THE HOLY GRAIL OF LEG PUSH - THE MANUAL

RANGE OF MOTION

Stay low to begin with to give yourself the maximum throw with your momentum. Once you’ve thrown your bike forwards try to keep your arms straight and stay low. You should be just looking over your bars and no more. Pay attention to your knees at this point as they should be bent. You’ll need that range of motion in your legs to push the rear wheel forwards in order to drive the front wheel back up again.

With that leg push in mind, we’d recommend that you bend your elbows and keep your head over the stem, then don’t really move too much with your upper body. The geometry, wheelbase and suspension on your bike will do a great job of providing that stability. Your job in a corner, jump or any real compression should be to gauge the amount of push that you need to do with your legs in order to balance the change of direction. The closer you get to the bike on the way in the more room you’ll have to apply that weight or back away from it.

Andy is sat back and low here but has kept a bend in his knee that will allow him to push the back wheel forwards when his front wheel feels heavy. Controlling this tipping point with your legs is crucial to really mastering the manual, and subsequently unlocking everything else