Looking for some inspiration as i want to give this a try again.
So if you've successfully learnt how to wheelie:
- how old were you when you finally got it dialled?
- how long did it take?
- what are your top tips?
- have you managed to move on to manuals?
Cheers
Have you tried it with a can of tennent's super in one hand. Maybe a fag on the go, too ?
Have you tried it with a can of tennent's super in one hand. Maybe a fag on the go, too ?
Calisthenics, not wheelie related, but it works for LeverKiller, although tbf, it may not be Tennants he's drinking.
Every few months I have a dream that I can wheelie so I cruise around town popping wheelies all over and hot ladies want to have my babies, but then I wake up to reality and realize that I'm too lazy to learn. I pretend I don't care but that dream must keep recurring for a reason.
Practice riding no handed, it trains the side to side balance which is the hard bit. This will get your knees adjusting weight balance to stop you falling sideways.
You probably know the rest, straight arms, smooth power on a couple of cranks to get the wheel up (maybe with a bit of suspension preload). Cover the back brake, let the front wheel spin. The faster you go the easier the balance so maybe 3rd gear up wards.
I learned to do long ones in my late 40s.
My ride over to meet my mates for our weekly ride is around 8 miles each way of gravel and empty country lanes so I practiced then.
- 14
- can't remember. Been riding for 10 years at that point.
- top tip: ride every single day after school and all day every weekend come rain or shine. Don't have a job, girlfriend or children.
- manuals are pretty easy once you've learned to coast in a wheelie.
Disclaimer: I'm not very good at it anymore. My ability for tricks and stunts started going downhill around the time I found out what boobs feel like. Then I swapped my BMX for a car and I haven't done a trick since.
I can still get it up and do a few pedals. I live on a hill and can go up the street but not down. It's much more difficult since bikes went all LLS.
I too have had the wheelie dream. For a long time I genuinely believed I could wheelie continuously. Well, until the next time I rode my bike.
Manuals I find second nature but only to lift the wheel over something. I've never managed to lift it high enough to balance on the rear wheel
On a more philosophical point, what actually counts as a wheelie? I mean, it's easy to pop the wheel up and keep it up for 2 or 3 seconds or even longer, but is that a wheelie? Must it be longer to count?
On a more philosophical point, what actually counts as a wheelie? I mean, it's easy to pop the wheel up and keep it up for 2 or 3 seconds or even longer, but is that a wheelie? Must it be longer to count?
You need to put the front wheel back down by choice. Anything else is just another failed attempt.
My youngest lad set a goal one summer when he was turning 9 to learn to wheelie properly. He practised all the time...and made almost no progress.
Then aged 11 he nailed it.
I'm still stuck at 9 year old level where I can get 3 or 4 cranks in but just don't get the balance point.
Mate in his 60s went out in the street and got tips of the local kids. He's brilliant now, the bastard.
You need to put the front wheel back down by choice. Anything else is just another failed attempt.
Yes that sounds fair. But also depressing to realise that by that metric I've not wheeled once in my life!
Mate in his 60s went out in the street and got tips of the local kids. He's brilliant now, the bastard.
My son learnt in a few months a couple of years ago. Unfortunately whilst he's good at wheelies he's a bloody awful teacher.
I too have the dream, then the abject disappointment of waking up and realising I'm still crap
Yes that sounds fair. But also depressing to realise that by that metric I've not wheeled once in my life!
I did a wheelie once. It was in the summer of 1997. Not only that, it was right in front of a bunch of skateboarders. One of them went, 'Woah!'. I don't think it was ironically.
I still tell my girlfriend that story at least once a week.
Unfortunately my life has been all downhill since then 🙁
I can't wheely. I was a bit jealous when I saw two teenagers wheelying up the main street in Bellshill for about 100 yards with a bottle of Buckfast in one hand.
Ok the Buckfast bit was made up.
A lad a few years older than me when I was a kid used to wheelie everywhere for long distances on stolen shoppers holding the frame in one hand and a fag in the other. He thought he was soooo cool.
Within a few years he had a bad prison tattoo of his nickname 'Piggy' on his neck.
A few years after that he'd died of an overdose.
I like to think not being able to wheelie kept me on the straight and narrow.
Used to be kind of ok at short manuals on a BMX, never really got the hang of it on MTB with longer chainstays etc. Manualing through rollers on a pump track I can kind of do and feels great when you get it just right.
You have to get used to looping out to feel where the balance point is. I've never been good at wheelies though for some reason, I get a few pedalstrokes in and lose it.
https://www.youtube.com/live/7RrZMrXAI2k?si=Fv-nHa4fjlm6ZCZD
Bmx nationals on this weekend at Manchester indoor.
Some useful manuals
At risk of blowing my own trumpet, I’m a fairly good wheelier. Seat right down, fairly high gear and ever so slight uphill is the starting point.
BUT I CANNOT MANUAL AT ALL. ITS A SKILL I JUST CANNOT GET.
