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Contrary to my lack of writing on bike stuff in the last few months, I have actually been doing more riding. At the end of the day, like the internal jokes amongst my usual suspects, we may just be striving to not to be that 20-cents rider with a ten thousand dollar bike even though most of us are far from that category despite mediocre skills. At least the bike ain't worth that much ;) But that might also have subconsciously put me off a lot of the reviewing done in the past on this blog with new bike toys and components.
So I've gone back to more riding and revisiting some biking related bucket-list items and one of them is learning the one trick everyone would love to pull off.
Yes, even if you are a roadie-- Admit it, secretly somewhere inside you want to be like that kid on a bmx riding round and round on one wheel.
The Wheelie.
Ok I'm slow... it's about Day 7 Lesson, "The Float Zone" that sparked off this article.. but in real time this is already Day 12 or 13 for me.
For the technically savvy impatient ones.. I dedicated my post practice scribblings as one of the tab pages to remind myself as I go on...
Click the "Float.Zone" tab above or click here for mobile users...
Dreamy readers who are acquainted with my long soliloquy please read on
But first here is the link to this whole wheelie challenge I am going on and on below...
Hop over to http://www.ryanleech.com/wheelies/
The wheelie for me is bordering on an obsession by now.. It's a thing I "try" every now and then but never able to pull off. I take consolation in able to knock a 2 foot high bunny hop from flat even on long travel bikes but somehow that nagging feeling of being unable to pop a one wheeler for a respectable distance just irks me to no end.
Trying for 30 years with no success.. I was truly skeptical at first about how a wheelie can be learned in 30 days delivered in bite size bits.. While far from getting it all down at this point I'm truly beginning to harbor positive thoughts that it's actually doable.
It's hard to describe.. but let's say now someone put down $10K in front of me or tell me I can do a 10Km wheelie--I'll choose the latter even if I'm only on a 20-cents bike. Hence any positive feeling that it can be learned for good certainly is exciting to my present state of mind.
Though its a comprehensive tutorial for the wheelie, yet I can see and combine with other riding knowledge in my repertoire, to apply many of the little steps in here on other tricks and riding situations. It's really more than just about one move as learning the bits and pieces in each lesson progresses.
The most crucial part of the whole process is maybe what I have been encountering up till now...
Practicing the Float Zone has enabled me to combine with what comes before it to make a smooth transition and I coin it the "All-In-One Second" zone... and then on to the "Float". A smooth balanced lift-off that quickly transition into the float zone... Experience so far tells me it all has to happen within the first second. Sounds simple eh! Trust me I can write a tome just on this one second... Coordination is literally from head to toe and every extremity in between.. My mind is on overdrive right now as I am still reflecting on all the possible combos of things happening right and wrong in that crucial one second...
But done right...
...it's something that's probably not noticed by a casual observer looking on as you pop the front .Yet, as the one is in the seat esecuting.. that feeling integrating all of this, be it even just 2 or 3 pedal strokes, you either get it or you don't.. If you do you will know what others mean when the say "that wheelie bliss".
A number of things are not "orthordox". That is, things I came up with by adjusting or modifying on what's in those tutorials. I believe this is a part of the learning curve. To discover. To adapt. To make it one's own. The bike is a machine, we are not. Everyone of us is a little different so we probably will have to go about in our own little eccentric ways so long as the end results are achieved. In a way this is similar to how I build up my bikes and dial them to my liking.. what works for me may not work for someone else but drilling in fundamentals till they become second nature and modify along to optimize to oneself is the key so far for me.
Sounds fun? To be honest.. the night before last.. things actually got so frustrating.. I just raise the seatpost and did a ful power road ride on my trail bike... just to burn away at the frustrations. Making it a point to write everything down to help remember wasn't that bad.. At least this part I kinda enjoy it...
Just sharing some of my own notes on that page and by being public it helps in my case to put down
Fear: Fear of people looking on (laughing?) and in general non spefici unfounded fears.. Humans are weird creatures I reckon.. sometimes we heap upon ourselves unnecessary thoughts that burden our life for no good reasons..
Commitment: "Die Die Must succeed" or that's how my local lingo here would put it.. and post up a "graduation" video later on, now that I have written heaps of myself trying to do this. Couldn't back out now can I?
Reminder: Even if I miss, lag or generally feel down about this whole learning at any point.. each time my blog opens up-- it is here to remind myself..
Everyone needs a tag and one of my most liked motivation poster has this pair of hands cupping a sapling with some soil...it reads:
ATTITUDE
"The World May End tomorrow but I'm Still Gonna Plant My little Apple Tree"
I don't exactly have a mental picture... but my line will probably be
"The World May End Tomorrow but I'm Still Gonna Pop my 10KM Wheelie"
I'm back... and will be back for more.. Stay Tuned
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