After spending the last few days chasing the elusive unicorn of a decent effortless wheelie, I'm close to throwing the towel in again just like I did when i was 12.
I can get the front wheel up and over stuff no problem but the rolling along on the back wheel with a woodbine nonchalantly hanging out the corner of my mouth seems beyond me. Is it even important?
How am I ever going to pull a decent manual?
I can't wheelie...
... and I even live on a council estate so I am very much breaking a tim honoured tradition.
Nope
Nope. They've never lasted more than a few pedal strokes...my manuals aren't much cop either.
Wheelies and manuals - a world apart! Wheelies are easiest uphill, slowly, easy gear. Manuals are far harder I find (can do bmx but nowhere near the balance point on an mtb) but are best learnt using car park spaces to feel some progress, which is essential if you're going to stick it out.
Good luck!
Nope as above
Is it even important?
Hell yes.
How do you even hope to get a girl pregnant unless you can casualy roll past on the back wheel with a can of stella in one hand and a five sheet construction burning away in your gob?
Wheelies are pointless but relatively easy to learn
Manuals are pretty useful on the trail but way harder to learn
Apart from maybe using a small wheelie to pop the front wheel over obstacles, there's not much practical use. I love the feeling of wheelies - they're just fun. But you can't really do them without being accused of "showing off".
I've never been able to wheelie.
But I can manual fine. Years of riding BMX helped there I guess.
I can remember being able to wheelie for ages on my Raleigh Medale racer when I was about 14. Sadly that was the last time I managed it.
I can wheelie. I can also manual, but only sat down...
Yeah - one handed and everything!!
DrP
Nope gave up after crashing my Grifter into a wall trying back in 82. I sometimes try again but nope still cant manage it,keeping 2 wheels on the ground is safer.
J.
Yup and pretty well too. 😉 Can't manual more than about 10ft though which is much more useful on the trails. I'd defo trade a manual skill for the wheelie skill
Even got a Danger Panda Shot 😉
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Wheelies are pointless but relatively easy to learn
That's fighting talk where i come from.
Carlos that looks like Spain, are you Spanish?
Yup, I am awesumz. I have witnesses too.
Not me, mind you not tried since being 'jedied' but it will still probably be a no!
I can only get a few pedal strokes in before it goes tits up to one side or the other and my manuals rarely last 20 yards, but put me on a motocross bike and i'll wheelie through all the gears and hold it till the tank runs dry 😀
I can't wheelie for more than about 20 yards. It wasn't always the case. I once got thrown off of the velodrome at palmer park in Reading for doing two full laps on my back wheel during a sponsored cycle, age 15 on a raleigh mustang ( the pink n purple one )
Good eyes. It is, last years trip and it was Awesome.
Nah, not Spanish. Born and bred in Cheshire
I've been practising for ages but I'm still rubbish at them! Can hold a wheelie or a manual but not for very long at all... The funny thing with manualling is that the variety where you pump manual for a while through rollers is actuated and held completely differently to the variety where you just keep the front wheel up on flat ground.
I ruined a Superstar front hub trying to learn to wheelie,
I never managed it.
No, I'm pretty crap to be honest.
However, sat at traffic lights with cars in front of and behind me in town the other day, I successfully pulled off a decent track stand for 20 or so seconds and (for some reason still unbeknown to me - I think I was still pissed), wheelied away when the lights turned green. I must have looked like a massive knob, but fortunately I managed to get about 5 pedal strokes, just until I lost my balance - fortunately that was time to put the power down.
I can't imagine how much of a knob I'd have looked if I messed it up completely.
Nope, but my son can wheelie all day, & jump off bus shelters & land in control, etc etc.
Little git.
No. Nor can I manual. Can someone teach me, please?
I ride flatland bmx, I can manual a whole park on a bmx, MTB needs more weight shift and brake control
Good eyes. It is, last years trip and it was Awesome.
I live there (here), the dryness is easy to spot!
I'm 43 & I was brought up on wheelies. Without wheelies you couldn't show your face round my way. They were measured in white line - i.e. How many white lines down the middle of the road you could wheelie, then in minutes.
A sat down manual was called a coaster wheelie when I was a lad.
No. Nor can I manual. Can someone teach me, please?
Isn't that when you get hold of your nob and pull vigorously & repeatedly.
Can wheelie and manual, takes regular practice to keep the distances high though.
Nope.
Funny this thread should come up. Can wheelie an mtb no problem, learnt to manual (on mtb) a couple of years ago on a skills day, and I'm ok at that. Can't for the life of my seem to manual my 24" crusier...
But I digress, the best wheelie I have ever done was today, on my.... (wait for it) fast road bike, uphill, passing a mate who was clearly struggling. (Not a steep climb, but a long drag) the glare I got from him nearly knocked me off, I was only saved by my own smugness 
I know, feel free to bask in my orsumz.
Not properly, for any distance.
I can wheelie, grew up on a council estate so it was the only way to roll.
I use to be able to manual downhill a bit. Not a chance on my FS, can't lift the front anywhere near high enough, I wheelie it up then roll for a bit but that ain't a proper manual.
Can wheelie at will. Sometimes for a bit and sometimes a long section of fire road climb. I do it to practice and relieve boredom on dull climbs.
Manuals I flounder badly at and tend to end up on my ass.
Yeah - one handed and everything!!DrP
You mean, with one hand still on the bar? Amateur. [i]Real[/i] dangerfans do it no-handed.
I sense a theme here. Of the people who can wheelie, can any of them wheelie better than they could aged 15? I certainly can't. I think somewhere there is a photo of me circa 1999, inspired by Jez Avery no doubt, doing a one-handed / no-front-wheel wheelie. I think that was the pinnacle 🙁
I'm crap now, lack of practice.
Here's how to make it look easy, from about 2:20
And no handed by 'the other Matt' from 18bikes at 3:25!
Can't manual but working on it. Wheelies - I am tres awesome - normal, one handed and the ultimate; the no handed wheelie!
Tis how I got our lass... (resplendent with Stella, five skin construction and a dose of nonchalance! **may not be true!**)
Seriously, wheelies make riding up hill fun. Plus you can annoy your mates by cruising by popping one handed wheelies while trying to push them off! 8)
Here's how to make it look easy, from about 2:20
And no handed by 'the other Matt' from 18bikes at 3:25!
Hmm, they're both pretty good. Props 😀
I love wheelie-ing me.
Probably the first 'trick' I ever learned as a kid and just haven't stopped. 😆
Of the people who can wheelie, can any of them wheelie better than they could aged 15
Probably, but only just. And it took quite a while to find that 'sweet' spot on my first FS, especially for manuals.
Yep wheelies no problem but manuals I suck at, just long enough for trail obstacles and the like but that's it. Wheelies help if you end up at a drop with very little speed, just a quick pedal to
to take you off the edge.
I do it loads when climbing fireroads, seems to take your mind off the effort because you are trying to balance.
Yup, I can wheelie continuously for a good minute or more uphill, including corners in fire roads. Manuals, on the flat I'd be pleased with more than about 30ft but through 2 or 3 rollers is no problem.
It is my secret shame. I can do a functional trail manual- like, wheel comes up for long enough to go over a thing- but nothing balance pointy. The one time I really tried, I broke my coccyx and it still bloomin hurts years later so I figure that's nature's way of saying NOPE
No I've never been able to get the balance point and keep on it. Too scared of going over the back I think. I can do manuals through short sets of rollers though, weird.
