To Learn Manual 180s: A Beginner's Guide

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel! Today I'm going to teach you how to do a manual 180, which is a super fun and sick trick in BMX riding.

First of all, let me just say that learning manual 180s can be a bit tricky, but don't worry, with some patience and practice, you'll be doing them like a pro in no time. So, grab your bike and let's get started!

**What is a Manual 180?**

A manual 180 is when you flip the front wheel of your bike 180 degrees while keeping the rear wheel on the ground. It's similar to a manual 90, but instead of flipping the wheel by 90 degrees, you're flipping it by 180 degrees.

**How to Do a Manual 180**

To do a manual 180, you'll need to start with some basic skills like balancing and controlling your speed. First, find a flat spot with enough room to ride around in a circle. Make sure the ground is smooth and free of any obstacles.

Next, position yourself on the bike so that your butt crack is over the side of the tire (not too close to the ground). Now, start pedaling and get some speed going. As you pick up speed, lean forward slightly and focus on flipping the front wheel 180 degrees.

To flip the wheel, push down with one pedal and then bring it back up while keeping your eyes on the horizon. At the same time, flick the other pedal downward to maintain balance. Keep practicing this motion until you feel comfortable with it.

**The Crank: A Key Part of Manualing**

Now, here's where things get a bit tricky. To flip the wheel 180 degrees, you need to give the crank (the handlebar) a sharp push backward while keeping your eyes on the horizon. This is called a "cranky" motion, and it's essential for making the manual work.

To master this motion, start by leaning forward slightly and looking up at the horizon. Then, as you feel yourself starting to lift off the ground, give the crank a sharp push backward while keeping your eyes on the horizon. This will help you maintain balance and generate enough speed to make the manual work.

**Tips and Tricks**

Here are some additional tips to help you master the manual 180:

* Start with lower speeds and gradually increase them as you get more comfortable with the motion.

* Keep your weight centered over the bike and use your body weight to help maintain balance.

* Focus on keeping your eyes on the horizon and looking up slightly will help you stay balanced and generate enough speed for the manual.

* Practice, practice, practice! The more you practice, the better you'll get.

**Manual Switch 180s: A More Advanced Trick**

If you're feeling confident with your manual 180 skills, it's time to take on a new challenge – the manual switch 180. This trick is essentially the same as a manual 180, but instead of flipping the wheel forward, you flip it backward.

To do a manual switch 180, start by leaning back slightly and looking down at the ground. Then, give the crank a sharp push backward while keeping your eyes on the horizon. As you lift off the ground, use your body weight to help maintain balance and generate speed for the manual.

**Manual Switch 180s: A More Advanced Trick**

Another cool trick that's similar to the manual switch 180 is the manual 360. This trick involves flipping both wheels by 180 degrees while keeping the bike airborne.

To do a manual 360, start by finding a flat spot with enough room to ride around in a circle. Position yourself on the bike so that your butt crack is over the side of the tire (not too close to the ground). Then, start pedaling and get some speed going.

As you pick up speed, lean forward slightly and focus on flipping both wheels by 180 degrees. To do this, give the crank a sharp push backward while keeping your eyes on the horizon. At the same time, flick the other pedal downward to maintain balance.

**Conclusion**

Learning manual 180s takes patience, practice, and dedication, but with these tips and tricks, you'll be well on your way to mastering this cool BMX trick. Remember to start slow, focus on balance, and keep practicing until you feel comfortable with the motion.

And if you're feeling adventurous, try taking on a manual switch 180 or manual 360 – it's a great way to challenge yourself and improve your skills.

