I got the track stand down pretty good, so I began trying to manual. Normally, I would jerk the bars up as hard as I could to try getting over an obstacle, but I've realized that really isn't the best way.
So, I got a copy of
Mastering Mountain Bike Skills and began reading (it's a very good book). Between that and the author's website
www.leelikesbikes.com, I finally started to "get" just how to do a manual.
These posts at Lee's blog also helped immensely:
Between those posts, the responses to the posts, and the book, these are the tips that helped me the most:
- I lowered the seat to practice. This let me shift my hips back much more easily. I'll practice with my seat at my "standard" XC height once I get this down.
- Really focused on using the "third brake" (ie, practically scratching your butt with the rear wheel because you shift your hips back so far). Basically, Lee said you probably aren't shifting nearly as far as you think you are, so I really tried to "over-exaggerate" the entire motion (my over-exaggeration was probably closer to the "real" motion).
- Finally, really pushing forward with my arms and driving my legs down and forward.
The first time the wheel came up, it felt like some Jedi was lifting the wheel with the Force! It was a very strange feeling since I was used to muscling it up. The wheel just needs to pop up a bit before your shifted-weight takes over. The more you pre-load and the faster you push yourself backwards, the faster it happens.
So far I have bailed off each time it gets up, but I'll get used to the feeling soon enough and learn to control it. I have found that once it comes up to a certain height I start pulling myself up. I just need to let it happen. It seems like minor shifts of the hips should stabalize it, as well as a few pumps with the legs (you can see the kid to that in this video):
Once I'm better at this, I can finally begin working on some nice, high bunny hops!
