Wheelies: just kids' stuff

Everywhere around the globe, kids are thrashing whatever bicycle they got for their birthday. When I was eight, I had a BMX and I learned wheelies, jumps and endos. When I was 13, all I got was pissed off with trying to wheelie my ten-speed.

On the Hanoi streets, kids are popping wheelies on their cast iron Chinese battle cruisers. Thing is, the extent of the trick is counting how many lamp posts you can wheelie past. Most guys I’ve met on the road and had enough faith in to loan them my BMX try to wheelie it and fail miserably every time.

The biggest problem they have is that the bike is so much shorter than the Chinese cruisers and has far less knee room behind the bars for pedalling in, and therefore along. Forget the classic wheelie, it’s an arse trick with only one future direction. Time to learn to Manual.

Consider the Manual to be a coasting wheelie times ten. Think using brake and balance control for the trick, rather than brute force pedalling. When you get good at Manuals you won’t need brakes - but early on they help with bike control.

The real beauty of Manuals lies in their future application. While they are best learned on flatland they can later be introduced into any one of a million different street tricks - including grinds, lip trick and across platforms. 

Almost every rider learns this trick by practicing it on every ride. Some learn fast, some slow, but if you want to improve your riding, then forget the classic wheelie and follow these steps:

- Start learning on flatland – a tennis court or car park, anywhere with no slope at all. If pressed for practice space, like in Hanoi, then train on the least downhill angle.

- Ride in at medium pace, hands on the bars and standing in normal riding stance on the pedals.

- Keep level over the bike, with your arms and legs just a little bent.

- To pop, snap your hips backwards, behind the seat, but keep your arms and legs in the same loosely bent position. If you use your arms to pull the wheel up, or bend them wildly in the rise, you will definitely lose control the ascent, and therefore the trick. This is the most common mistake made while learning to Manual.

- With your bodyweight well back from the centre of gravity, the front wheel will rise about a foot off the ground. Your weight is the counter-balance that holds the front wheel off the ground.

- Look forward, the same as when riding, focusing on a point a few metres in front of you. As with any balancing act - be it riding or tightrope walking - if you look down, you’ll lose balance.

Don’t try to use your body weight to control the Manual. It’s too much weight shift. Slightly bending your elbows and knees will control the balance by minute adjustments to your centre of gravity.

- When you’re done, just tip your head toward the bars, shifting your body weight forward out the trick. Alternatively, a little tap on the brakes works nicely.

The hardest part is finding that stable centre of gravity. Your weight has to be far enough back, without catapulting yourself backwards off the bike. Keeping relaxed and still while trying to balance is important too. The less you move around the easier Manuals become.

The Good Life