Wheelies.....why so chuffing hard?!

saracen fan
saracen fan Posts: 389
edited August 2010 in MTB beginners
....well for me anyway!

Can only wheelie for about 4 meters before either coming down or ejecting off the back.

I have since learned applying the back brake stops you flying off the back but I still struggle with wheelies, and often whilst pulling one tend to vear off to the right...why is that?!

please help!

How can I be an mtb god if I cant even freaking wheelie?!

ps bunny hops are ok just not very high.......? :wink:
Unlike my credit card im currently carrying a low level of interest- Peter Griffin


Saracen Trace 1

Comments

  • JimmerG
    JimmerG Posts: 143
    Saracen fan,

    There's only one way to sort this out - and I'm afraid you probably already know....
    Practise!

    We've all been in your position at some point. Its all about finding the right balance point. Feather the back brake to stop you looping off the back. Lowering your saddle will help lower your centre of gravity. Choose a sensible gear... middle ring and second or third largest sprocket usually do it for me. Don't feel you need to wheelie at a fast pace, its often easier to do at a slow jogging pace. Choose a flat bit a track. Keep your weight back. You can help steer the bike left or right by moving the saddle around as you're sat on it.

    Hope this helps!
  • jairaj
    jairaj Posts: 3,009
    Im no expert at all, still learning to manual and wheelie. But all the guides i've seen say the pulling up action is more of a scoop up, with your legs pushing too, not just a yank with the arms. this should a be smooth and easy action. If you are going off to one side it can be that you are yanking too hard and are a bit unbalanced. try to work on the technique a bit more. On the rare occasion I do it well the motion feels almost effortless and I end up going off the back as I generate too much scoop action.
  • butcher of bakersfield
    butcher of bakersfield Posts: 1,233
    JimmerG wrote:
    There's only one way to sort this out - and I'm afraid you probably already know....
    Practise!

    Absolutely. I think it sometimes gets forgotten in MTB, when, and I'm making a generalisation, it's mostly older guys popping out for a ride once or twice a week. The kids you see effortlessly wheelying past down the street while drinking a can of coke have spent hours and hours, daily, wheelying up and down sainsbury's car park.
  • Boy Lard
    Boy Lard Posts: 445
    It's also pretty embarassing when all the kids are laughing at you for falling on your face. I try and find a nice quite area of the woods, hidden from view, and then I try as hard as possible to avoid the face-ground thing, normally unsuccessfully.
  • saracen fan
    saracen fan Posts: 389
    butcher of bakersfield wrote:
    JimmerG wrote:
    There's only one way to sort this out - and I'm afraid you probably already know....
    Practise!

    Absolutely. I think it sometimes gets forgotten in MTB, when, and I'm making a generalisation, it's mostly older guys popping out for a ride once or twice a week. The kids you see effortlessly wheelying past down the street while drinking a can of coke have spent hours and hours, daily, wheelying up and down sainsbury's car park.


    Yeh it sucks!
    was behind this kid on the way to work and he wheelied about 2 miles! no exaggeration, it looked so effortless I was quite peeved lol

    I guess I should of practiced more as a youngster.....I can wheelie just not for long and not very straight. its annoying!
    guess I will have to practice more as suggested.
    Unlike my credit card im currently carrying a low level of interest- Peter Griffin


    Saracen Trace 1
  • captainfly
    captainfly Posts: 1,001
    I seem to be able to manual quite well on a slight incline but can seem to get more than five pedal strokes on a pedal wheelie, it is a balance and pedaling problem for me. but agian it is the practice thing.
    -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
    Mongoose Teocali
    Giant STP0

    Why are MTB economics; spend twice as much as you intended, but only half as much as you wish you could afford? :roll:
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    jairaj wrote:
    Im no expert at all, still learning to manual and wheelie. But all the guides i've seen say the pulling up action is more of a scoop up, with your legs pushing too, not just a yank with the arms. this should a be smooth and easy action. If you are going off to one side it can be that you are yanking too hard and are a bit unbalanced. try to work on the technique a bit more. On the rare occasion I do it well the motion feels almost effortless and I end up going off the back as I generate too much scoop action.
    Sounds like you're getting bunnyhops, manuals and wheelies all confuddled!
  • TheNorthernTrain
    TheNorthernTrain Posts: 1,049
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    jairaj wrote:
    Im no expert at all, still learning to manual and wheelie. But all the guides i've seen say the pulling up action is more of a scoop up, with your legs pushing too, not just a yank with the arms. this should a be smooth and easy action. If you are going off to one side it can be that you are yanking too hard and are a bit unbalanced. try to work on the technique a bit more. On the rare occasion I do it well the motion feels almost effortless and I end up going off the back as I generate too much scoop action.
    Sounds like you're getting bunnyhops, manuals and wheelies all confuddled!

    Nah, i know what he means, rather than just yanking up with your arms, you sort of compress and push forward and up with your arms in a sort of scooping action, it makes it so much easier to get the front wheel up!
    MmmBop

    Go big or go home.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    For manuals and bunnyhops, yeah, but not wheelies, surely?
    I have been historically quite bad at wheelies though, so I'm willing to admit my technique is crap :lol:
  • TheNorthernTrain
    TheNorthernTrain Posts: 1,049
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    For manuals and bunnyhops, yeah, but not wheelies, surely?
    I have been historically quite bad at wheelies though, so I'm willing to admit my technique is crap :lol:

    TBH i don't have a clue, i can't do wheelies or manuals for more than about 3 seconds. I just always assumed the action would be the same for manuals and wheelies.
    MmmBop

    Go big or go home.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Nah, wheelies are when you're sat down, so a good kick to the cranks is usually enough to bring you up.
    With Manuals, you're coasting, so you have to do a bunnyhop scoop.

