Hey everyone 😀

I’m 14 years old and ride quite a lot. The trouble is I only weigh 8.5 stone or 119 pounds.This means I can hardly use any of the forks travel and the best way to describe it is that the bike feels like it want’s to go it’s own way. I don’t feel very in control of it. Also I have tried for about 6 months now to bunny-hop or manual but I can’t seem to lift the front wheel more than about a foot. I have practised the ‘L shape’ and watched practically every video on you tube on the subject! Is this because I can’t push the fork down to preload enough?

I would appreciate it if anyone could suggest any tips for me on how I can adjust my bike to work for someone of my age (New fork???) or make the bike lighter? or is this normal and I am just lacking the skill? (Its about 29 pounds currently (13.2kg)

Thanks guys 😀

I don’t think your weight makes it impossible, but it certainly doesn’t help. I weigh 128lb and find much the same problem with a 13kg trail bike, whereas things are much easier on a lighter bike. The problem for us light people is we need to get further behind the rear axle to raise the front of the bike.

Is your fork a coil fork or air? If its an air fork you need to drop the air pressure until you have around 20% sag.

I weight the same aged 35!

My inability to manual is all about skill, people can manual and bunny hop on rigid bikes..

However poorly performing forks are an issue. If air forks play with the pressure and if you have it the compression damping. If coil you may be able to get a softer spring

Offspring #01 is a bit smaller than you and took a while to learn to bunnhop his trail bike. Borrow a BMX and get the motion dialled on that. I believe it is the length and not the weight that is likely to be the biggest issue.
Bottom line is you can bunnyhop anything with the right technique. Try and make it as easy as possible to master the timing and techniques.

Keep trying !

Eat more pies

I’ve just done some mental arithmetic using your bike’s weight, my bike’s weight, your body weight and my body weight.

You need a unicycle.

I’m 14 years old and ride quite a lot. The trouble is I only weigh 8.5 stone

I weight the same aged 35!

I’m 50 and I weigh the same!
Before my son stole my hardtail and left me with just a rigid bike I found I had to run the Reba fork at lower pressures than the manual would suggest. I had to give up completely with a coil fork as even with the lightest spring in it I never used anything even close to full travel.
You will feel a weight change in your bike more than those on here who can only dream of being twice your weight 🙂
So while some things may be harder you’ll find nothing more satisfying than passing fat sweaty red faced IT consultants gasping for breath as you spin past them uphill with a cheery good morning.

‘…The problem for us light people is we need to get further behind the rear axle to raise the front of the bike…’

No. You shove the bike forward with your feet, resulting in an acceleration of the bike under you, which makes it rear up. You may have less mass to work with against the mass of the bike, but if you’re doing it like you say, you’re doing it wrong. I’m not surprised you find it difficult just leaning back. There’s plenty of this stuff on youtube just take a look.

Lighter riders need lower spring rates and less damping. This should just be a case of making the appropriate adjustments, unless your equipment doesn’t have them.

practice, keep going one day it will happen. if the fork is airsprung (what spec is the bike?) I use a general rule of 10 psi per 10kg of weight for the front fork, and 20psi per 10kg for the rear shock (8.5stones = 53kg) so for you that be 50psi in the front, then go up or down 10psi from there until you see some movement or bottom out? if it’s a coil spring ask your parents for a new bike as you will never get anywhere near it for such a light rider (unless you take it out completely!!)

‘…The problem for us light people is we need to get further behind the rear axle to raise the front of the bike…’

No. You shove the bike forward with your feet, resulting in an acceleration of the bike under you, which makes it rear up. You may have less mass to work with against the mass of the bike, but if you’re doing it like you say, you’re doing it wrong. I’m not surprised you find it difficult just leaning back. There’s plenty of this stuff on youtube just take a look.

Who said we were just leaning back?
Pushing the bike under you with your feet is just an additional way of getting your weight behind the rear axle whilst giving the bike a little extra momentum to help you out.
Its clearly not impossible, and its clearly mostly a skill problem, as there’s plenty of light riders out there that can do it. It’s just considerably more difficult when the bike is a larger % of your body-weight as everything needs to be exaggerated compared to a heavier rider.

Thanks guys! Yeh I thought it could be this that was limiting me. 🙁

My bike is the GT avalanche sport 2016. Upgraded everything now except rims, hubs, frame and fork. The fork is the heavy Suntour XCT HLO – coil sprung. the only adjustment on it is the preload (+hydraulic lockout) which I have all the way to the – and I can still only push through about 10-20% of the travel and after a ride through quite aggressive terrain the zip-tie I have has only fully gone up about 30%.

@muddy9mtb getting a new bike isn’t really an option tbh. Only got this one at christmas so I’m trying to keep this for at least a couple of years! 😀

The bike itself started at 35 pounds but got it down to 28-29 through the upgrade of lighter rear end stuff (ti cassete.. etc). Could this have imbalanced the bike because the forks are still so heavy. The front end is heavier than the rear now I think.

Also, if I do end up upgrading forks I would want to also swap to bolt through so this would mean I would need new rims (my brother can give me some hope hubs) because if I got quick release fork I would be stuck with quick release for like forever haha. So it would have to be quite an expensive upgrade considering the bike cost £400 in the first place?

Thanks for helping everyone 🙂

Tie some weights to your hips. 😉