Am I alone in not being able to wheelie? My problem is lifting the front wheel up, I can’t seem to get it high enough. I can bunny hop, j-hop etc… But the wheelie eludes me. The more I try and lift the front the quicker it goes down.

I always get scared of falling off the back just when I find the balance point, then pull the brake to put me back down 🙁 Same goes for manuals. Can maybe manage 3 pedal strokes of a wheelie before I bail 😆

i cant wheelie… bunnyhop or j-hop… i dont even know what a j-hop is!!

but i enjoy riding 😀 havent found i need those skills on the trails yet, would like to be able to bunny hop over stuff as it looks fun when friends do it though!

I need wheelie skills to impress my nephew. I jumped a patio chair on it’s side, but it was nothing in his eyes. I’m under peer pressure from a 9 year old to master this skill.

Not only can’t I wheelie, as a young lad I could wheelie the length of the road, turn and come back again. So that’s even more annoying than not being able to do it at all!

Get your local neds to give you a skills course… the ones round my area can wheelie for miles, usually down the middle of Upper St, always impresses me how easily they can do it! Bastewards 😆

I too used to be able to wheelie for England on my Grifter but the ability sadly eludes me now no matter how hard i try. Just can’t find the balance point for more than a second or too.

Tried to teach myself again a while back but i think my wheelying days are now firmly behind me, made worse by seeing every chav on a supermarket special wheelying down the road without a care in the world. 🙁

I can very briefly get the front wheel 12-18″ off the ground before it lurches left (always left) and makes a bid for terra firma.

It can be helped/hindered by the bike setup. I bet that when you were a kid you had a tiny bike with the seat too low to be efficient, and a short stem. Your average XC orientated bike is designed to keep the front end down on climbs, so the geometry is all about putting weight over the front, making it more effect to wheelie.

Jump on your shorter wife’s/child’s bike and it’ll be easy.

dont pull the bike up with your arms to get to the balance point, pull you weight back and pedal it up into a wheelie..

Always enjoy watching hans rey pop his wheelies.

I’ve got to be honest I’ve been given it a another try lately, much easier since I got a shorter stem, I’ve found doing it on grass adds a bit of confidence, and barely moving with just a little touch of the back brake, can’t stay up for long and I’ve fallen on my back a few times, not funny when a gel explodes in your rucksack. Only doing it to impress my 7 yr old son.

I try every so often to wheelie and 99% of the time it eludes.

Last week I tried and hit the sweet spot for two pedal strokes and became so excited I fell off the back.

Get your local neds to give you a skills course… the ones round my area can wheelie for miles, usually down the middle of Upper St, always impresses me how easily they can do it! Bastewards

They can also do it, while taking swigs from a White Lightning tinny, with no brakes and weaving through traffic!

I lost the ability to wheelie at around the same time I lost my virginity, looking back losing my ability to be a virgin was only just slightly more important than keeping my front wheel up as well 😉

Wonder if there is a link?

I find that the wheel either lifts about 2″ and falls, or I completely flip off the back and land on my coccyx. Nothing in between 🙁

I love wheelie’ing…. makes me feel like a big kid.

Quite surprising how far I can pedal on one wheel.

i can ride no handed~**… obviously a riding god, i will consider 1:1 skills sessions and take boobs as payment x

**for short amounts of time on relatively flat and smooth roads/fireroads.

Right wheelie school time….(for those interested)…

Pick a low gear, say middle ring at the front, 1 down on the back.

Lower your saddle a little from normal riding height, say 30mm.

Pick a pancake flat bit of road/grass, or a very slight uphill incline.

Pedal along at a slow walking pace.

Put a finger on both the front and back lever. Very lightly engage the back brake so that you can feel the slighest of resistance.

To lift the front, push down on the forks then use their energy to make lifting the front easy, then its a quick pedal stroke and pull to get the front up. Aim past 45 degrees, the balance point is higher than you think normally. Once the front wheel is off the floor match the pressure on the back brake with the front brake so both hands are equal in terms of their pressure.

Think smooth pedal rotations and steering is mainly via your knees, which sometimes help if they are pitched outwards a little (think knees pointing outwards as soon as the wheelie starts). You use the rear brake and pedalling to keep at the balance point, if you pedal too much, squeeze the brake, if your not pedalling enough the bike drops anyway. Going over the back is no big deal, provided your not clipped in (SPDs aren’t helpful for wheelies). Just land on both feet and squeeze the back brake to stop the bike.

Then practice, practice, practice…..etc. It does come.

Bout 6-7 pedal strokes max for me.

Re different bikes – on my Kona Fire Mountain in 1992-3 I learned to do back hops, I could keep it going all day. Can’t do it now on a Patriot.

EDIT: front brake? Eh? Btw my top tip for success is keeping your arms straight. Doesn’t work at all for me if I don’t do that.

I’m jealous of those who cam wheelie. I think I am pulling up too hard, I will try the leaning back approach. It seems being able to impress a young relative is why many of us want to wheelie.

Thanks JP will go and have a try…

Keep practising, they will come eventually. Wheelying as opposed to manualling need constant smooth pedal strokes IMO.

Otherwise you’re upsetting the balance of the bike with each stroke, hence why so many have problems i would say. I’m no wheelie god but can usually go a good distance and its all down to smooth pedal strokes….oh and a bit of front wheel manipulation to keep you straight. Then go one handed (which are easier than you’d think) and then onto no handers(well i cheat and have one hand on the front of my saddle)