem) ‘region’ that i seem to use for balance.

So I should probably get a new bike? Is that what we’re saying? Excellent 😆

Do you mean flatland manual, or rhythm section manuals?

Can do rhythm section style, but flatland for any decent length of time have eluded me so far. Much easier to learn on small wheels I think, then take those skills to the mtb.

I struggle to manual along a road on my MTB or even my BMX.
I go from useless straight up, straight down with the front wheel to almost coming off the back. Can’t seem to sustain the balance point and probably have bad technique mostly as if I practise for any lenght of time my lower back starts to hurt suggesting i’m using that to pull up more than weight-transfer.
I can manual through rollers on pumptracks fine, but not for a sustained time. I hate people who can do it so easily…. 😉
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=QQGHXEPfMcQ&v=VIqEoh5Arco&annotation_id=annotation_453205&feature=iv[/video]

or take your seat and post out.

Dont need to be a chav to manual, seems all the neds can do it nae bother 😕

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

Rhythm section manuals

prezet – Member
Do you mean flatland manual, or rhythm section manuals?

I meant flatland manual, but I can’t manual any more than a double in a rhythm section either.

T-MO vid on bikeradar
Had 3 people try and coach me and still can’t do it 🙄
Put an obstacle in my way and I can get up or over it ❓

It’s a mystery to me too – cannot find the leverage to raise the front wheel properly.

One thing I noticed in vids, but isn’t mentioned, is that just before the manual starts, foot position changes from pedals level to back foot half-down (see 1:25 in the above vid).

I’m wondering if that is how there is enough leverage to push the back wheel forward/underneath and so raise the front wheel properly?

Don’t yank on your bars – instead move your shoulders, hips and weight down and back over the rear wheel. Yes, you should also have your heels down and push forwards on the pedals at the same time. This unweights the front and makes it stupidly easy to get the front wheel up.

The hard bit is not going to far and looping out, so always cover the rear brake.

That’s the theory, drop heels, drive through from the hips and hey presto up comes your front wheel ❗

Steve Peat manualling

8 year old chavs don’t do manuals they tend to pull (Impressive) coaster wheelies where they crank like a bastard to keep the front wheel aloft…

A proper coaster wheelie requires you to find a good controlable balance point on the back wheel and shift your weight fore/aft to maintain the manual – tracknicko’s description of using your “Balls Region” is not a bad one as you tend to wind up moving more with your Hips…

I can manage a modest Manual myself, enough to be useful on any trail, but not much cop for carpark posing though, bike layout can help, TT is one thing but a long chainstay can hold you back too, oh and being comfortable doing it at speed helps too… IME…

cookeaa – Member
bike layout can help, TT is one thing but a long chainstay can hold you back too, oh and being comfortable doing it at speed helps too… IME…

Got one of them too. I’m totes getting a new bike.

‘need to be comfortable at speed?’

oh hells yeh

apologies for the kind of music that makes your ears want to bleed…

Flatland? Rythm section??

Christ i feel old……….

‘ello’ ‘ello’…’i am from Barcelona’….

I’m good at manuels… 😀
Igmc…..

Those Rhythm section manuals are awesome. Love it.

On your average mountain bike the chainstays are quite long and so you have to get your weight right back – almost sitting on the back wheel. I used to dabble a bit with BMX when I was younger, and I really struggle on an MTB sometimes.

But…what a lot of people don’t realise, is the amount of practice that goes into these things. No one can teach you how to do it – though it’s a big help to watch someone do it. It’s something you have to learn yourself.

I started this thread thinking that ‘rhythm section’ was the drummer and bass player…

tracknicko – that’s incredible. Mesmerizingly slick.
(mute on from the start, thanks for the warning.)

A trials vid I watched progressed from static bunny hopping to hopping on the rear wheel (by starting with the front propped up on a raised object) then carried this on to manuals. I wondered if it gives you a better feel for balance point from a static start?

Rythm section??

Used to be the ‘Whoops’ when I were a lad…

I can manual like that first video. Practice.

I grew up riding BMX (still ride BMX) and can manual for 100s of metres and jump out of a skatepark bowl, manual around the platform before jumping back into the bowl

I go to my local skatepark, manual across the flat for 50 metres before manualling up the tabletop, across it and down it..

the photo below shows a gap out of the big bowl up the stairs, to manual across the platform before dropping into the middle bowl

on other days I just go to a local basketball court (very smooth tarmac, but dodge the broken beer bottles) and sprint before manualling all around (it has 3 courts back to back) and carving big 360 manual turns whilst manualling, and doing this in one direction 360 before changing direction and going 360 in other direction

something you learn when you manual around corners is just how much camber (lean) you have to put into the bike, its very exaggerated

its my favourite “trick” as such, because a well controlled manual roll feels simply sublime

hopping to manual roll also feels really good

it takes a lot of practise to manual properly (I would highly recommend riding a brakeless BMX as the stubbed toes will teach you properly)

it also gets *mad respect* from the local chavs frequenting the skateparks and stated basketball court, who can only “wheelie” whilst pedalling with the seat at pedalling height

when they shout “do a wheelie” as you ride past on the street, and you pull a 50 metre manual roll, you can almost hear the cogs turning in their brains trying to fathom the ‘Harry Potter’ magic they have just witnessed…

on the MTB its a great skill to posses, pulling a SMOOTH manual really helps with bike control at key moments when setting up for a corner or traversing some choppy ground on a hardtail

Took about a year of wheelying and practice on my commute to work each day but I mastered it in the end to a point where I could go a 100 or so meters or a full slope of an underpass no probs but always feathering the back brake. Can’t simply hold brake less manuals like the BMX boys. It’s never really helped all that much on the trail though..

Every bike has it’s own balance point. It can take a while to find it’s wheelie sweet spot but once you’ve got it the manuals will come.

Learn how to wheelie properly and controlled, and by that I mean to a point that it’s only determined by how long you want it to carry on for. Once you’ve got that nailed work a seated manual into a wheelie by pausing for a few pedal strokes. Eventually you’ll find more confidence and will be hanging off the back pulling manuals at speed and leaving the wheelies for the kids. 🙂

I was shown how to do it once. The tutor said to get used to where the balancing point is first. So you have the front wheel up in the air with someone holding it tight as you balance the bike. About 5 mins after doing this I pulled a really nice manual (for about 1 second) before veering off into the ditch. I’ve tried since with my new bike but not had much luck party due to being chicken and having a long top tube.

Sorry for being such a noob but what is the difference between a manual ans wheelie?

When did this term creep in? for decades riding on the back wheel was a wheely. I blame the Yanks

Riding along on the back wheel while pedalling is indeed a wheely.
Stood (or sat) cruising along on the rear wheel WITHOUT pedalling is a manual and has beenfor YEARS.