Going Backwards On The Front Wheel.

[Joe Hawkins]

Hi,

I have been searching for some time now and haven’t had any luck finding information or tips on this forum to help me with my problem.

The problem is, I have been trying for quite sometime now to go backwards on the front wheel and have not been getting very far. I would be very grateful for any help with this technique including using a foot or using a slope. Areas I need help on are braking, pushing on the wheel, letting it roll and getting momentum.

Thanks for any response.

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

Depends if you want to just roll or do a Switzerland squeaker where you scuff the front tyre with your foot from an endo to roll the bike backwards.

For backwards nose rolls (I'm no expert by the way) a lot of it has to do with getting your cranks right before kicking up the back wheel. You need to be rolling backwards then kind of pedal backwards faster than necessary until you get your feet back to being level where you're comfortable and then scoop the back of the bike up with your feet while pushing forward on the bars and keeping your weight really far forwards. Hard to explain but you basically want your centre of gravity to be centred over the front wheel. Keep at it and you'll get better. Cover the front brake for obvious reasons and learn to use it lightly to try and keep things going longer. A slight hill will help.

For squeakers it's down to timing in my mind. You want to scuff to get the bike moving and as the bike gets to the point of balance, pull on the front brake so that the bike wants to fall back down to two wheels. If you then scuff again you can catch the bike, maintain momentum and move backwards a bit more again until you get to roughly the balance point where you need to repeat. When I started I found I was pulling the brake on too late which meant the bike virtually came to a standstill at the balance point which meant that any further scuffs just sent me over the bars so it's a case of getting the timing right to keep momentum flowing.

Or something like that!

[Joe Hawkins]

Thanks for the tips monkeyseemonkeydo, I will try that when I get home tomorrow and hopefully start to master it!!!!!

[Ross McArthur]

Find a gentle slope and make sure there is NOTHING and NO ONE round about you to put you off.

Learn to start rolling backwards and keep the bike straight all the way down the hill.

Then, after you feel your the dogs bollocks at that, roll backwards, the same as you have been trying, but unweight the back wheel by pointing your toes downwards and try and flick up the back wheel with your legs.

Then after a few practices of this you should progress onto fast back pedaling.

Fast/aggressive back pedaling will aid the bike to flick up quicker. You should feel like you are putting lots of weight down the way on your pedals (remembering the pointing your toes down lesson) to then use the force your applying down the way to spring the back wheel up...weird i know.

You should also be applying force down the way on your bars. But as you get better you shouldnt have to think about pressure on your bars till later.

Always have the front brake covered because when you feel yourself going forwards over the bars the brake will stop you going too far.

Once you feel like the bike is high enough and nearing the balance point (youll be abe to tell trust me. If you can manual youll know what im on about) then the next stage is to straighten your arms out.

You shoulnt be all curled up over the bars. Its harder to keep your balance and it looks gash.

By pushing your arms out it will help lift the back end of the bike up further while pushing the front wheel under you, always remembering to use the front brake as modulation just like using the rear brake in a normal manual.

Im no expert either but ive spent alot of time being guided by a guy whos pretty good at them.

And oh, you will never feel anything as sore as a sore cheast from a full night of trying fakie nose manuals. If you like breathing, youll have to put up with it hurting for a while trying this trick beleive me.

Hope that helps.

Edited November 4, 2008 by Ross McArthur

[Captain Scarlet]

Ross has covered it pretty well.

If your looking to roll back on the front wheel Danny Mac style, I would recommend learning all the basic moves with the front wheel first, same way that it is much easier to learn how to manual and do rear wheel moves once you've learnt how to position yourself on the backwheel.

Start off with moves like endos, 180 pivots and front hops, as these all give you a chance to explore and develop your own sense of balance and body positioning on the front wheel, so this makes it much easier whendoing moving tricks.

After learning front hops, I soon moved onto squeakers, I still do find using a foot easier to get into the rollback than using your toes and momentum to get the rear wheel up, as I personally find you can vary it and find your balance point quick easily, the motion can also be carried out with just your foot and not the rest of your body.

I then learnt how to roll back on a slope and can get them quite consistent now, to this day I'm scared to either; endo and release the brake to start the rolling, or to flick up your rear wheel, because of the slope.

The way I find best to get a good roll back, is the squeaker technique; I ride up the hill, put my foot on the front wheel, do a stroke to get me onto the front wheel/find my balance point/BRAKE, and then I release my brake and do a second stroke to get my momentum/rolling.

As I said earlier, with the squeaker technique, once you've got yourself rolling you can either; use your foot to keep yourself balanced, or place it back onto the pedal and hold the roll.

Following those tips, only thing you can then do is it keep on practicing.

Edited November 4, 2008 by Albino Slig

[quick_spider]

You've missed off g-turns too... Basically, practise on a slope and get used to going too far over the bars and catching yourself with your brake.

Another intersting trick is to take your chain off a sprocket so it sits on a cassette spacer so you can coast backwards. You can then use your front brake to push off backwards and 'dive' over the bars into a backwards front wheel manual.

Jon

[Captain Scarlet]

I only missed of G-Turns because they are so amazingly hard to do.

Still one I want to learn.

[A.Baxter]

You could try doing it the way Danny Holroyd does it where you go up onto the front wheel and roll it back using one or your feet, and your break to keep you from over balancing over the bars

Adam