[Closed] Who can do a "manual"?

about a small puddles length- so I'm no Danny MacAskill

I dreamt I did one. Does that count?

Through a rhythm section, not on flat for long. Tears me up inside. 😥

bmx is best fun for manuals!

especially hop to manual, or simple stuff like finding an empty car park and doing long manuals round and round in circles

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"Cee Meester Foultee.Eez a hamstah".

I have commitment issues.

Oh..I thought this was about IKEA furniture...

..I would like to think I can manual small dips, bumps and puddles etc but I know an expert would say.."sure you're going though that on one wheel but it's not technically a manual....more a lift and hope"...

Not me, and at 47 maybe I should consider the possibility I'm never going to learn but at this time of year it is traditional for me to start thinking about all the things that I'm definitely going to do this year before another summer drifts by

After three skills courses, nope, no I can't.

I'm good with a bit of pop but don't fancy the inevitable hospital visit on trying to do a proper job.

Nope, maybe a small to medium puddles worth.

Last time I had a proper go on a bit of fire road I forgot to cover the back brake and ended up with a very bruised arse cheek.

Only when I least expect it...

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Yes but very geometry dependent. I struggle not to do them on my trials bike or my undersized inbred. It's slightly harder on my c456 because of the longer chain stay length.

[swoon]I often manual through puddles thus eliminating the need for unsightly mudguards[/swoon]

Ah, it is quite satisfying to know that we are all in good company here.
I try, every ride I am trying to push the manual a little further. However, they are always very modest and lack a certain commitment required. Fear of landing on the coccyx. I try and feather the back brake to prevent looping out but lack the dexterity when it's required and the front slams to the ground.
At 44 I know I will never get to the Wynn Masters level but there is nothing quite like the feeling of a well timed and well executed loft over the chosen, albeit modest, gap or indeed puddle to make us feel a bit super.

I can't. But it provided much hilarity watching you lot try (and fail) at it last night 😀

Kind of. Enough to not just batter or steamroller my way through stuff but not well enough to go for miles on flat.

I do a 'hoick'.

Basically you pull the bars back and up with your arms.

The distance you travel on your back wheel is entirely dependent on how fast you're going. Usually it's just enough for the front wheel to clear a small log.

Very good Rorschach.

I can I'm really good at them and my bike isn't really expensive 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have been trying since the Dirt Fundamentals dvd came out...

Nearly got the hang of it on the BMX then crocked myself and got a new BMX and can't get close again 🙁

Very good Rorschach.

Read it again. Got it this time. +1 😀

I too am better at comedy than manuals. And I'm not that funny.

Occasionally. Considering getting a bmx or a trials bike (I'm 35, so this is probably socially deviant) to get better.

ubber_Buccaneer - Member
Not me, and at 47 maybe I should consider the possibility I'm never going to learn but at this time of year it is traditional for me to start thinking about all the things that I'm definitely going to do this year before another summer drifts by

I did a long effortless one last night for the very first time. It was surprisingly easy once I got the wheel up and could go off jumps and even round berms. Then I woke up .... dammit. True story.

I'm also a member of the "I can only do manuals in my dreams (literally)" club.

Can anyone here manual like a boss but not actually (pedal) wheelie?

I'd have been happier having 10 minutes practice on my Five rather than those little devil bikes.

ubber_Buccaneer & rocketdog +1 a 'hoick's my limit

Not me, and at 47 maybe I should consider the possibility I'm never going to learn but at this time of year it is traditional for me to start thinking about all the things that I'm definitely going to do this year before another summer drifts by

Thought it was just me: ^ + 1 but make it 60

I will get there eventually

I've been practising, I have this fantasy about pulling an effortless manual, past all the wheelie pulling young punks who loiter around outside my local fish and chip shop........... it's not going well 🙁

I can do small ones but not like they do on the videos. I'm determined to get it cracked before i'm 40 though. I've got just just over a month..........

if by 'manual', we mean: 'through a puddle, and a bit longer on a really good day', then yes.

it hurts to say this, but short chainstays do make them a lot easier.

Que

I must admit since last summer doing a manual has been something I've been trying & failing to learn..
I'm 55 in July & I've given myself until my birthday to learn it,this bloke reversed the stem to make it easier,worked for him.
If you see some middle aged bloke wobbling around Rivi with their stem reversed it'll probably be me!

Quick question,what frame for manuals?

I thought I was the only one recurringly and literally dreaming of 'pulling effortless manuals'. Must be what MTBers do at night then!

