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How to do a Front Wheel Lift on a Mountain Bike

How to do a Front Wheel Lift

Front wheel lifts help you ride over obstacles on the trail and ride with more finesse. For all front wheel lifts, bunny hops, and other complex maneuvers, using a dropper seat post to get your saddle out of the way will give you better range of motion.

Basic Front Wheel Lift

This skill is a useful step when learning how to pump over rollers, rocks, and roots. The basic front wheel lift is all about creating pressure in the bike and releasing it to lift the wheel into the air.

  1. Start in neutral. Coast on the bike with knees and arms slightly bent out of the saddle with pedals level to the ground.
  2. Load the bike. Stomp your feet down, lowering your center of gravity and building pressure between the front and rear wheels.
  3. Explode upward and slightly back. Extend your arms and legs, allowing the front wheel to come up off the ground. Keep your chest up and slightly back to unweight the front wheel.
  4. Bend arms and legs slightly and come back to neutral. Absorb the impact of the ground by bending your arms and legs while hovering over the center of the bike.

Manual Front Wheel Lift

Use the manual front wheel lift to unweight the front wheel over small obstacles, keep your front wheel in the air longer, and as is the first step to the bunny hop!

  1. Start in neutral. Coast on the bike with knees and arms slightly bent out of the saddle with pedals level to the ground. You should be riding at a jogging pace.
  2. Load the bike. Stomp your feet down to load the bike.
  3. Push your weight back. For the manual front wheel lift, you want your center of mass (your butt) to get behind your balance point (usually right under your saddle).
  4. Straighten your arms and legs. Do not pull on the bars with your arms. Straightening your legs will help you keep pressure on your pedals with your feet, driving the front of your bike forward and up!
  5. Bend arms and legs slightly and come back to neutral. Absorb the impact of the ground by bending your arms and legs while hovering over the center of the bike.

Looking to take your mountain biking skills to the next level? Here’s the deal:

The best and quickest way to improve your mountain biking skills is to take a skills clinic with a professional mountain bike instructor. If you’re unsure of your skill level, reaching out to a mountain bike coach in your area is a great place to start. Mountain biking is a dynamic sport – there are many different ways to approach a feature and we may not have covered all of those different ways in this tutorial. Always ride within your limits and do not attempt risky maneuvers when riding alone. Mountain biking is awesome, but does come with inherent risks – be safe, be smart and have fun!