Thanks for watching, guys! Don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more BMX content and tutorials.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys I'm Adam Z and today I'm going to teach you guys how to do one of my favorite tricks the manual 180 so with most of my how-tos I like to give you guys every single step that you need to learn first instead of just telling you okay this is what you have to do to manual 180 I'd like to tell you every trick that you need to know how to do all the little steps working up towards it and I really like to make my howto extremely easy to learn so bear with me and hopefully by the end of this video you'll be doing manual 180s no problem so obviously the first thing you need to know how to do is be pretty comfortable with manuals I have to if you haven't seen it check it out get good at manuals I'm pretty all right at the manual all right I can't manual let alone manual 180 as you can see I'm a businessman travel tips with BT when you're on the road life isn't always easy you got to adapt a huge shout out to uh Jack Paramore that's right you're seeing this right now that's me past tense fed BT you don't always have knives on the road times are hard times are real hard you got to be one with the road you got to use what you got you know you want to use this scoop scoop and fold scoop and fold back on the road the next obvious thing that you need to know how to do is 180 but there's a weird little Catch 22 to that there's two different ways you can 180 one way is kind of the way that everyone learns where you just carve and you like old school Bunny Hop which is a good way to 180 but it's not really going to help you when you're learning how to manual 180 the other way is kind of like the jhop method and that's what you're going to want to know how to do if you're going to be trying manual 180s I have an old how-to that teaches you how to do an 80s this way if you don't already know but I'll probably be updating that at some point with a newer one now you guys probably got both of the PRX met this is college where're learning what you're going to want to know how to do next is 180 without carving at all it sounds kind of weird but if you guys look at people that manual 180 it's this weird like scooping motion where you almost like pull straight up Loop out and then go off axis and roll backwards I want you to try to pull straight up without turning your wheel at all and then just kind of like use your like twisting of body motion to spin the 180 around it's going to feel really awkward and you're going to like I don't know your head's going to go like near your tire and you'll probably look like a scorpion or some sort of weird Antarctic animal but um that's going to really help you to learn it probably feels weird like your body's twisting and you probably aren't going to get the full rotation because you know you're used to carving it's going to be really hard to force yourself not to carve but when you land sometimes turn your wheel the other way to help you out with the fake you will work this is going to help you learn manual 180s so much the basics are covered we're going to learn manual 180s now most people tell you to do a quick little manual 180 first so you're L doing a 180 but like with a delayed beginning pullup part that'll definitely help real quick so a quick manual 180 will be about the length of parking space maybe a little bit shorter when you're doing it you really got to focus on getting a small but not too much of a carve like you don't want to try to do a 180 you just want to kind of do a manual and just lean into it just a little bit what I like to do sometimes if I have a hard time getting the front end up I'll give a little bit of a crank on the pedal front end's really low give it a crank some people call this cheating uh cuz it really helps your front end get up some people call cranks uh I find it helps a lot especially if you're doing a manual 80 off something big and you don't want to like fall down cuz there's really two things that could go wrong with this trick either you're going to Loop out and you might fall on your back or you're not going to have your friend end up enough and you're going to kind of like antih hop and you're just kind of going to like eject and it's going to look like you're doing a no footed can or something these mistakes are just going to keep happening until you get like really comfortable with the trick because really manual and80s is just finding that balance point and it's something that's going to take time but at the same time if you listen to these tips like I guarantee you that you can go out in your parking lot driveway dirt yard rooftop I don't care where you live Antarctic free Frozen ice and you can go out and you can learn these in like 5 minutes if you just listen if you guys don't ride a cassette um You probably ride a free coaster because I don't think there's another type of Hub out there unless you guys are riding chainless when you're doing manual 180s if you like you obviously can't give that little bit of crank of pressure if you're riding a coaster you're going to have to like really just pop all with that that like Loop out technique that I told you with learning how to 180 and just likeing without carving will really really really really really help you also what kind of happens with coaster with me sometimes is you kind of like lean the opposite way and you're almost ending up doing alyo manual 180s and I don't know why that happens but just be prepared for it I can't stress enough turn your head turning your head is key to any spinning trick just keep on looking for the 180 if you hesitate you're not going to land it turn your head turn your head what are you going to turn your head no they're supposed to answer so I'm lucky enough to have two bikes so this is my coaster bike that I just built up and I'm just going to do a couple manual 8s just so you guys can see how they kind of look a little bit different on these wo wow wow I forgot this back end's really short that's another thing that I forgot to mention if you have a short back end on your bike it's going to be really easy to pull up but it's also