No - keep meaning to stick some flats on the bike and take a few days to try it. I used to be able to wheelie on a bmx as a kid. alas the skill has stayed with that kid. Watching one of our riding buddy's loft the front and coast along full tilt down from the forest is so friction awesome. I wanna!!

I've progressed from heaving the front wheel over things to a half arsed version of the GMBN L shape technique, I'm scared of looping out though, so still limited to going over puddle's for the time being. I'll get there one day/year.

since i flipped off the back right at the start of the night, i held back during the actual manualling session bit.

+1 for the recurring manual dream, down corridors in buildings, off cliffs, down stairs, I'm awesome in my own head.

On a good day I can manage little ones, puddles, dips and stuff, but I think edenvalleyboy's "that's not a manual that's a lift and hope" is a good description.

forever on a bmx, not so good on a mtb

Quick question,what frame for manuals?

Easier with small wheels and short chainstay. Also easier with a heavy backpack.

Easier with small wheels and short chainstay. Also easier with a heavy backpack.

Even easier if you have a long, prehensile tail. 😀

When I was 14 I could on my Trek 950. I could jump up any set of stairways. I could bunnyhop over 8 of my friends laying flat on the ground.

Then I had about 15 years of break of riding.

Now I can't even bunnyhop anymore...

In our cul de sac (?) is the perfect place to learn long distance wheelies and manuals...I want to...my fear is not the bike/me/falling off ...its the fact I feel like a pillock in front of all the neighbours..a middle aged man learning to wheelie.! I'm going to get over it this year though and dedicate 20mins a day to mastering the art once and for all....

.its the fact I feel like a pillock in front of all the neighbours..a middle aged man learning to wheelie.

There's a dirt road behind some allotments near my house. It's where I go to practise my middle-aged wheelies away from curious eyes.

Weird isn't it, how it's the nirvana few of us will ever achieve.

I will never forget riding through the back streets of London late at night. I was on my way back from a weekend's riding in Wales and was cycling across town to change from one train to another. I stopped at a junction just as a ghostly vision cruised by from left to right at barely walking pace. It was a kid on a MTB, front wheel fully aloft, looking for all the world like that's just how he gets about town.

Little ****.

It used to bother me that I couldn't do a proper manual, then I realised that I'm just going for a bike ride not auditioning for the circus and now I don't care 🙂

FWIW it's the fear (and memory) of looping out that prevents me from properly committing to a manual. I cover the brake, but for some reason my brain freezes and I'm on my arse feeling sorry for myself before I remember to pull the lever 😳

I'm learning at the bmx track - my 6 year old is really into bmx so I may as well take a bike and get some skills out of it too! I manage to successfully manual a couple of doubles and rollers in a session, but fail most of the time. By the end of the summer I reckon I'll have them nailed... (hopefully before I turn 44 in August). I did my first successful gate start on saturday, too. Fun!

I bought some flat peddles so I could practice manualling, for bailing out after going past the balance point. Never dared do that on SPDs.

This is on the commuter MTB so had to remove the full mudguards too.

Once I've purchased some riser bars to replace the flat bars I'll certainly be able to manual.

I can. Took plenty of practice though. Weirdly its easier on my anthem than it is on some of my other bikes but I'm best on my bmx where having a rubbish back brake means you have to learn to balance and not rely on the brake. It was harder to learn than I expected because I'm very good at wheelies (over 2 miles sometimes). I thought knowing the balance point and how to move around the balance point would help but it doesn't really.

So what we need is a secret warehouse, a bit like fight club, where middle aged men can learn to manual away from prying eyes... 😯

I have a manualling dream at least once a month.

Why is it so prevalent?

So what we need is a secret warehouse, a bit like fight club, where middle aged men can learn to manual away from prying eyes...

We don't like to talk about it....

This is pretty much what the MNPR were up to last night.

It was embarrassing.

I did one once that just hung there.............. As if it was an everyday occurrence and NO ONE saw it, the same bit of trail I ride on my local loop, an old woodland trail that kids have been building in for years, there's kind of a self made natural table top the hight of a coffee table and the length 3 cars, I'd been popping it and getting a few bike lengths but no more then I thought about it more dropping the heels bending legs to straighten it out and there it was, I rolled out the other side rolling the slope just magically gliding along then as I entered a fast corner I nipped the brake and it was over, I've tried replicating it since and to be honest it's embarrassing,

Not long after I was leaving the cafe at Fairholmes and pedalling up the left hand side of the res the incline there seems purrfect for manwells.......... This bloke obviously thought so, until he looped out, took the skin off his elbows, knees and ankles, he was in a right state. That kind of brought home how stupid I would look in a crumpled heap sprottled out with families looking on, so I try not to indulge now.

