What Are The Benefits of a Bike Backpack?
In today's dynamic world of transportation and personal mobility, cycling has gained popularity for both commuting and leisure. Whether you're a co...
MTB Manual Does Not Work? With The Right Technique You Can Do It!
You are about to learn the mountain bike manual, but it just does not work? - we show you 5 techniques how to lift your front wheel with the manual impulse and which of them is correct!
Again and again mountain bikers ask us how they can learn a manual and which of the techniques they learn in a YouTube tutorial or in a manual riding technique course is the "right technique".
In case you don't know what a manual is? You ride a manual when you roll on your rear wheel without pedaling. And the manual impulse is the lifting of the front wheel by a body weight shift - that is, without the use of an active pedal stroke as in a wheelie.
In this article, we'll introduce you to 5 techniques for manual impulse. Because honestly - why is one technique right and why is one wrong? And if that were the case, who decides which one is right? Is there an MTB bible or the international law book of mountain biking? As far as we know, there isn't....
Contents
Manual Impulse 1: The "L" Movement
The L-movement is called that because you first bring your hips down and then push them back. Viewed from the left, you draw an "L" with your hips.
Movement instructions
Start rolling in a standing position with the cranks horizontal.
Bend your arms and legs, lowering your center of gravity.
Dynamically stretch your arms and legs so that you push your hips straight back and accelerate the bike forward underneath you. Depending on your body and bike size, you may not need to fully extend your legs.
Advantages
Since you perform the low walk slowly, this variation is relatively easy to coordinate in the beginning.
Since you do not go forward to get momentum, this variant is quite safe.
Especially for taller bikers, this variation is easier to learn because you don't have to fully extend your legs.
Disadvantage
This variant requires a very high use of strength, because you have to stretch your legs and arms dynamically from the "static" low position.
Manual Impulse 2: The "L" movement with preload
Movement instructions
Start rolling in a standing position with the cranks horizontal.
Perform a preload - compress the bike over your legs.
Then immediately stretch your arms and legs dynamically so that you push your hips straight back and accelerate the bike forward underneath you. Depending on your body and bike size, you may not need to fully extend your legs.
Advantages
Since you don't go forward to gain momentum, this variation is quite safe.
Especially for smaller bikers this variant is easier to learn, because you can save a lot of energy by preloading.
Disadvantage
This variant is a bit more difficult in the beginning because of the fast preload.
Manual Impulse 3: The "front-back" movement
Movement instructions
Start rolling in a standing position with the cranks horizontal.
Bring the hips forward to gain momentum and compress the fork.
Then bring the hips back dynamically.
Advantages
Especially for smaller bikers and teenagers, this variation is easier on your energy to learn because you can conserve the energy used by gaining momentum and use the full range of motion of your legs.
Disadvantage
If you mess up the timing and compress the fork just at the moment when your front wheel runs into an obstacle (a root, etc.), it can catapult you over the handlebars.
Manual Impulse 4: The "up-back" movement
Movement instructions
Start rolling in a standing position with the cranks horizontal.
Bend your arms and legs, lowering your center of gravity.
Dynamically stretch your arms and legs so that you bring your hips back-up at an angle.
Advantages
Since you are not going forward to gain momentum, this variation is quite safe.
Especially for smaller bikers, this variation is easier to learn, since you can generate a lot of momentum through complete leg extension.
Disadvantage
This variation is often a dead end if you want to build a bunnyhop on this movement, since your legs are extended.
Manual Impulse 5: The "up-back" movement with preload
Movement instructions
Start rolling in a standing position with the cranks horizontal.
Perform a preload - compress the bike over your legs.
Dynamically stretch your arms and legs so that you bring your hips back-up at an angle.
Advantages
Since you are not going forward to gain momentum, this variation is quite safe.
Especially for smaller bikers, this variation is easier to learn because you can save a lot of energy by preloading and use the full range of motion of your legs.
Disadvantage
This variant is a bit more difficult in terms of coordination at the beginning.
So - and which of them is CORRECT now?
We can't tell you which one is right, but we can tell you that none of them is wrong!
Each of the manual variants presented here offers objectively seen advantages and disadvantages and it depends finally also on your preferences, on your speed strength, your body size and your mobility, which of these 5 variants suits you best! And which one is easiest for you...!
And if you are wondering if you can learn the manual on a manual machine, then you will be interested in this article: Learn Mountainbike Manual with the Manual Machine
Conclusion
People are individual! And just as individual you will learn your MTB riding technique - because there are always several ways to Rome (as the saying goes). Listen to yourself, to your body (our body is often smarter than our head) and don't let your ego tell you that you're too good to take a coach - or let your inner devil tell you that you're "not good enough" to learn something...
Read More
View our privacy policy
