(grunge music)
- Right, this is a how to manual video
but with a difference today
because I'm joined by a guest.
This is Tom.
You may have heard of Tom.
He normally stands behind the camera,
this time he's in front of the camera.
Tom can ride a bike.
I'm sure he can manual a bit
but I'm gonna run a coaching session
from the start, run you through how to manual,
and hopefully you guys at home can join in as well.
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Tom, you've been riding for quite a few years I suppose?
- Yeah, a long time.
Too long and I should know how to manual, really.
- Aren't you mates with Brendan Fairclough
and Olly Wilkins?
They not taught you how to manual?
- No. (laughing)
- Right, what's your biggest manual?
- Probably about 2m, but I can manual like on a trail.
I can manual through a hole,
I can manual through a roller on a pump track.
- Yeah.
- I can bunny hop, I can jump, I can do drops.
I just can't like do an impressive manual down a road
to show off to my mates.
- Okay, we'll try and do that,
but we'll also try and do it from the start
to help people that can't do that as well.
- Yeah.
- So, I'll run you through a coaching session
like I used to do it, start, start.
So you don't need anything to try and learn to manual.
Just find yourself a big open space,
fire roads, slight downhill is perfect.
It's gonna be easier with a bike with a short stem,
so 50mm stem is alright.
Should be good.
First part of a manual is the pump.
So standing nice and tall on your bike,
ready position, and then go straight down into saddle,
trying to squash the bike into the ground.
Squash like pressure through your feet into the ground.
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Trying to go, it gonna feel weird,
because it's a bit unnatural if you think of it,
but just go straight down.
'Cause at the minute you, you're kind of going
a bit down and back, so almost go to the seated position
but not quite.
(grunge music)
And that's one of the big mistakes people make
is missing that straight down.
They go diagonally down and back at the same time.
So, moving on to L-shape.
An easy way of practicing this is
don't try and actually lift the front wheel,
just do the motion.
So it's from the ready position,
straight down, then push the bike forward.
So two movements, straight down,
push the bike forward.
That's it.
And that's the bit that's gonna feel a bit weird
to begin with probably.
So just do it over and over, just like that.
Real sort of stuttery.
Tom's gonna have to unlearn what he already knows.
It can take ages.
You know, the whole ten thousand hours thing.
I'm not sure I believe in that,
but you need to do it loads of times until it feels natural
and it can be, you know,
two motions for as long as you want.
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- Like, that slow or
- Yeah that's fine.
Maybe try and get a bit lower to the rear wheel
on the second bit so,
I've got the seat right down
and I almost sit, and then I'm quite low,
my hips and my bum is pretty close to the rear tire.
So straight down and then slide back and low.
- Back and then sort of little bit down
- Yeah, that's it.
- towards the rear wheel.
- So, that L-shape we talked about, down, back,
actually you wanna sort of open it up a little bit,
so it just like down and down and back.
This is where you practice practice practice
and it's got to become muscle memory.
I don't know how long that can take
but it can take a while, it can be frustrating
because then doing it one motion
can really sort of frazzle people's brains
and they go back to doing whatever they used to do
and it could be down and back,
whereas it needs to be straight down and then roll back.
How do you feel about the covering your brakes thing.
I know you ride with one finger.
- Yeah.
- So that's good.
A lot of people ride with two fingers on their brakes
and I always say
Right, get used to riding with one
because you need to be coming at all times.
How do you feel,
do you feel confident about if rubber does come up,
you know, when to hit the rear brake?
- I think so, but I feel like, at the moment,
I would just jam it on.
- Yeah.
That's the way to do it.
It will save your arse, literally.
You can pretty much do vertical, you hit it hard,
it will bring the front wheel down.
- Yeah.
- It's just getting the judgment on when to pull it
and how hard, will take a bit of practice.
- Yeah.
- Best way to practice that is actually wheelie in
and just get used to the balance point and that.
But it is just that safety,
you know, safety net to hold on to at all times
because I reckon in a minute or two,
you'll get a good one, and the movement comes,
and you'll go whoof
and that's where you whack that back brake
on as soon as you can.
- Yeah, okay.
- So what is gonna happen
- So just keep doing that L and it will just pop up?