really easy to Loop out uh on the other end of the spectrum if you have a really long back end on your bike like over 13 and 1 12 in your chain stay um it's going to be like super hard to get steep enough so you might end up doing like the the like anti- hop thing more often an ideal chain stay length for manual 80s is probably like 13 1/2 to 13.25 because it's enough where you can like get the manual but like you're not looping out all the time another thing that I notic people do when they manual 180 is they kind of like bring their bike up really steep almost like techno hander and like almost try to hit their head on their tire and I really don't know why people do this but I kind of do it when I'm on a coaster bike and what I think it does is when you get steeper and you're like in that tuck position and like your head's kind of up there and you're looking all awkward and stuff um what you do is like you make yourself more like a pencil so it's easier to spin when you're straight up and down that's why when people do like really fast spins they're going straight up and down my best way to explain it is like try to like spin like that and then try to spin like that if you're like all together and you're more like pencil like it's way easier to spin so that's why I think people get really steep with them now it's on to the longer ones same exact concept all it is is like you're obviously probably going to start in a straight manual so basically what you want to do is when you are getting ready to do your manual 180 just start kind of like leaning maybe bow your leg out a little bit and then just get ready for the pop and like I said that pedal pressure helps a ton but really it's all in turning your head and just getting that scoop that weird snap like you're just doing in inverted it's like a hard flip on a skateboard kind of that's the best way that I can explain it all right so we got a straight manual what I'm going to do when I get by Nicole I'm going to start carving and boom you got yourself a manual 180 there's a there's a slight possibility that you guys are watching this video and you already know how to manual80 maybe you're just looking to learn them better maybe you're looking for a laugh I don't know I hope you provided with I I can't speak I hope I provided you with both if you can already manual 180 some things you can start trying manual switch 180s same exact concept the only thing is you got to be prepared for the fakey CU it's really awkward and also when I manual switch 180 I definitely like I have to focus on giving that crank so much more cuz it's really hard without doing it but it's a super fun trick they look sick and sometimes they're easier than manual 180s for some reason what the heck man turn your head one last thing that I love about manual 180s and that's the manual 360 they feel super awesome it's definitely a completely different trick than the manual80 hopefully I'll make a how- to for one of those in the future so once again guys thanks for watching I hope this video really helped I put a lot a lot of effort into like writing down every single thing that I thought would help you guys learn this trick um if you upload like a video of yourself doing a manual80 that you just learned on Instagram use # lzbmx cuz I love seeing you guys learn like it's why I do this stuff so thanks for watching um stay tuned for the next videos and BMX is awesome help each other out learn tricks have fun like this video comment maybe no I don't I don't care security I'm gonna monitor all the Snapchats you send her BR do you have any advice to kids that are trying to learn to manual 180 you got to have patience and I don't that's why I can't manual put your butt crack over your tire and then when you want to do the 180 put your butt crack over the side of the tire and you'll do a 180 simple math and you start humping and then that's manualing you just I'm Miss BMX BMX right here right here I'm sponsored by a BMX they give me free shout out shout out to Adam's girlfriend I've tried this like three times ever as like a joke for the kids okay a half tab fold it my boyfriend Falls a lot no I don't yes you do that's why you're called 50th Tri adom you fell for me you want it to pop what you said pop yeah that's like a way to say like Get Air my car pops see this is the stuff we don't include in the video all right I'm going to do a manual switch 180 in front of you on both bikes okay checking the script this is all fake I don't ride BMX stay tuned you guys already already know how to do this you can start working on oh gosh not d i I swear these people don't know how to lock a car you got another free coaster Adam I hate free coasters they're too much like Brandon beacan and they make no noise and it's just it's not it's like a fake bike it's basically like it's like silent it's for oh that's that's racist I don't like free coasters at all ride a cassette it's what the cool kids do like Adam 2 2 and Adam LZ half the time Adam 22 rid the free coaster the closer I get to you the more you look like a frog at least I'm not a bumblebee bars yo bars sitting on the bars riding this free coaster I got to go make some toast in the toaster Adam LZ is not the best boyfriend I can guarantee it everyone Snapchats me and they're like oh my God so like is it amazing to be dating Adam LZ and I just put like back like smiley face with the hearts for the eyes or something cuz I'm not going to lie and say yes like I mean yeah it's awesome but it's not like the best thing in the world or one guy's like would you be into riding if it weren't for Adam LZ and I just responded no cuz I like I wouldn't I didn't know about BMX but then he's like what would you be doing with your life if you weren't into riding with Adam LZ and I was like I have a life outside of riding in Adam LZ like Adam LZ does not consume me I am an independent free black woman Adam made me the sicker it's really sick you just went on a ramp like the video if you want to feed B today we're going to teach you guys how to do a manual all right so one of the first things you guys want to know is how to get comfortable flipping back cuz if you don't know how to flip back dip your knees in