Help For Back Wheeling/hopping

[ULtrialsguy]

So I've been riding for over a year now and thought I progressed really well, then I got to the stage where I needed to start gapping/pedal kicking stuff. Now I've watched a whole bunch of tutorials and read a lot of stuff so I'm pretty darn sure of the right technique. The problem is that I just don't feel that comfortable on the back wheel, I can bounce around quite a bit but can't seem to balance there. I thought at first I just needed to practice more and I have but still no. Then I tried some of my friends bikes with higher BB rise and longer, lower rise stems. I found it way easier to balance on the back wheel then and the bikes just felt more comfortable. The problem is that they also have a lighter front end, one guy didn't even have a front brake, my bike is pretty heavy in comparison.

I ride an Onza T-rex by the way.

So to sum up, what should I do? Get a new stem and maybe a riser bar or just keep practising? I can't afford a new fork or frame although I do eventually want to upgrade to a neon x-ray.

[ULtrialsguy]

As said I know the technique, I don't rock back from endo and I've tried it facing uphill, helps a bit but I still feel uncomfortable on the bike.

[valk]

keep practising

[knave]

I'm a mega-noob so I can't help you with advice I'm afraid but I'd like to ask you a question if I may: You've been riding for a year but only now have you started to "use the back wheel" as it were - what have you been doing prior to this for a year? I'm not being facetious or confrontational here, I just imagined, as someone just starting out, that I'd have to be able to get the back wheel hop down to be able to actual ride anything. Is this not the case?

[Dan_Trials]

A lot of people do tend to want to progress on to the back wheel stuff as soon as possible and the more modern geometries do tend to favour this. While getting about on the back wheel is definitely a big advantage there is still a lot you can do using the front or both wheels more. I think it just depends what you want to do, I seem to have an obsession with spinning and flicking about on the front wheel and I do use the front a lot for getting up stuff where most would just hop up to rear.

[ULtrialsguy]

I'm a mega-noob so I can't help you with advice I'm afraid but I'd like to ask you a question if I may: You've been riding for a year but only now have you started to "use the back wheel" as it were - what have you been doing prior to this for a year? I'm not being facetious or confrontational here, I just imagined, as someone just starting out, that I'd have to be able to get the back wheel hop down to be able to actual ride anything. Is this not the case?

To answer your question, yes it's pretty odd that I haven't really bothered too much getting good on the back wheel. I mostly do street riding. I've spent a lot of time doing stuff on the front wheel, getting good bunny hops, side hops and just getting to feel the bike. I'm really happy with my balance on the bike now, I can trackstand for as long as I want and can roll backwards pretty far. So I haven't been doing nothing. I've always tried back hopping but never really put in the time effort to get it down. But since I made this thread I've put in a lot of practice and added a new stem. I've got the balance point pretty sorted, I can hop 360 degrees without stopping so thats pretty cool. Now I'm working on pedal kicks. I've always been kinda nervous on the back wheel for fear of falling on my back but I just told myself to shut up and get on with it. So far it's working. I'll post again when I'm happy of my progress.