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    Struggling to get the front wheel high enough for manuals. Any advice?

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    18 Comments

    2. jjc2222 on

      Push the pedals away under you. You are leaning back fine, but not pushing on the pedals.

    3. th3goonmobile on

      You need the torque of the pedals to keep it up. Try putting your dropper at halfway raised get in a low gear and use the pedals to bring it up to start. Get the feeling for that then lean to find your sweet spot.

      ETA my bad I read that as wheelie despite you saying manual. It’s early and I haven’t had my coffee yet my bad.

      That being said I still think it helps you find the balance point that should be same for a manual.

    4. iunnox on

      Like the other commenters said, push the pedals out and lean back more. It’ll probably feel like you’re leaning too far back until you get used to it.

    5. Superb-Photograph529 on

      Make the movement a tidge slower and more deliberate, and focus on keeping the weight back as the front wheel lifts.

      It looks like you’re using one big force to lift the front wheel and then relaxing. You need to hold that tension in your posterior muscle chain.

      Also, I might be wrong, but the bike looks a little big for you. Not outlandishly so, but just a little. Any way you can find something like a BMX bike? Something you can easily loop out on? It looks like you’ve never had a good loop out. Getting comfortable with this feeling is essential to committing to getting the manual to the balance point.

    7. skaarlaw on

      Strap a pillow to your back, wear a helmet, go on some grass and throw the bike forward as if you were about to ghost it… but hold on with your hands/feet! Cover the rear brake and once you get the “oh shit!!!” Feeling slam the brake, keep repeating until you can stay on the balance point.

      Having a goal also helped me – find an empty car park and use the bay markings… first try to keep the front wheel up at higher speed than you have done before across one bay, then work on slowing it down/two bays/three bays

    8. Big-Manager3926 on

      i slightly disagree with some others. i think you are pushing your hips back well, but your shoulders don’t move back, and it looks like they might even be going forward. you are bending at the waist. this is what you do when riding down steeps in order to keep your center of mass, well, centered. so even though your hips go back (or really your bottom bracket and rear wheel move forward), you aren’t getting your center of mass behind the rear axle. initially you need keep your arms straight, and your whole upper body needs to move back relative to the pedals.

    9. rolls_rice on

      Your compressing straight down a tiny bit and then going back so the rebound from your compression is only lifting the wheel a couple of inches and your body position needs to do the rest. 
      Instead when compressing think about compressing and driving your knees towards your front axle. If for the time being you forget the rest you should be able to bring the wheel up to near vertical with just this compression and not resisting the bike movement with your body. Once you have the control to lift the front wheel consistently to whatever height you want, then you can add the moving back part.

      Additionally, you will need more speed to really practice as it looks like you would have stopped after a few feet manualling anyway. The faster you go the less height the front wheel needs to be  at balance point and the more side to side stability you will have. It obviously increases the risk so make sure to practice rear brake control and jumping off the back to save any loops.

    10. doemaen on

      Shoulders back, eyes up!

      You have to engage your upper back and look ahead. Rolling the shoulders forward and looking down as the wheel comes up kills a lot of the impulse you are generating with your hips.

    11. Friendly-Chipmunk-23 on

      Get lower and push with your feet when you move back. Try it on grass a few hundred times so you are not afraid of looping out.

    16. tastes_a_bit_funny on

      Manual with your feet, not your arms. You want to use your feet and suspension to scoop the front end up.

      Bet your arms and shoulders are sore af from pulling.

    17. mtb_ripster on

      The other thing about manuals is that they are a lot harder to do moving slowly like this.

      Can you wheelie? Try getting into a wheelie at a reasonable speed, then stand on the pedals hovering off the seat and shift into a manual. That will show you where the balance point is and you’ll realize how far back you actually need to go. Manuals didn’t really click for me until I knew where the balance point was and started doing them downhill at speed.

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