Manuals I find second nature but only to lift the wheel over something. I've never managed to lift it high enough to balance on the rear wheel
A manual without the balance point isn't really a manual. I know lifting the front wheel onto something is sometimes referred to as a manual in skills tutorial videos, and doing so I've sometimes stumbled across the balance point for a few fractions of a second, but without the obstacle, it's a different kettle of fish altogether. I've never really committed to practising manuals or wheelies though.
To know where the balance point is, you have to go past it enough times. If you're trying to get the front wheel up onto an obstacle, you're not trying to find the balance point at all.
Someone mentioned no-hands for lateral balance, skinny lines probably better for that, especially without any run up whatsoever. Get a couple of old long concrete fence posts laying down on the ground in a line and from trackstand, get front wheel onto skinny and use pedal and hip thrust to initiate movement to get rear on.
I’m 59 and can’t, and never been able to wheelie for sh!t. In my motorbiking days of my teen’s and 20’s I had a Yamaha FZ750, one day leaving work riding through an industrial estate I popped an absolute stonking wheelie that Kenny Robert’s would’ve been proud of, and there wasn’t a soul within two miles to see it - might as well not have happened!!!
A manual without the balance point isn't really a manual
Jesus. My day is going from bad to worse.
I had a Yamaha FZ750, one day leaving work riding through an industrial estate I popped an absolute stonking wheelie that Kenny Robert’s would’ve been proud of,
I had a 250lc that I famously wheelied in sphincter loosening style when I hit the power band accelerating over a hump backed bridge. It was bloody impressive but not something I hope to ever repeat.
Someone mentioned no-hands for lateral balance, skinny lines
I can ride no-handed all day, but when it comes to a manual I struggle, so I think there's more to it than that. Partly that's physique - I have a short inside leg for my height so getting far enough back to hit the balance point when manualing is hard on bikes that work for me - but that's not the whole story as I can get the bike up for a wheelie and about one time in ten will put it back down when I choose. At the balance point for either a wheelie or a manual you are adding an extra dimension to take care of.
For anyone who's interested, I'm still working on this.
However, after literally countless hours of practice, I've had a bit of a revelation.
I did get the Ryan leach tutorial and was vaguely trying to follow that - he makes a big thing of pushing down/pumping with the arms to start the process, and how that push is timed with the initial pedal stroke.
But for me, the push is almost irrelevant. The key to getting the wheel up is the speed of the initial pedal stroke. It's got to be a really quick snap - from still to full power instantly. When I remember this, I can get a reasonable consistent front wheel lift.
If the front wheel isn't lifting, then the pedal stroke isn't quick enough.
Still miles away from being able to wheelie for any distance but it does at least seem that progress is being made.
I can lift the front wheel no problem. Usually can go for 5-6 bike lengths just shy of the balance point. Once I hit the balance point I always bottle it and grab a fist full of back brake.
Super Rider says the missing ingredient of most tutorials is to start with your weak foot forward to initiate the lift. Then you have your strong foot forward for that initial phase finding the balance point and staying there. Maybe it'll help?
The key to getting the wheel up is the speed of the initial pedal stroke. It's got to be a really quick snap - from still to full power instantly.
Use your wrong foot forward to do this and you've got the first stage of the trials pedal up move. I can do this, up to about 60cm at a push... it's a work in progress. Can't wheelie though.
I can get the wheel up fine with either foot leading.
I have no trouble with balance.
It's the balance point that I have no chance with. It completely evades me.
And i'm hopeless at braking to catch myself... which I think leads to me avoiding going too far back as i'll inevitably end up on my arse.
Practice riding no handed, it trains the side to side balance which is the hard bit. This will get your knees adjusting weight balance to stop you falling sideways.My record for no-handed is slightly over 12km, a long almost perfectly straight and exceedingly boring road between two exceeding boring Belgian villages when i was staying out there one summer. I can still no-handed for a couple of km, basically until i get bored, or get to a junction that needs hands...
On the other hand, I haven't done a wheelie since i was at uni. And that was several hundred metres along an old railway line. (A few of us used to go and practice after lectures sometimes). So 30 years since i wheelied. And that was an old school XC set up with low and flat bars and a 130 or 140mm stem...
I didn’t learn to wheelie but I can ride a unicycle does that count?
I used to be able to wheelie like a pro in 2005 on my singlespeed DJ bike could just keep going and going, had manuals dialled to a point, I could hold them for about 8 car lengths and I found going faster made them easier, it was at the point where you had to use your knees to maintain the balance point to keep going I used to drop off.
I sold that bike in 2007 and didn't ride again until 2012, ever since then I've not been able to get the skill back. Some skills were easier to bring back/never lost them, no handed riding, bunny hops, rear wheel hops, endo's, pivoting on my front wheel around a short sharp berm whilst still rolling, jumps to a degree I don't have the bottle for big 10ft gap jumps or sharp moonbooting lips anymore, some trials skills like hopping on your back wheel and putting a crank in to lurch forwards, interestingly I can still 360 too and 180 to fakie and lean on the back wheel to spin the front round but yeah wheelies and mannys are long gone for me, everytime I try them now particularly wheelies I panic grab the back break cause I think I'm gonna loop out
I've been practicing for the last three (or more!) years - I'm 58.
