BMX - what are they doin?

i found a track by me! here are some shots from races.(i didnt take them) but in all of these shots there is at least one person pulling a wheelie. why do this in a race? and they seem to land from the jump on there back wheel, and rather upright. can someone just explain the reasoning for doing this for me, thanks.

cuz they cant jump them, lhtough i dont no much about racing i know its faster to jump a jump than to wheelie, and to wheelie a jump rather than case horribly and risk blowing out your back tire

It's called a manual. You can roll over the rythym section much easier on just your back wheel, but it takes a lot of practice.

It's called a manual. You can roll over the rythym section much easier on just your back wheel, but it takes a lot of practice.
Exactly what he just said.

ZX, did you watch any racing there? Where it's too tight and bumpy to pedal, the better riders just roll right through on their back wheel.

i havent been there yet, but i did see a video of a race, wasnt good quality at all. i am going there soon so i can get used to the track and catch some air.

and why are they landing on their back tire like so?

The rythym section is the smaller jumps. I think there's usually anywhere from 3 to about 7. Too many to jump them all, too close to get a lot of pedalling in.

[edit] A track is all ups and downs. There's not always a flat spot to land on. Except for turning, there's really no need to have you front tire touch the ground. Also, a jump in racing is a lot different than a jump in freestyle. There's a lot of forward momentum, as opposed to just coming down hard.

As well, if you pull up on the front part of a jump, before the lip, you can basically bunnyhop a smaller jump and land on the downward side to use that for momentum.

Most of those pictures are of guys coming out of jumps and landing rear wheel first or just going up for jumps with the front wheel up so they don't get as high. Spending to much time in the air during a race isn't really a good thing from what I've seen.

I am FAR from an expert though.

I saw one guy at our national qualifier that jumped all the double and triples, but barely comes off the ground. Instead of going for air, he maintains low forward momentum. Freakishly fast too.

so, you come out the gate pedal like a bat outa hell, hit a couple jumps, go around a berm, manual a "rythem section" and then pedal some more till the finish?

Yeah, that's about it, but there's usually 3 turns. The typical track is a U within a U.

ook, i can do this if i just practice manuals a whole lot, thanks for the help.

Just practice getting around the track smooth and fast.

I saw one guy at our national qualifier that jumped all the double and triples, but barely comes off the ground. Instead of going for air, he maintains low forward momentum. Freakishly fast too.

Wouldn't it be high forward momentum? The idea of manualing instead of boosting rhythm sections is to keep your body moving forward while the bike moves underneath you. When you change direction and start heading skyward, even if your *speed* (scalar) doesn't change or increases slightly your forward velocity (vector) is reduced and you actually *lose* time.

Here's the caveat: by sucking the bike up just barely enough to clear the section you keep your body moving forward, but you have to be going extremely fast or you're gonna stack against the wrong side of your landing (or you need a high, velocity and forward momentum killing arc). It's scary, you have to commit 100% or depending on the section you're going to eat it hard. Never tried it on a bike, but the concept is identical to boardercross, something I *have* had some experience with. The way we practiced 'em was to start by skimming the rollers and tabletops first as fast and as *low* as possible without completely overshooting the landing or knuckling out on top. Then it was just a matter of taking the same skill to clearing doubles and buzzing over triples.

My bad. By low, I simply meant that he's not flying through the air. His velocity is high, his altitude is low.