I seem to remember reading that your brain continues to practice skills subconsciously while we sleep, hence dreams like this, especially when we’re learning a new skill.

Little and often is definitely the key. I get mocked for dicking around pulling wheelies, stoppies, track-standing etc in car parks before rides – especially when I’ve fallen off!! But this is when you hone those skills that get you out of trouble on rides.

One of the guys that always called me a big kid asked me how I could stop during a really techie section, have a look round, and then endo, hop or wheelie out of trouble. Now he joins me mucking about before rides and his riding is improving exponentially!

Uphill, sounds like good progress. I wouldn’t worry about him only getting the wheel a little off the ground, you’ve now planted the seed in his head that it’s weight shift and pedal power that lifts the wheel. It’s a big leap to transfer that understanding into practice, and it might be better to do 10 minutes Wheelie School at the beginning of a ride rather than intensive blocks which can become frustrating.

And I wouldn’t worry if you have the occasional set back before he/you crack it – I have the occasional day where the Wheelie Mojo seems to escape me, and other days where I can’t keep my front wheel on the floor!

I also have dreams where I ride around really complicated paths or streets on my back wheel. I can come to a complete stop, turn the tightest of corners and even ride up steps, and crowds of people cheer me on. Is that a bit weird?

Are you privy to more information allthepies?

Peter Mandelson has been backing him to the hilt

So that’s why his eyes were watering… 8O

Update, I’ve just been outside and popped a couple of wheelies trying to analyse what I do.

I use 2 pedal strokes to get up to height, a right then a left, and the front comes up in a pronounced 2-step motion.

If I try to get up in one pedal stroke, it’s far more likely to over-rotate, and the pedal force needed makes me veer off to one side.

So I’m not sure if that will help budding wheelie students, but it might be worth bearing in mind. It might just be the way I do it, but it does seem to result in a safer and more stable wheelie.

The only other tip I can think of is to round your lower back to shift your weight as low and as far back as possible *before* you start your pedal strokes. Then, as the front comes up, you straighten back/push hips forward slightly to get the rear wheel under the balance point.

Hope this helps!

I’m going to suggest that there are 3 distinct zones to the wheelie:

1. Below balance point (you need to keep upping the pedaling to maintain)
2. On balance point (you can practically freewheel – minimal pedal input needed)
3. Past balance point (you need rear brake to maintain)

Just be aware of all three and adjust accordingly. If you want to go up a long hill on your back wheel, you’re better in Wheelie Zone 1.

For dicking about really slowly, showboating in the car park, you’re better at WZ3 and using a lot of back brake.

The biggest mistake I see people making is trying to “pull” the bars up. All that does is lift the wheel temporarily… You have to set the balance point and move the back wheel beneath it – then you have a stable platform to pedal.

If I were to try and describe it, the knack is to lean back (straight arms and monkey fingers) and use just enough power to get the back wheel under the balance point but leaving ‘just enough’ to give forward motion. Be ready with the back brake if you over rotate, but I generally don’t need to brake when I first pop the wheelie.

You shouldn’t have to wrestle with the bars, or stomp on the pedals – both these things will make you topple to one side.

A good pedaling technique helps, a slight uphill does too, because you don’t have to rely on the back brake as much to control your speed.

Practice *really* gentle feathering of the back brake, and remember, you can lean an awful long way back before you’ll topple backwards.

Start really slowly, practice getting the back wheel underneath and braking (so you don’t go over) until you get a feel for where you need to be. I prefer a slightly higher gear because you’ll generally pick up speed once you’re away, and whilst changing gear is fairly easy, you have to lean it further back during the shift or the front will drop… Perhaps leave gear changing until you’ve got the hang of it!

I’ve tried to teach loads of people to wheelie, and I can’t think of a single one that’s mastered it. I think it’s one of those things that if you can’t do it by the time you hit puberty, you’re never going to do it… ;)

On a slight uphill, with no crosswind, I can wheelie til I get bored/thigh-burn/run-out-of-road… I can go round corners as long as it’s level or uphill… I was born with the gene.

