Ryan Leech and Norco Bicycles Celebrate 20 Years - Video

 Came here to say exactly that... Feeling old, but grateful for what Ryan has given to the community

 I second that.

 yup. he made trials look 'cool' and have some flow, vs the hippidy hoppity stuff that failed to attract as much interest.

 @atrokz: Trials always looked cool, some of the riders didn't/don't, but the riding always pwns. Ryan just upped it that much more.

The lack of interest resides with the difficulty & the risk that results from that difficulty.

 Always wondered about wheelie challenge. Would you recommend it to others?

 @ThePeanutGallery: oh for sure! At first I wasn't as disciplined as I should have been so progress was slow. But it's very helpful and the steps are broke down to manageable bites you can handle. Plus if you have questions, he always has a response. If you send him clips of your wheelie he will watch it and critique with positive answers. Highly recommend this. He's awesome.

 Peanut: I totaly recommend it, just like every other course Ryan has on his site. I learned wheelie in a year, to full profficiency. 9 out of ten I can pop it for quite a good distance. Trying one handed ones now. Then I learned manualing in less than 6 months. A lot to practice for me left to be as good at it as with wheelies, but I can say that in "on-trail" situations I get manuals like 7-8 out of 10 where I want it and for how long I want it. And that involves most kinds of bikes, including 29+ monsters. Now I am focusing on the balance course and I can see a direct improvement in climbing.

The best thing about his courses is that they are divided in steps for steady and solid progression. Everyone knows that to do a wheelie you have to pull on bars, pedal to keep wheel up and brake to stop leaning backwards. It ain't that simple. same with manual, just pull the front wheel buddy, stretch your legs to lean back, bend to lean forward. Not so easy for guys with no BMX/Street past.

 @WAKIdesigns: That's pretty cool to hear it worked for manuals too. I felt that bigger wheels make wheelies easier, not that I ride big wheels much. Same true for manuals or not?

 @VTwintips: I don't know really, the tyre type and rim width is the biggest factor for me. My 26" DJ bike has a slick tyre on a 29mm internally wide rim. Side to side balance with that bike is a piece of a cake. Tyre like minion is problematic since those large center knobbs squirm a bit, so once the bike leans a bit they give making it lean more in a non-linear manner.

 @WAKIdesigns:
Yeah, the progressions are really good. I think for people like me who come to mountain biking with only some road / casual biking background they're especially invaluable. I can understand the movements involved in wheelie, manual and bunny hops easily enough, but to put them all together Ryan's approach is great. Still working on all of them and only about a month behind me I've made decent progress.

So yeah, another happy customer here.

 @ThePeanutGallery: Most his tutorials are very useful, even those for things you think you already know are worth going through.

Coming from a bmx/Street background everything is about rolling and bitch-cranks are eternaly bad style while in an trail environment they are a must have. So getting detailed instuctions on 3/4 and 1/4 crank technique has been a real eye opener. Sure I can bunnyhop whaterver with speed but in the tight stuff you need those bitch-cranks and cleaning slow tech stuff is a lot more fun than walking even when uphill is only a transport to the downhill.

All this is quite obvious but old habits die hard. Be humble about your percieved skillset and surely Ryan's tutorials will make you a better rider.

 @ThePeanutGallery: It's an awesome program that is WAY more in depth than you would think something like that would be. I could do a wheelie for a few pedal strokes if I was lucky, but Ryan teaches you how to wheelie non-stop for miles. As a plus, you get to see Waki's awesome drawings while you learn!

vimeo.com/142633633#t=17s I only had to stop because the parking lot stopped.

 @VTwintips: not so much the wheel size directly, but the longer wheelbase makes manuals a little tougher - you can't correct like a wheelie, so your initial move has to be bigger but not put you past the balance point. Once your in the zone it's not too different. I find the hardest part is that unlikely a DJ or trials bike, on most others the seat is in the way.

 nice ;-)

 Jared and yeti...