and ease it back nice and easy make sure your arms are straight over your feethey guys I'm Adam Z and today I'm going to teach you guys how to do one of my favorite tricks the manual 180 so with most of my how-tos I like to give you guys every single step that you need to learn first instead of just telling you okay this is what you have to do to manual 180 I'd like to tell you every trick that you need to know how to do all the little steps working up towards it and I really like to make my howto extremely easy to learn so bear with me and hopefully by the end of this video you'll be doing manual 180s no problem so obviously the first thing you need to know how to do is be pretty comfortable with manuals I have to if you haven't seen it check it out get good at manuals I'm pretty all right at the manual all right I can't manual let alone manual 180 as you can see I'm a businessman travel tips with BT when you're on the road life isn't always easy you got to adapt a huge shout out to uh Jack Paramore that's right you're seeing this right now that's me past tense fed BT you don't always have knives on the road times are hard times are real hard you got to be one with the road you got to use what you got you know you want to use this scoop scoop and fold scoop and fold back on the road the next obvious thing that you need to know how to do is 180 but there's a weird little Catch 22 to that there's two different ways you can 180 one way is kind of the way that everyone learns where you just carve and you like old school Bunny Hop which is a good way to 180 but it's not really going to help you when you're learning how to manual 180 the other way is kind of like the jhop method and that's what you're going to want to know how to do if you're going to be trying manual 180s I have an old how-to that teaches you how to do an 80s this way if you don't already know but I'll probably be updating that at some point with a newer one now you guys probably got both of the PRX met this is college where're learning what you're going to want to know how to do next is 180 without carving at all it sounds kind of weird but if you guys look at people that manual 180 it's this weird like scooping motion where you almost like pull straight up Loop out and then go off axis and roll backwards I want you to try to pull straight up without turning your wheel at all and then just kind of like use your like twisting of body motion to spin the 180 around it's going to feel really awkward and you're going to like I don't know your head's going to go like near your tire and you'll probably look like a scorpion or some sort of weird Antarctic animal but um that's going to really help you to learn it probably feels weird like your body's twisting and you probably aren't going to get the full rotation because you know you're used to carving it's going to be really hard to force yourself not to carve but when you land sometimes turn your wheel the other way to help you out with the fake you will work this is going to help you learn manual 180s so much the basics are covered we're going to learn manual 180s now most people tell you to do a quick little manual 180 first so you're L doing a 180 but like with a delayed beginning pullup part that'll definitely help real quick so a quick manual 180 will be about the length of parking space maybe a little bit shorter when you're doing it you really got to focus on getting a small but not too much of a carve like you don't want to try to do a 180 you just want to kind of do a manual and just lean into it just a little bit what I like to do sometimes if I have a hard time getting the front end up I'll give a little bit of a crank on the pedal front end's really low give it a crank some people call this cheating uh cuz it really helps your front end get up some people call cranks uh I find it helps a lot especially if you're doing a manual 80 off something big and you don't want to like fall down cuz there's really two things that could go wrong with this trick either you're going to Loop out and you might fall on your back or you're not going to have your friend end up enough and you're going to kind of like antih hop and you're just kind of going to like eject and it's going to look like you're doing a no footed can or something these mistakes are just going to keep happening until you get like really comfortable with the trick because really manual and80s is just finding that balance point and it's something that's going to take time but at the same time if you listen to these tips like I guarantee you that you can go out in your parking lot driveway dirt yard rooftop I don't care where you live Antarctic free Frozen ice and you can go out and you can learn these in like 5 minutes if you just listen if you guys don't ride a cassette um You probably ride a free coaster because I don't think there's another type of Hub out there unless you guys are riding chainless when you're doing manual 180s if you like you obviously can't give that little bit of crank of pressure if you're riding a coaster you're going to have to like really just pop all with that that like Loop out technique that I told you with learning how to 180 and just likeing without carving will really really really really really help you also what kind of happens with coaster with me sometimes is you kind of like lean the opposite way and you're almost ending up doing alyo manual 180s and I don't know why that happens but just be prepared for it I can't stress enough turn your head turning your head is key to any spinning trick just keep on looking for the 180 if you hesitate you're not going to land it turn your head turn your head what are you going to turn your head no they're supposed to answer so I'm lucky enough to have two bikes so this is my coaster bike that I just built up and I'm just going to do a couple manual 8s just so you guys can see how they kind of look a little bit different on these wo wow wow I forgot this back end's really short that's another thing that I forgot to mention if you have a short back end on your bike it's going to be really easy to pull up but it's also really easy to Loop out uh on the other end of the spectrum if you have a really