I am determined to be able to pull a Manual so despite me now being outside the period of performance, I’m still going to teach myself anyway and, all things being well, complete the original challenge.
To the uninitiated, a Manual looks a lot like a Wheelie but they are very different. Indeed, I can already pull a Wheelie but the ability to hold a Manual anything other than momentarily, and even then only really when rolling fast downhill, has eluded me thus far.
As points for distinction between the two: a Wheelie is easier when travelling uphill whereas a Manual is easier when travelling downhill. A Wheelie uses pedal torque (or the engine on a motorbike) to raise the front wheel, a Manual on the other hand, simply redistributes the weight of the rider to balance the whole bike and rider on the rear wheel by moving the riders position on the bike, relative to the bike.
I’ve done a bit of preparation on this and have realised a couple of fundamental things that thus far I have been doing wrong. The first is that up to now I have kept my seat too high and this was preventing me from pushing my hips out and back behind the saddle. The second is that I should have been covering the rear brake at all times so that when and if I pivoted too far backwards, rather than jumping off to save myself, I should simply touch the rear brake to rotate the bike more forward and then rebalance by moving my hips accordingly.
Finding the right balance point and being able to hold my bodyweight in that area by moving the position of my hips, bending my knees and not standing too tall seem to be key.
I guess very much like when you ride your bike you constantly make little adjustments left and right to the steering to stay in balance, are are always moving forwards and backwards either side of the balance point and not tip too far backwards or allow the front wheel to come back down.
I’ve probably managed about four feet so far and as my shoulder is so sore and an MRI is pending, I will be coming back to this post to update it as my journey progresses; doing so presents an excellent opportunity to record my progress over time.
I have to admit that for a 40+ year old man, developing this skill is likely to raise some eyebrows but it is really good for my sense of balance, for general bike control and I simply have to be able to pull one!!!!
To be updated…