I can get the wheel up and sometimes I get it high enough to feel the balance - but I can't keep the bike in the 'balance point'
Same for Manuals - I can get high enough, sometimes feel the 'balance point' but always lose it rather than roll along looking cool 😫
Oh and the pump/preload of the front: it works and reduces the effort needed on the pedals. Which just makes it easier and less dramatic or disturbing (of the bike and balance) to raise the front wheel 😆
And i'm hopeless at braking to catch myself... which I think leads to me avoiding going too far back as i'll inevitably end up on my arse.
Exact same fear, except I grab as much brake as possible summoning forces from beyond this earthly realm to help me, at the slightest hint of ooooh I might goooo oooohh backwards aaaarrrhhhhh. I might be exaggerating. Have looped out and landed on my back a few times, not necessarily while wheeling or manualing though. The most stupid time was a wheelbase hop from trackstand to rear wheel but decided I'd see what would happen if I didn't hold the rear brake for the landing on the rear wheel bit. No I didn't magically do a manual like Duncan Shaw.
There's the multitasking thing of using the rear brake to stop the bike going over backwards, that's what I could never get. When I was younger and stupider I'd go over the balance point and land flat on my back every time. So gave up. My son is a really good rider and he's no good at wheelies, so that makes me feel better.
My kids are learning to manual at BMX. Slightly different skill, but a couple of points seem really relevant.
One of the drills they use is lifting the front wheel (with a good heel drive) and then immediately dropping it with the brake, literally 100s of times, to make the brake use the natural reaction rather than panic. First, not even worrying about balance point - just ingraining brake use to put the wheel down.
Other drills involve coming of the back. You can't commit to finding the balance point until you're confident with what happens when you go past it.
They practice rolling lifts and stepping off the back. They also practice track stands against a wall then getting the lift, coming off the back safely. Also, wheel lift to back wheel hop, then putting the wheel back down in trackstand. Can help by taking the movement out to slow down the loop out.
Mate in his 60s went out in the street and got tips of the local kids. He's brilliant now, the bastard.
This is the best thing I've read online in weeks, what an inspiration. Tell him he's cool.. the bstrd.
My wheelies are rubbish and I didn't become the wheelie hero via Ryan Leech's lockdown course, I got distracted by empty roads and did loads of XC in the free time. I'd need to ride flats for a while to get it properly I think.
Also have that wheelie dream but I'm manualling instead. I roll all over town exploring places in a constant manual. Great, and a bit odd 🙂
how are you all good in your dreams? I just have one recurring bike dream where I somehow accidently get a stupidly large amount of unwanted air from a jump and then have a panic attack working out how to get down.
I mean that somehow the world magically swaps to moon levels of gravity, and I'm near hovering 20 feet up having launched off a normal 2 bike length table, slowly being windblown away from the trail, then remembering I'm scared of heights.
Thanks for the info above.
I managed to overcome my initial reluctance to take advice from someone who calls themselves "Super Rider" and watched the vid posted by sirromj.
I have to admit he seems to have some pretty good tips, and doesn't claim to have a magic formula - just various elements which when mastered and combined should turn into useful skills for riding.
However, I had a quick try with the weakest foot first for wheelies - didn't work straight away but I'll maybe give it a few more chances.
Know what you mean about the name, but it's a reference to a Japanese trials bike TV show, Hans Rey appeared on in 2001.
Mate in his 60s went out in the street and got tips of the local kids. He's brilliant now, the bastard.
This is the best thing I've read online in weeks, what an inspiration. Tell him he's cool.. the bstrd.
My wheelies are rubbish and I didn't become the wheelie hero via Ryan Leech's lockdown course, I got distracted by empty roads and did loads of XC in the free time. I'd need to ride flats for a while to get it properly I think.
Also have that wheelie dream but I'm manualling instead. I roll all over town exploring places in a constant manual. Great, and a bit odd 🙂
He's actually too good to be inspiring. At least 15 years older than me and any ride I want to do with him is basically a Z2 for him.
In the space of 3 or 4 years he went from being a cabinet maker on the verge of retirement with a sore back who took up bike riding to see if it might help his back to an absolute weapon at enduro, XC, gravel and is now racking up UCI points for international events.
His year to date on Strava has 15.5hrs/wk, 362km/wk, 14,000km and 178,000m elevation so far.
That clip is worth watching for the Japanese commentary alone
It's very intense commentary 😆
Turn your stem the wrong way? 😀
I can't wheelie and can only seem to be able to get anything near a manual on a pump track.
Does it work if you turn your forks the wrong way round at the same time? (asking for a friend)