Wheelies and Manuals

[Gofurtherfaster]

I am learning to wheelie again, been waiting for slightly drier weather to start practicing doing these as I hate muddying up my back if I loop out etc. Finally found the balance point today. It was a real ahhh moment, hopefully that sticks somewhere in the grey matter..

I'm also learning to manual, but I have no real ability to find the balance point so figured learning the wheelie would help instil that feeling.

So, who here can wheelie and manual and what difference does it make to your riding, and are there any e-bike specific things to note? Which did you learn first?

 

[Gary]

I'm compitent at both.
Learned to wheelie around 8yrs old and manual not long after. (took years to get good at manuals though.
tips:
learn to wheelie on a slight uphill gradient so you're not having to rear brake as much and there's more resistance.
Use a low gear. normal saddle height and a low assistance level on the Ebike.
One of the first things you should actively practice is looping over and stepping off the back of the bike safely. (no more muddy back ) It'll also teach you the limit of the balance point (it's actually more of a balance zone than point BTW) and and it's just miles safer.
By all means try to learn wheelies and manuals at the same time but it WILL mess with your head. because of this it's often easier to learn wheelies, master them then start learning to manual.
Manuals and coaster wheelies (basically a sat down manual) are both easiest learned on a smooth slight downhill gradient.
The biggest 2 mistakes beginners make when learning manuals is not keeping their arms straight and not pushing enough through their feet/legs/hips.
Emtbs are more difficult to initiate a manual on because of the weight. but you just basically have to pump harder (pre-load) and commit far more and lean back harder and slightly further (get your arse further back).
both skills make a massive difference to your riding. although wheelies on a trail are only really useful for getting the front wheel up steps etc. during uphill riding.
Manuals can be used all over trails to help you match the terrain and gain speed/control as would learning proper bunnyhops and how to jump.

hope some of this helps.
Have a play about and come back with specific questions and I'll try to answer.

 

[Gofurtherfaster]

I'm compitent at both.
Learned to wheelie around 8yrs old and manual not long after. (took years to get good at manuals though.
tips:
learn to wheelie on a slight uphill gradient so you're not having to rear brake as much and there's more resistance.
Use a low gear. normal saddle height and a low assistance level on the Ebike.
One of the first things you should actively practice is looping over and stepping off the back of the bike safely. (no more muddy back ) It'll also teach you the limit of the balance point (it's actually more of a balance zone than point BTW) and and it's just miles safer.
By all means try to learn wheelies and manuals at the same time but it WILL mess with your head. because of this it's often easier to learn wheelies, master them then start learning to manual.
Manuals and coaster wheelies (basically a sat down manual) are both easiest learned on a smooth slight downhill gradient.
The biggest 2 mistakes beginners make when learning manuals is not keeping their arms straight and not pushing enough through their feet/legs/hips.
Emtbs are more difficult to initiate a manual on because of the weight. but you just basically have to pump harder (pre-load) and commit far more and lean back harder and slightly further (get your arse further back).
both skills make a massive difference to your riding. although wheelies on a trail are only really useful for getting the front wheel up steps etc. during uphill riding.
Manuals can be used all over trails to help you match the terrain and gain speed/control as would learning proper bunnyhops and how to jump.

hope some of this helps.
Have a play about and come back with specific questions and I'll try to answer.

Awesome! Plenty to get my teeth into there Gary, thank you!

 

[Gary]

Cheers. don't be afraid to ask about anything not making sense to you.
but above all else. practice. every day if possible.
short stints of practice rather than practicing to frustration every time.
The beauty of wheelies/mannies is you really can perform/practice them anywhere.

 

[All Mountain Coaching]

Yeah can do both and have helped people achieve both when they've booked a course with me.

It's just a little harder with an ebike because of the weight, but the technique is the same for an ebike, you just need to put more effort in.

A couple of years ago I spent about 5m instead of riding the trails home after a course at the end of a day, but take the road home to practise coaster wheelies. I love doing these and will do them wherever there's a hill.

There's a video of me doing one on my Facebook page:

There's also some videos of what not to do when customers didn't apply the brake and looped out. Ouch!

 

[Benson]

One of the first things you should actively practice is looping over and stepping off the back of the bike safely. (no more muddy back ) It'll also teach you the limit of the balance point (it's actually more of a balance zone than point BTW) and and it's just miles safer.

Can you elaborate a bit please Gary? Do you mean to literally bring up the front and step off the back? Any YouTube references on this done in practise?

 

[R120]

I actually think this recent one on GMBN is pretty good for manuals

 

[Gary]

Can you elaborate a bit please Gary? Do you mean to literally bring up the front and step off the back? Any YouTube references on this done in practise?

I mean raising the front so high it goes past the balance point and as it does, stepping off the rear of the bike to remain standing with the bike up on the rear wheel (both hands still holding the bars)

 

[Dee Scee]

i enjoyed this guy's take on it.
obviously started out with some decent skills
and youth on his side.

 

[Koo]

I am in the same process. Can do semi ok wheelies like 50m when I want to. But manuals are still pain in the a**.

At first I thought getting the nose up when doing manuals is the hard part. Then something clicked and now it is not getting the nose up enough, but staying in balance and trusting that you wont fly on your back so fast that you wont have time to get legs under you in time.

 

[Benson]

I mean raising the front so high it goes past the balance point and as it does, stepping off the rear of the bike to remain standing with the bike up on the rear wheel (both hands still holding the bars)

One foot on the floor or moving?

 

[R120]

I think an EMTB is about the hardest bike to learn how to manual on due to the weight, not so much wheelies as you can hook the bike up easy enough, but the motor does mean you can find yourself accelerating out of control pretty easily, so whilst putting it in turbo makes it very easy to lift the front it makes it difficult to control the wheelie.

 

[MattyB]

One foot on the floor or moving?

Every article I’ve read and video I have watched on manualling starts from moving along at around walking pace in the ready position. At that speed it is no problem to step off the back if you overbalance, providing you are on flats. Obviously don’t do this on clips until you are very confident managing your position over the balance point through weight shifts and use of the rear brake.

Alternatively you could always build one of these to practise...

 

[Gary]

One foot on the floor or moving?

What?
You remove one foot first. Place it on the ground. Then the next and are left standing/walking depending on the speed you stepped off at..
it doesn't matter which foot you remove first (that's just down to preference)
Are you over thinking this? or struggling to visualise what I mean?

 

[Gary]

Alternatively you could always build one of these to practise...

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!

They are pointless!
Raising the front wheel on a manual machine is a completely different technique to a real manual as is holding the balance point.
Why? Because the rear wheel needs to be rolling, and you need to be able to push it forwards with your legs to raise the front wheel. then control it's position forwards and backwards with your legs to maintain the balance point. You can't do either of these things with a manual machine. The physics are completely different. Infact the physics of your cranks/freewheel also becomes completely different with the rear wheel fixed in place in a manual machine.
You'll just be wasting valuable practice time and creating poor technique habits/muscle memory.

Manual machines seem to be firmly in the domain for folk who'd rather have a gadget than ride their bike.

in the time it'd take to build a manual machine I could teach you to raise the front, loop out safely (as described above) and manage short trail manuals.

I'm not just hating on the things BTW. (Although I do HATE them). I can manual any bike fine and have spent time using a manual machine. (Mainly because I'd hate to be wrong).

That's the only Blake Samson video I've ever disliked

 

[Tim1023]

in the time it'd take to build a manual machine I could teach you to raise the front, loop out safely (as described above) and manage short trail manuals.

You heading to Hamburg in the near future??

 

[Gary]

No. But if you come to Edinburgh(ish) give me a shout