Takes years of practice rather than 1 day of learning – IMHO.

I’d agree. Took me about 6 months to get a half decent manual.

I think you can learn how to get to the balance point, and past it in a day, but staying there is another thing all togther.

some bikes just don’t want to manual other just love it. My front heavy coiler is so easy to pop the front up where as the soul you have to really work to hard to get it an inch off the ground.

I have a mk3 chopper that’s virtually impossible to ride in anything other than a manual, but I just haven’t got the bottle to get my weight that far back on an adult sized bike.

1. Have you got a hoody? Get one
2. Do you have an ASBO? Get one
3. Do you have a job? Pack it in
The rest should follow easily

I have dreams where I can bunnyhop sideways up the curb. I feel a little sad when I wake up in the morning.

How do you get the front wheel to come up? I never can. The best I can do is unweighted it for drops.

How do you get the front wheel to come up? I never can. The best I can do is unweighted it for drops.

its hard to explain, but you kinda rotate every thing around you and the bikes COG…. bum goes back an down, feet push under and through hands go foward dropping the wrist as the front lifts.

buzz-lightyear – Member

How do you get the front wheel to come up? I never can. The best I can do is unweighted it for drops.

borrow a bmx, adopt this position:

it really is that easy*.

most of his body seems to be behind the rear axle, i find that’s a really tricky thing to do on a mountain bike. i can manual my bmx through some of the rollers at Bolehills, i can just about do it on my mtb, but it needs more oomph, and i’m crap at judging how much oomph is needed.

(*not falling off the back is the tricky part)

How do you get the front wheel to come up? I never can.

Easy when you know how. Forget about the feet for a second and focus on shifting your weight rapidly from front to back.

Lean over the front and then quickly shift your weight back as far over the back wheel as you can. Your arms will straighten and the front wheel will lift due to the rapid shift in weight.

Now push in the opposite direction with your feet and the bike will flip out from under you and voila! you have now found the balance point and quickly gone past it. 😀

If all has gone well you are standing on your feet with the bike vertical on its back wheel.

If it has gone badly you will have ended up on your arse with the bike in front of you in a heap. 😆

It was one of those things that I could never, ever, ever get my head round either. I went on a 1-2-1 day with Andy Weir at Ridelines and he taught me in about 30 seconds. I think it’s one of thse things that if you don’t know how to do it you’ll spend ages trying to work it out by yourself. Get someone to show/tell you and it just clicks.

I’m no teacher myself, so all I can say is how I remember to do it: Preload, and then push yourself back and low – a lot lower than you think – with your bum really close to the rear wheel. The bars kind of lift of their own accord, and then it’s just about maintaining the balance point either with the back brake or by ‘kicking’ the bike forwards and away from you. Keep the sideways balance with a knee out in the required direction. That probably reads entirely wrong to the purists, but it works for me.

I’m no teacher myself, so all I can say is how I remember to do it: Preload, and then push yourself back and low – a lot lower than you think – with your bum really close to the rear wheel. The bars kind of lift of their own accord, and then it’s just about maintaining the balance point either with the back brake or by ‘kicking’ the bike forwards and away from you. Keep the sideways balance with a knee out in the required direction. That probably reads entirely wrong to the purists, but it works for me.

That sounds about right to me (no teacher either) but i’ve never been able to control a manual with the rear brake. The front just drops. Saying that, i’ve never went off the back either.

Bike choice could make a big difference to how easy it is to pick up. Hardtails are probably best to learn on, as the rear is constant. I find it tricker to gt the full-suss up, but once there the sweet spot feels wider.

I only have one manual on video (about 20 seconds in) and you wont get any tips from it as it’s a headcam 😀

[video]http://vimeo.com/27336138[/video]

Here you go:
http://mpora.com/videos/jBwiMsFTb

i cant flat land manual but can front or rear manual through dips, doubles etc…. 2 different things

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahP_DbHqqUw&playnext=1&list=PLABFB38F5925BF3B6&feature=results_video[/video]

I feel slightly better knowing The Jedi can’t flat manual… 🙂

however in my next life I want to come back as Graham Aggassiz that man is a god when it comes to manualing besides the other stuff..

[video]http://www.zapiks.com/silvia-treefur-with-graham-a.html[/video]