long back end on your bike like over 13 and 1 12 in your chain stay um it's going to be like super hard to get steep enough so you might end up doing like the the like anti- hop thing more often an ideal chain stay length for manual 80s is probably like 13 1/2 to 13.25 because it's enough where you can like get the manual but like you're not looping out all the time another thing that I notic people do when they manual 180 is they kind of like bring their bike up really steep almost like techno hander and like almost try to hit their head on their tire and I really don't know why people do this but I kind of do it when I'm on a coaster bike and what I think it does is when you get steeper and you're like in that tuck position and like your head's kind of up there and you're looking all awkward and stuff um what you do is like you make yourself more like a pencil so it's easier to spin when you're straight up and down that's why when people do like really fast spins they're going straight up and down my best way to explain it is like try to like spin like that and then try to spin like that if you're like all together and you're more like pencil like it's way easier to spin so that's why I think people get really steep with them now it's on to the longer ones same exact concept all it is is like you're obviously probably going to start in a straight manual so basically what you want to do is when you are getting ready to do your manual 180 just start kind of like leaning maybe bow your leg out a little bit and then just get ready for the pop and like I said that pedal pressure helps a ton but really it's all in turning your head and just getting that scoop that weird snap like you're just doing in inverted it's like a hard flip on a skateboard kind of that's the best way that I can explain it all right so we got a straight manual what I'm going to do when I get by Nicole I'm going to start carving and boom you got yourself a manual 180 there's a there's a slight possibility that you guys are watching this video and you already know how to manual80 maybe you're just looking to learn them better maybe you're looking for a laugh I don't know I hope you provided with I I can't speak I hope I provided you with both if you can already manual 180 some things you can start trying manual switch 180s same exact concept the only thing is you got to be prepared for the fakey CU it's really awkward and also when I manual switch 180 I definitely like I have to focus on giving that crank so much more cuz it's really hard without doing it but it's a super fun trick they look sick and sometimes they're easier than manual 180s for some reason what the heck man turn your head one last thing that I love about manual 180s and that's the manual 360 they feel super awesome it's definitely a completely different trick than the manual80 hopefully I'll make a how- to for one of those in the future so once again guys thanks for watching I hope this video really helped I put a lot a lot of effort into like writing down every single thing that I thought would help you guys learn this trick um if you upload like a video of yourself doing a manual80 that you just learned on Instagram use # lzbmx cuz I love seeing you guys learn like it's why I do this stuff so thanks for watching um stay tuned for the next videos and BMX is awesome help each other out learn tricks have fun like this video comment maybe no I don't I don't care security I'm gonna monitor all the Snapchats you send her BR do you have any advice to kids that are trying to learn to manual 180 you got to have patience and I don't that's why I can't manual put your butt crack over your tire and then when you want to do the 180 put your butt crack over the side of the tire and you'll do a 180 simple math and you start humping and then that's manualing you just I'm Miss BMX BMX right here right here I'm sponsored by a BMX they give me free shout out shout out to Adam's girlfriend I've tried this like three times ever as like a joke for the kids okay a half tab fold it my boyfriend Falls a lot no I don't yes you do that's why you're called 50th Tri adom you fell for me you want it to pop what you said pop yeah that's like a way to say like Get Air my car pops see this is the stuff we don't include in the video all right I'm going to do a manual switch 180 in front of you on both bikes okay checking the script this is all fake I don't ride BMX stay tuned you guys already already know how to do this you can start working on oh gosh not d i I swear these people don't know how to lock a car you got another free coaster Adam I hate free coasters they're too much like Brandon beacan and they make no noise and it's just it's not it's like a fake bike it's basically like it's like silent it's for oh that's that's racist I don't like free coasters at all ride a cassette it's what the cool kids do like Adam 2 2 and Adam LZ half the time Adam 22 rid the free coaster the closer I get to you the more you look like a frog at least I'm not a bumblebee bars yo bars sitting on the bars riding this free coaster I got to go make some toast in the toaster Adam LZ is not the best boyfriend I can guarantee it everyone Snapchats me and they're like oh my God so like is it amazing to be dating Adam LZ and I just put like back like smiley face with the hearts for the eyes or something cuz I'm not going to lie and say yes like I mean yeah it's awesome but it's not like the best thing in the world or one guy's like would you be into riding if it weren't for Adam LZ and I just responded no cuz I like I wouldn't I didn't know about BMX but then he's like what would you be doing with your life if you weren't into riding with Adam LZ and I was like I have a life outside of riding in Adam LZ like Adam LZ does not consume me I am an independent free black woman Adam made me the sicker it's really sick you just went on a ramp like the video if you want to feed B today we're going to teach you guys how to do a manual all right so one of the first things you guys want to know is how to get comfortable flipping back cuz if you don't know how to flip back dip your knees in and ease it back nice and easy make sure your arms are straight over your feet\n"