Learn to wheelie?? Have a word with yerselves… Don’t you know it’s genetic? You either have the wheelie gene or you don’t.

It’s like being a gay, or a socialist… You’re just born that way.

(I’m wheelie+)

I did wonder about that. If you have a thickness of tube could you stretch and squeeze it in such a way that you’d have a thicker wall in some places than in others? Someone will probably be along to explain it all soon

Tubes are placed into forming moulds and then forced outwards by hydraulic fluid. So if you *could* apply enough pressure to change the thickness of the walls, it would be even on all sides.

Cheers Oxonrider, I reckon car valeting products will be too expensive to use in the quantities I’ll be needing…

I think I’m going to start with a heavy dowsing with bio washing powder solution, leave it a few days and then follow up with Simple Solutions and lots of bleach…

I’ve got a Caddy Hi-Line… It’s got air-con, cruise control and blue teeth… Lovely to drive, swallows bikes which can be bungied against the side without removing wheels and it’s big enough to get changed in when it’s lashing down. Love it!

I’d thought about that OMITN, but in the first instance, I just need to act fast to do whatever I can to neutrilise the smell and make it a safer working environment for the contractors.

I don’t think there’s a great deal of point in getting cleaners as the house needs a lot of work – completely decorating throughout, new kitchen etc. I just need to get in there once it’s been cleared and get the bleach or whatever is needed sloshed all over the place!

I’ve just read that sodium hypochlorite on urine releases toxic gases, so that might not be a very safe idea…

“My other shirt is a basque”

There’s no excuse for allowing dogs to crap and piss in the same house you live in, especially if the house belongs to someone else. :evil:

As I said, everything is being ripped out – all carpets, curtains etc and the entire kitchen.

Northernmatt, that’s what I need to avoid – I’ve always tried to let properties in as good a condition as possible and tried to wheedle out the scumbags… Unfortunately, this one slipped through the net… Procedures have been tightened!!

I’ve got a guy going in this week to rip out all the floor coverings and dispose of all the crap she’s left behind. She only vacated last night…

Then I think I need to go in with the knapsack sprayer and dowse the whole place in bleach!!

Brambles are a different prospect altogether. You need to dig the roots out with a fork and burn them. They’ll keep coming back though, just keep pulling/digging 2 or 3 times a year.

They tend to put down additional roots wherever a stand touches the soil so they can be very invasive. A foliar weedkiller like Grazon 90 or a glyphosate will help if you use it around this time of year…

To give you a rough idea of the scale of the problem, here are a few pics… The staining and damp patches on the walls and skirtings are all dog piss. The one thing that you can’t appreciate from the pics is the stench… 8O

The carpets were all new and the house newly decorated when she moved in. It only took her 18 months to do this much damage.

I think they do the Simple Solutions at Petsupermarket… Not cheap though!

Did you do anything to provoke them at all ?

I had the temerity to issue her with a Section 21 eviction notice on the basis that her rent was several month’s in arrears and she was allowing her 3 dogs to ‘toilet’ inside the house.

She refused to allow me access to inspect the property, flooded the bathroom and reported me to the Police and Council for harassment even though I always gave notice in writing before attending and took a female associate (a serving Police Officer) to oversee proceedings and act as witness.

The tenancy agreement clearly stated “no pets”. It was apparent that she had dogs from the minute she got the keys but there’s pretty much ****-all you can do! If I’d evicted her there and then, she’d have stopped paying her rent and I’d have spent 6 months and thousands trying to get her evicted…

:(

Usually a speaker in the cabin tell them.

Does he zap their underpants?

maybe it’s just me, but If someone had shat on my carpet I think I’d be using a similar description.

Well said. This tenant has caused around £15-£20-grands-worth of damage to MY house, and as a parting salvo, defecated on the floor of every room and smeared it into the carpet. I don’t know if it’s human or dog excrement.

Vermin is probably too kind a word for them.

I’ve heard that bleach can enhance the urine smell and I need something biological to kill the enzymes that cause the acrid stench. Is this right?

