Hey, I can still wheelie as when I was a kid, almost!

[ULEWZ]

The wife and I took our 27 pound Tracers into the backyard to practice bunny hops. We watch all the videos, and they make it look soooooo easy. We want to be able to jump and have fun. I practiced bunny hops like I was 12 again, and could go clear a stick, but not much height. So I started practicing wheelies. Wow, pretty easy on a 27 pound bike. I could find the balance point and got to about 20 feet. The wife was pissed, as she could only manage 2 feet. I was a wheelie king as a kid and could wheelie for miles, but as a senior, not so much. But still fun. Then I practiced manuals, Not very good at those. maybe 2 feet off the ground, and not much more, for less than 2 feet long. So what do I have to show for all this practice, a pulled a groin muscle, aching neck, and exhausted arms. Where did my 20s go?

I am left with the following questions, how do you go over a jump with your wheel up high, and then point it back down?
By arm position, pulling or pushing, or standing up or sitting down?

 

[Gary]

I am left with the following questions, how do you go over a jump with your wheel up high, and then point it back down?

That depends on why the front wheel is high in the first place.
If it's high because you were hanging off the back on take off you need to bring your body forwards in the air to nose back in.
If it's high because you sucked it up by bending your arms you need to re-extend them to nose it in.
if it's high because it's a very steep lip it will come back nose in just by staying neautral.
A more advanced rider can allow the front wheel to come up high while extended and neutral then bring the front down using the rear brake in the air.

NEVER JUMP SITTING DOWN.

Learn to bunnyhop first it will help you understand how weight shift and arm/leg extension affect the bike in the air. And you can practice anytime and anywhere.
Try not to ask too many advanced questions before you're compitent, stick to the basics first. thinking about too much information at the same time isn't going to help you.
Once you're comfortable bunnyhopping smoothly front wheel first and landing intentionally either wheel first or both at the same time in control and not losing your feet off the pedals. I'd say that's a good time to move on to trying small tabletop jumps. focus on pumping and timing and smoothness rather than tyring to go huge at first. (pumping is a similar action to the pre-load you need to initiate a bunnyhop). and also focus on looking ahead and spotting your landings.

You really shouldn't be getting injuries from practicing wheelies and bunnyhops. It sounds like you're getting your timing all wong to come away with groin, muscle, aching neck or exhausted arms. How old are you? Have you had a break from riding and are just getting back into it? or just not really tried bunnyhops and wheelies since you were a kid?

 

[ULEWZ]

That depends on why the front wheel is high in the first place.
If it's high because you were hanging off the back on take off you need to bring your body forwards in the air to nose back in.
If it's high because you sucked it up by bending your arms you need to re-extend them to nose it in.
if it's high because it's a very steep lip it will come back nose in just by staying neautral.
A more advanced rider canallow the front wheel to come up high while extended and neutral then bring the front down using the rear brake in the air.

NEVER JUMP SITTING DOWN.

Learn to bunnyhop first it will help you understand how weight shift and arm/leg extension affect the bike in the air. And you can practice anytime and anywhere.
Try not to ask too many advanced questions before you're compitent, stick to the basics first. thinking about too much information at the same time isn't going to help you.
Once you're comfortable bunnyhopping smoothly front wheel first and landing intentionally either wheel first or both at the same time in control and not losing your feet off the pedals. I'd say that's a good time to move on to trying small tabletop jumps. focus on pumping and timing and smoothness rather than tyring to go huge at first. (pumping is a similar action to the pre-load you need to initiate a bunnyhop). and also focus on looking ahead and spotting your landings.

You really shouldn't be getting injuries from practicing wheelies and bunnyhops. It sounds like you're getting your timing all wong to come away with groin, muscle, aching neck or exhausted arms. How old are you? Have you had a break from riding and are just getting back into it? or just not really tried bunnyhops and wheelies since you were a kid?

Thanks for the reply. Ya, I am of retirement age and haven't tried this stuff for 40 years. Still fun though.

 

[Gary]

Cool. So long as you're still in good health age shouldn't be a hurdle to learning to jump/wheelie/manual. But patience and baby steps to progression rather than the crash test dummy approach is the way to do it.
Normally I'd be giving basic advice and saying to most riders just get out and practice lots (I'm kinda old skool like that) but being older and clearly getting something wrong (the injuries). I'd recommend finding out if you have any mtb skills coaching companies nearby and booking in for some tuition. A good skills coach should be able to spot your bad habits and help you correct them as well as teach you good technique in the first place. Not all coaches are great though so try to find a good one.

 

[All Mountain Coaching]

Funny thing is, after coaching a jumps and drops course for the first time on my ebike I ached like hell for days. Bottom line is ebike is more physical and takes more effort. Simples.

 

[Gary]

Funny thing is, after coaching a jumps and drops course for the first time on my ebike I ached like hell for days. Bottom line is ebike is more physical and takes more effort. Simples.

That's not really an injury though. it's just not having as strong a core as you thought and probably not realising the perfect calibration of the extra amount of pre-load everything takes and over/under estimating puting more strain on your muscles. I went through that too for maybe the first two weeks of owning mine. Now I'm used to it i calibrate straight away. Infacg I sometimes forget on my light normal bikes and super pump the first manual way too fast to balance point and have to slam on the brake. Weirdly i never get jumping confused between any bikes except my bMX but that's due to the miniscule wheelbase and much more twitchy handling.

 

[All Mountain Coaching]

I don't get the strain when riding. It was just the repetition of movement when coaching and explaining. Which is the same as what a practise session would feel like for someone learning. I certainly haven't felt that before on a normal bike.

It wasn't the core, more elbows, shoulders and upper body in general.

 

[Gary]

Ah.. Right. For me it was lower back pain. Basically from misjudging the preload and extra pedal push effort to reach balance point, almost reaching it but trying to hold the front up anyway manualling.so entirely my own fault for not admitting defeat anytime I misjudged the initiation.
I've never got sore arms or shoulders from the Ebike. Possibly because it isn't overly long but also they're my strongest upper body muscles mainly from years of messing about on bikes