Brakes Vs Balance

[Ideate]

if I started to make repeated mistakes was to stop doing manuals and try some sit down wheelies...

Yeah do that but you might have to put your seat up a little, considering you can't even reach it at the moment.

I find going slow or fast doesn't matter. For me it's to do with the leveling of my cranks and feet which will sway me one way or another... and the initial pull up (if it's not straight or centered from the start UNLESS I want to manual around a corner or something).

 

[nakedape]

^ that's what's wrong with my manuals - Im unbalanced from the get go and end up skewing off into something nasty. Practice, practice, practice

 

[jda]

I always found them easiest going down a hill, the bigger the better.

 

[EsPeGe]

I find going slow or fast doesn't matter. For me it's to do with the leveling of my cranks and feet which will sway me one way or another... and the initial pull up (if it's not straight or centered from the start UNLESS I want to manual around a corner or something).

I'm the same. As long as the initial pull up is straight I'm ok. If not that's when I go sideways. It's not a biggie for me normally but yesterday I was doing it a lot. Now I think about it, at the time it was windy as f&@k and I always fell downwind.

 

[EsPeGe]

I always found them easiest going down a hill, the bigger the better.

I'm practicing on a street with a nice even downhill. In my limited experience I agree, a downhill is much better.

 

[jda]

When I was living over on the north shore in Vancouver we were at 1000ft and had to ride down to almost sea level for work. I used to manual down this massive hill and one day got pulled over by the cops, it was pretty funny at the time, they let me off with a warning luckily.

 

[EsPeGe]

When I was living over on the north shore in Vancouver we were at 1000ft and had to ride down to almost sea level for work. I used to manual down this massive hill and one day got pulled over by the cops, it was pretty funny at the time, they let me off with a warning luckily.

They had nothing better to do??? I have a couple of goals.
1 Manual the hill at the wall in Cronulla (jda and others will know where I'm talking about)
2 Manual my street
Not sure big arse hills are on the menu just yet.

 

[EsPeGe]

Manual Diary day 200. Dear Diary.......

So today I found how important that reference point is. Again today consistently longer runs with my best effort yet. Very happy. What I found was that by trying to push the front wheel at the reference point, almost as if I am trying point at it with the wheel I got better holds, not just watching it but trying to reach it. So the reference point was a great bit of guidance, thanks!!!!!! No falling sideways today.

 

[mr_marko]

Any new updates to the manual saga? One thing that I found that helped was, buy a cheap unicycle. You can get them for around $50 and once you can ride forward on this thing the manual and wheelies become so much fun. I never mastered the unicycle or manual but could do a a peddled wheelie for a few hundred metres.

 

[cokeonspecialtwodollars]

How does one manual a unicycle.

 

[mr_marko]

How does one manual a unicycle.

Yeah probably didn't word that properly. What I should have said was. Riding a unicycle helps to learn the balance factor needed to manual on a bicycle.
That still doesn't look right but I'm sure you get the gist.

 

[Ideate]

Learning to manual is easier on a BMX. Then adjust the angles and leg pump on the cross over to MTB.

 

[D01]

Riding a unicycle helps to learn the balance factor needed to manual on a bicycle.

I can ride a unicycle, walk a slackline, and brush my teeth standing on one leg with my eyes closed, but I'll be buggered if I can hold the balance point to manual more than a few metres.

I've been playing around with ideas to hold my front wheel up while stationary so I can find and get comfortable on the balance point. I've tried leaning against things, and putting a broom handle up under the forks with not much success, but I'm convinced this is the way forward.

 

[mr_marko]

I can ride a unicycle, walk a slackline, and brush my teeth standing on one leg with my eyes closed, but I'll be buggered if I can hold the balance point to manual more than a few metres.

I've been playing around with ideas to hold my front wheel up while stationary so I can find and get comfortable on the balance point. I've tried leaning against things, and putting a broom handle up under the forks with not much success, but I'm convinced this is the way forward.

In the beginning I was peddling to start off with then slowly try to stop then eliminate the peddling completely. I found sitting down and only travelling slowly helped me find the balance point.