A bit of googling has revealed that cheap bio washing powder in strong solution is a good bet, but I’m all ears if anyone has any further experience…

I’m guessing they use those bluetooth underpants you get from Lovehoney…

I’ve cleared it from a few trees, cut through the boughs at ground level and it dies off in a few months. The tendrils don’t seem absorb much water or nutrients unless they’ve got back into fertile soil and taken root.

I’ve tended to leave it for a year or so and then pulled it down when it’s brittle. Weed killer won’t speed the process up at all. As long as it’s cut at the base (and remove a few inches so the cut can’t rejoin) it’ll die back in due course.

Wombat… Too soon… :(

the only thing that does transfer is cornering

Dya reckon? I’ve introduced a few MTBers to roadbiking and it takes them ages to get the confidence to load the front wheel.

Mountain bike cornering is more about distributing weight to get the most out of any available grip, and being able to control drift/slip etc.

I wouldn’t even say line choice is particularly transferable as the ‘racing line’ isn’t always the best on a mountain bike…

[chinese accent]This chair smells rubbery[/chinese accent]

Define better… Faster? Safer? Better at avoiding getting off when you get out of shape?

I’m a life-long roadie that started riding mountain bikes around 20 years ago during the 1990s boom. At the time, I remember noticing how much slower most new cyclists went down hill – I put it down to the fact that I was just more comfortable riding a bike at speed.

I’m not sure there are many mtb skills that benefit road riding – possibly pedaling technique can be improved… Bunny-hopping grids etc is just riding and it winds me up to hear cycling commentators attributing “bike handling” on road to experience off road!

I think MTBers can learn more about technique, energy saving, efficiency and group etiquette/safety from road riding…

But really, this is an utterly pointless thread with no definitive answer, so I’m not even going to post a comment… ;)

What about heating a steel bar of the right diameter and melting the holes?

Nothing a drop of WD can’t fix shirley..spokes are expensive though.

WD40 can’t really undo the bond when alluminium and steel corrode together.
The spokes rely on being able to move freely in the nipple so they remain straight and aero, but in my experience, even on dry-use-only wheels, they become seized and twist the spoke when you try to true them.

Ultegras are a nice wheelset for the money, great hubs… But that stupid externally threaded nipple design means that once they’re out of true, it’s time for new wheels. The nipples seize onto the spokes and replacing spokes is prohibitively expensive.

If you’ve got the Hope hubs, I’d get them built up.

G

I thought that the romantic sub-plot seemed to be tagged on as an afterthought, and whilst the sex scenes were unnecessarily gratuitous, I found them to be highly arousing.

Where’s Gatsby, it’s a slow day at work today….

Did someone use my name in vain? ;)

I’m a fast spinner – it’s something that people I ride with often comment on… On the road bike, I’m most comfortable between 90-100rpm (on the flat) although this tends to creep up during rides to up to 120rpm. I presume I must become more supple as the ride progresses…

I obviously slow down my cadence a lot when climbing, not least because I don’t use a compact.

On the mountain bike, I’ve taken to pushing a bigger gear on rough stuff – if you spin fast, the bike feels like it’s dropping into every single hole, a slower cadence and bigger gear seems to make you skip over the tops of undulations a bit more. I learnt this from advice from Cancellara on riding the cobbles.

Having said that, techy climbing on a mountain bike, you’re either at the right cadence or you’re not. Balancing act, innit.

Do you know what > means?

I wondered who the little guy in the laundry room was… Time to set up a privacy zone methinks!

Typical stalker behaviour… Blame the victim. I suppose I dress provocatively too…

Thanks for posting those links njee, I can never be arsed trawling through my own Strava account, never mind a complete stranger’s, been nice reminiscing. I think it’s time to stop the bellendery now though, it’s really getting kinda weird and I’m rather worried that you’ll have worked out my address by now. The last thing I need is a crazed stalker turning up at my house… :roll:

I was referring to the crits but sorry, no idea about the distance anomaly on that one…