Weirdly its easier on my anthem than it is on some of my other bikes

Weirdly I found that too.

And Reigns, must be the suspension but I took one of each round cannock on a demo day and both for no good reason would quite happily sit on the back wheel all day, I could even trials hop the anthem in SPD's!

A rather splendid 'how to' video here from the ever ebullient Sam Pilgrim, featuring his pleasingly irreverent delivery, which is such a welcome relief from the slightly slick smugness of GMBN's Youtube 'how to' manual video.

It also shows his younger brother practicing (and failing) to manual - which makes me realise that falling off while practicing is okay - and that I was probably on the right track with this. Before I gave up.

On a skills course
getting it lofted nicely
looped out
couldn't walk for a couple of weeks
At 55 I'm going to pass on this

I can manual. I find it's something I have to do regularly to maintain the ability to do it. Very useful skill to have under your belt!

I can do around 10 metres or so. I think manuals are actually pretty hard to learn, whereas wheelies are comparatively easy - think the fact that seated helps a lot as once you get good at wheeling you find yourself rolling along on back wheel on the balance point and don't need to pedal so a seated manual almost. Standing seems to take a lot more effort to get and maintain the balance point

I can't but I'd say if I ever could master the art of a manual it will be on my anthem 26er.. I can throw that bike about no problem. But I can't see it ever happening on my 5 27.5, it just seems to long and heavy!

And Reigns, must be the suspension but I took one of each round cannock on a demo day and both for no good reason would quite happily sit on the back wheel all day, I could even trials hop the anthem in SPD's!

This is very interesting, I was out riding and trying to improve my manualing prowess on my Ragley Blue Pig the other day and was also thinking at the same time about the Giant Anthem 27.5 on pauls cycle for £900. Hmmm!!

Continuous flat land manual, no. A terrain avoiding short manual (say 20M) yes!

You deffo need to practice on your own bike, or stick to one bike to practice, as the same amount of 'body english' to manual my Dune would see me sat firmly on my ass when riding my c456 😉

(TOP TIP: down [b]then[/b] back, not back and down at once.......)

In theory...although my ability to do one seems inversely proportional to the utility. i.e I can manual down my driveway (pointless), I cannot manual through a puddle (where it would be quite useful)...

On my BMX, yep, for as long as I like, hop into them, hop out of them, do them across picnic tables! Manual king here! 8) 8) *

* 10 years ago when I was a teenage BMX bandit! I'm now rubbish and fat and can do a few meters if I'm very lucky on the MTB!

I also harbour "those" dreams, usually after seeing a video ( recently the Bernard Kerr one with the effortless one handed manual). I only ever tend to practice when I am on call for work though as I can do it close to home, this means I am usually wearing my full equine vet regale of moleskins and check shirt (non trendy variety) and dodgy tie, which probably detracts from the back wheel look I am aiming for!

I have a manualling dream at least once a month.

Why is it so prevalent?

I'm sure Freud would have something to say about that.. 😉

(There is something a little bit phallic about it as an act, probably)

I've got this
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10 minutes from my house.The 5th straight is 11 rollers in row.I've managed to manual all 11 in one go 3 times.......out of about 200 attempts.My legs turn to jelly after about the 7th one.

I can do manuals long enough for trail usage.
But, tbh, time wise, my average fart is longer than my average manual.

Used to be able to manual the bmx (brakeless too) about 10 years ago. Now on the mtb can rarely even get it up (s**** 😆 )

My bike knows I'm trying to be clever and puts a stop to it. Otherwise, I'd find manuals easy.

Nope not properly.

I wheelie rather well though. Just can't make that transition.

After reading the first page entirely I feel embarrassed to say yes I can. Practise really does help. I'm also the show off **** who wheelies from the road crossing at the end of cannock up and over the speed bumps. 😳

I can't and at the age of 63 I have to accept that I never will. Such is life, I suppose..

Can't very well.

Used be be able to on a box for a short while.

But then I can never be bothered to get off and lower my seat post to give me a proper chance.

Although I'm sure I would fail with a slammed post too.

Can roll along in a manual for several hundred metres. Makes linking fire roads far more interesting!