- At the moment it's not quite popping
because you've still got bit of a pause,
which we're practicing the two motions,
so now it's gotta be doo-doo-doo.
- Okay.
- Like whoosh.
Not a duh, duh, and at the moment yours is a bit duh-duh.
- Try and make it one without cutting that corner.
- Exactly.
- Cool.
- That's the one where, yeah,
it's difficult because people then want to
cut the corner.
- Yeah.
- You still gotta go straight down back
but it's a whoosh, not a duh duh.
Nice.
(drumming music)
- I almost feel like I'm sort of, like the front comes up,
and I'm only just peering over my bars, like
- Yeah, that's alright though.
That's probably because you need a bit more
of the pump first, but you're right back.
You know, if you're peering over the bars
you know you're right back there,
and that's good because also that's what I have to coach
people out of the pull on the arms
because what a lot of people do is they stay in the middle
and just ride on their arms
and your weight is still right in the middle of the bike
but it's good that you're saying that you're, you know,
peering over the bars.
Just to get it more effortless,
you need to get that stronger pump in the middle,
- Okay.
- And then finish off in the same spot,
and then you'll go woohoo
- I'm going way faster than you were going just then,
so does speed not really matter but not too fast.
- No.
You want enough to get a gyroscopic effect
so you don't fall over sideways easily
but it's not a case of throwing more speed at it,
you can do it nice and slow.
- Yeah.
(upbeat electric guitar music)
- The faster you go, the more chance of bruising
skinning your (beeping) when you fall off.
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- I don't know if I'm like,
I've not got to the point where I have to put my brake yet.
- Yeah.
- Should I almost go for it and then
- I do think it's difficult
because you if you don't get the brake nailed,
you will loop out, so that's where the whole wheelie
is a safe way of doing it because you can go up the hill,
you can go slower and you can
- Neil, I think this might be a bad time to tell you
but I can't wheelie either.
- (laughing) A wheelie is a different skill
but you've got two safety nets
because if I'm looping out I can back off the power,
and I can hit the brake.
- Yeah.
- So it's like a much safer way of learning
your balance point, and learning to wheelie,
I think you should be able to wheelie,
you're a good enough rider,
it's just different things to practice.
- I think like the problem with wheelie-ing and manualing
is the whole feeling of like going too far,
- Yeah, yeah.
- And like, I think when you're wheelie-ing
you actually feel like you're looping out way more
than you feel comfortable doing when you're learning it.
If that makes sense?
- Yeah, and with the manual you are pretty much
in a loop out position, and that's why I go on about
manual is great for big altitude drops and stuff.
It's also, it gives you that skill of knowing exactly
where too far is because you've been too far,
- Yeah.
- So you know when you're bombing down a trail
what it feels to be too far off the back of the bike
and it gives you a better judgment
of not doing that so much so,
it helps with lots of different types of riding.
I reckon that's it.
Your thing now is to get beyond that balance,
the balancing point, so loop out and hit the back brake.
- Yeah.
- And do that over and over.
So loop out, hit the brake
- Just want to loop out like
- Loop out, boom, brake.
And it's, it's there, it's not,
you know, not a million miles further back
than where you are.
So what you're doing now is quite common as well.
It's doing like a little setup,
sort of squish the suspension,
- Yeah.
- It can also sort of mess up our timing
and you get then tired of doing it.
People do it with jumps as well.
They say they wanna get like a
ooh, I'm ready, and then boom,
but just do one motion,
there's your manual.
Don't do a, it's difficult,
I used to find it easier to coach someone
who is completely new to riding a bike
than is someone who has ridden for years.
- Yeah, it's bad habits I suppose.
- Yeah, and like you said,
it's for me the years of practicing outside your house,
messing around like a 12-year old.
That's where I learn.
It's probably a lot of things that still I use nowadays
and manual is definitely one of those things
where doing it in the nineties on my bike with a 80mm stem,
over and over (chuckling).
- So I never really, I never really did that.
I sort of did a little bit.
I think I learnt bunny hops and that was it.
- Yeah.
- Then I was like, right, lets go off into the woods
and go and mountain bike.
I never really spent that time that loads of people
or loads of kids do.
