Do you notice your front wheel hitting obstacles while you’re mountain biking and its slowing you down and making for a rough ride? Manuals are a great technique to learn on your MTB that will allow you to get your wheel up and over obstacles with ease, and are a building block for more advanced tricks like bunny hops and even hitting jumps.
Bike set up: lower your seat
Before jumping into the proper manual technique, first you’ll need to adjust your bike by getting your seat low and out of the way to allow you the range of motion you will need to successfully execute manuals. Your seat shouldn’t be much higher than its lowest setting to make sure it’s out of the way.
Manual Technique
Start with the proper body position
You want to get yourself into a good ready position before you start your manual. You should be standing up on your pedals with your pedals level, with your body in a centered position over your bike while keeping your arms and legs loose and bent slightly.
Move your weight down, then back
The key to pulling off a manual properly on your mountain bike is in how you move your body.
First, you’ll want to compress or pump your weight down into your bike and its suspension. To accomplish this, you’ll drop your hips down to get yourself close to your saddle, allowing your arms and legs to bend naturally.
Once you’re close to your already low seat, push your arms straight out in front of you and shift your weight back, getting your hips over your rear wheel. Make sure to stay low as you move back.
Make an L shape with your hip movement
A good way to think about how your body should move when you’re doing a manual is to make an L shape with your hips.
From your centered starting position, you’ll shift your weight straight down, moving your hips down towards your seat. Then you’ll move your body and hips straight back over your back wheel. You need to move down and then back, not just back, and not down, up then back.
Being fluid and timing
The momentum from your weight moving back along with the rebounding energy in your suspension from compressing your weight down into the bike will be what gets your front wheel off the ground.
The tricky part about this if you’re new to doing manuals is moving down then back all in one fluid motion. You can’t pump your weight down into your bike and stay in that position for a few seconds before shifting back, because you will be losing the stored rebounding energy which is an important part of the equation of getting your front wheel up in the air.
You need to move your weight back immediately after compressing your suspension, so that its timed alongside your suspension rebounding from being compressed. Moving your weight back alone won’t result in a proper manual, and neither will the rebounding suspension work on its own. The key is to time both of these things to happen at the same time.
Don’t pull up
One of the biggest pitfalls MTBers learning manuals fall into is trying to help their front wheel off the ground by pulling or lifting up on the bars.
This is a problem because by pulling up on your handlebars, your weight will get shifted forward and not allow you to hold your front wheel off the ground for more than a second or two.
Instead you want to allow your momentum moving towards the rear of the bike to bring your front wheel up.
Practice makes perfect
Once you understand what body movements are needed for a manual on your mountain bike, practicing manuals repeatedly will be what allows you to take this maneuver with you out on the trails. Moving your weight down, compressing your bike’s suspension, and then shifting directly back over your rear wheel will get your front wheel up if your timing and sequencing are correct.
Keep practicing manuals on your bike until they become second nature and your front wheel gets up properly every time. Once you’ve got that down, you can draw a line in the dirt or put a stick on the ground to practice manualing over something, to simulate how you’ll actually do manuals when out trail riding.
Holding a manual
Once you’ve got manuals down pat, the next thing you will want to learn is how to hold the manual. This may not be quite as essential as simply being able to get your front wheel up over obstacles, but it definitely looks cool.
Controlling the front wheel height
When you want to hold your manual for any length of time, controlling the front wheel height is very important. Once you’ve got your weight back over your rear wheel and front wheel in the air, you can control the front wheel’s height by shifting your hips forward and backward.
If your front wheel is getting too high up, shift your hips forward some until it starts to drop down. If your front wheel is getting too close to the ground, shift your hips back and that should pull the front wheel up further.
It will take practice to find your balance point where your front wheel doesn’t move up or down, and once you’ve got that figured out you’ll be able to hold out some seriously impress your riding buddies and hold out some long manuals.
Cover the rear brake
Another way you can control your front wheel’s height is using the rear brake. When doing manuals you should cover the rear brake, which can be used if your wheel gets too high. Light pressure applied to your rear brake while in manual will lower your front wheel, and if you apply more pressure you’ll be able to bring it right to the ground.
Frequently asked questions
Learning to manual on a mountain bike can improve your riding in many ways. Manuals will give you the ability to get your front wheel up and over obstacles like roots and rocks. Manuals are also a building block for more advanced maneuvers including bunny hops. You’ll even use the technique from manuals when riding off drops and jumps.
Doing a manual on a mountain bike is not overly difficult, but it can be challenging at first to get the timing down. First you need to compress your suspension and shift your weight downward, then immediately push your arms forward and move your weight over the back wheel. By practicing this technique most mountain bikers should be able to do a manual relatively easily.
Conclusion
There you have it, manuals don’t have to be so difficult after all. By moving your weight down and then back in an L shape and timing your move back with the rebounding of your suspension, you’ll be doing manuals over obstacles on the trail in no time! Now go and practice!