    I think.
  • Radioactiveman
    Radioactiveman Posts: 964
    Did a wheelie once in a car park before an MTB ride. Was in the days of using spds and I went off the back and landed on my back fully clipped in upside down

    Not been too keen on wheelies ever since, but the benefit of flat pedals and a touch of rear brakes make them manageable for me now
    £1.25 for sign up http://www.quidco.com/user/491172/42301

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  • popstar
    popstar Posts: 1,392
    But wheelies are not a part of MTB discipline surely? When ever have you seen riders doing wheelies on trails and actually enhancing their control of the bike? Unweighting while pushing/pumping bike into your desired enhancement points is a different story though. I may be wrong in some points though.
    What could have been (Video)

    I'll choose not put too much stake into someone's opinion who is admittingly terrible though
  • Mynameisdann
    Mynameisdann Posts: 665
    I cant even wheelie mate so no worries, i cant seem to stay seated i either start off standing or as soon as i put power down i go to a standing position -.-
  • chedabob
    chedabob Posts: 1,133
    I thought wheelies were where you stayed upright by pedalling, and manuals were the same but without pedalling.

    Wheelies are pretty useless most of the time, but I've had a few times where if I'd been able to keep the front wheel up, I'd have made it over those anti-motorbike grids.
  • butcher of bakersfield
    butcher of bakersfield Posts: 1,233
    popstar wrote:
    But wheelies are not a part of MTB discipline surely?

    They do make you look cool though :D
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    But wheelies are not a part of MTB discipline surely? When ever have you seen riders doing wheelies on trails and actually enhancing their control of the bike?
    It's just an extension of balance though. And that certainly IS useful on an MTB.
  • popstar
    popstar Posts: 1,392
    I love exaggerating jumps/bunny hops over logs! My wife thinks I am rad instantly.

    But feeling of it certainly doesn't tick -The Flow- box.
    What could have been (Video)

    I'll choose not put too much stake into someone's opinion who is admittingly terrible though
  • gbrnole
    gbrnole Posts: 395
    Wheelies whilst not massively useful on the trail do a great job of improving your bike handling skills and get you more familiar with your bike. My riding improved significantly when i mastered them but that was probably from hours of practise.

    Yanking on the bars is going to make you go to one side unless you pull up perfectly, in reality this is harder to do when the pedal stroke is coming from one side of the bike thus you need to compensate on the other.

    Easiest method is to lean back with straight arms to get the front up whilst using a firm but controlled pedal stroke, the front will come up effortlessly. When you start off not pulling to one side it makes things a lot easier and should help with your sideways tendencies!
    Ibis Mojo SL-r
  • mancjon
    mancjon Posts: 53
    Bloody wheelies haven't helped my bike handling skills much as i'm now off the bike for about 3 months due to a fractured back :(

    Out practicing them a month ago and did the fatal "one more go at it" before going home. Gave a huge pedal down, pull up on bars and managed to fall straight off the back before i even knew what had hit me. Landed straight on my back with resulting fractured vertebrae.

    Worse thing is i'm in my forties and it's a bit embarrassing when after telling people i did it off-road, my other half insists on telling them it wasn't actually on singletrack etc. i was practicing wheelies at which point any sympathy i was going to get just disappears to be replaced by a "you do know how old you are do you ?" :)

    On a slight side note, i ride XC mainly so a full armour suit is not really the way to go but if i am allowed back onto the trails (by my spinal specialist and more importantly my other half), any suggestions as to a lightweight spine protector ?
  • popstar
    popstar Posts: 1,392
    POC, lightest bestest and most expensive too.
    What could have been (Video)

    I'll choose not put too much stake into someone's opinion who is admittingly terrible though
  • saracen fan
    saracen fan Posts: 389
    lots of good advice on here...thankyou!

    It probably is vainity but wheelies are just one of those things you have to do, esp if all your riding mates are with you and you rip away from the pack on the back wheel :lol: , its just abit of "one-up-manship" you know? lol

    I do yank up on the bars and as a result always trail to one side, so will heed the advice and scoop the front up, its just getting the balance and pedal strokes together now.

    And il try not to fall off the back.....fractured vertibre :shock: holy hell!
    hope you get well soon mate
    Unlike my credit card im currently carrying a low level of interest- Peter Griffin


    Saracen Trace 1
  • Boy Lard
    Boy Lard Posts: 445
    mancjon wrote:

    Worse thing is i'm in my forties and it's a bit embarrassing when after telling people i did it off-road, my other half insists on telling them it wasn't actually on singletrack etc. i was practicing wheelies at which point any sympathy i was going to get just disappears to be replaced by a "you do know how old you are do you ?" :)

    That's what the back of your hand is for. Keep her in line man!
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    mancjon wrote:
    On a slight side note, i ride XC mainly so a full armour suit is not really the way to go but if i am allowed back onto the trails (by my spinal specialist and more importantly my other half), any suggestions as to a lightweight spine protector ?
    Any spine protector is going to make you get very hot, very fast when riding XC.
    Also, it won't do anything for the coccyx, which is what is most likely to be damaged falling off the back.
  • stewart.d.campbell
    stewart.d.campbell Posts: 34
    Try doing it uphill as this means you dont build up speed so its easier to control the speed and turn the front wheel from side to side to balance.

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