- What also jumps as well for me,
I just spent hours and hours doing that
and that all adds up to these skills
from being able to pump from manual, jump,
that you can use for everything
like riding cross country.
And it's easy enough to learn.
As I say, you need a road near a fire road.
- Yeah.
- Do it over and over.
I think technique's there,
you just need to do a bit more of everything,
and then you need your back brake.
- A bit more aggressive on everything,
- Yeah.
- Or more like
- Aggressive maybe not, but like firm,
like to me it does feel like a proper forceful thing.
It may not look like it but it's quite a swift movement.
Definitely with manuals, you've got to learn to loop out
and realize that your brake will save you most of the time
but that takes practice.
Alright, I filmed ya.
So this works very well.
Do in slow mo.
This first one is actually really good.
So if you watch that, standing nice and tall,
straight down then back
- Yeah.
- That's low so you're looking over the top of the bars.
Only difference that I can see in my final position
is I'm probably a bit lower to the rear wheel.
You see your hips are behind the rear axle,
so that's great.
Arms straight, heads up, that's the right position.
Just could maybe finish a bit lower
and then you'd be looping out
so you'd have to hit the brake.
- Yeah.
- That's just what you got to learn.
So I'd say there's nothing wrong with the skill,
the technique's fine now,
it just needs bit more revving
and that's where you will go beyond the balance point
- Okay.
- And it will take a while and,
I should say sometimes it gets worse,
that is really frustrating
because you think about it too much
and it just goes out the window.
Sometimes it takes a while,
it could take coming back tomorrow
and doing it again will make the difference
but nothing wrong with technique,
it just needs a bit more force in it,
and a bit more movement.
- That was kind of strange that time,
like I thought more about the down and bars forward
rather than before I was thinking like down and bum back.
- Yeah.
- It's the same thing but
- Yeah, whatever works but whatever it is
you end up in the same position,
you just slide the bike forward to get there.
So, let's try that.
Down and hands forward.
(light upbeat guitar music)
Nice.
Yip, that's good.
That's wicked technique and where it goes sideways
it just takes a bit of practice
getting the movement straight.
- I'm still like all of those I didn't feel
like I was near a point of needing to hit that brake.
- I reckon you're right on it.
The way it floats and then drops,
- Yeah.
- Knows you're right about the balance point
otherwise if you're not there, you just drop down quickly.
So it's like whoooeet.
So you were getting pretty close.
- And do you like, 'cause I know that when you do manuals
you kind of like, you use your hips a little bit,
- Yeah.
- But is it like better to just, but when you begin,
like ignore moving hips to try and hold the manual
but just use the brake?
That's what I feel like I do.
I feel like I move my hips up and forwards a bit when I get
- I get lazy and do the brake because it feels more fun
to just hang on the brake but really,
you know, you watch a bit of Maxi's do, and no brakes.
So, it's all about the hips and to begin with
you probably just want to use your hips,
but I find it fun to turn a manual into that coaster wheelie
where I sit behind the balance point to use the brake.
- Yeah.
- It feels more like a motor bike where,
I can't do that very well but it feels cool.
(laughing)
So yeah, hips more than brake I would say.
- But I feel like I'm almost over exaggerating hips
and I get to the point, I then move my hips forwards a bit.
- Yeah.
You would be better off learning to loop
and hit the brake 'cause you are right there,
but I don't want to surprise you,
you know, not much further,
and the front will wanna completely come up.
- Yeah.
- How's that feeling then Tom?
- Definitely way better.
I feel like I know what I'm kind of doing more now.
- Yeah.
- Just more practice I suppose.
- That's always the way.
And it's one of those things like,
I've ridden with you loads, you're a really good rider,
but if you want to go to like the very next level
it's learning where loop out plays sides,
not necessarily being able to manual,
it's just learning like these little details
about balance on the bike and I reckon it does help.
Just practice.
- Yeah.
- If you wanna see another video where I coach someone,
click over there for what I did for Ivo,
the guy who won the nomad off GMB Attack,
teach him on how to corner.
And leave some comments down below,
any other skills you wanna learn,
I'll try and find another willing volunteer
or maybe Tom can do some more.
Any other skills you want Tom to learn,
- (laughing)
- Leave in the comments down below.
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