Sitting in a traffic queue in the works van today in Wishaw. A teenager on a scabby hardtail appeared from a side street up ahead and pulled a wheelie off the kerb into the road. He then pedalled uphill in a straight line along the road doing a perfect wheelie for 40 or 50m until he went out of sight round a slight bend. I’ve never been able to wheelie a bike so I couldn’t believe it. I expected the front wheel to go back down after a few yards but he just kept on going. Am I just a crap rider or was that really exceptional wheely skill?

He’s a kid. I could wheelie my road bike one handed for ages when I was about 14. I can barely get my front wheel off the ground these days. 😐

Wheelies are very easy when it clicks and you find the balance point. There is only one way to master it and that’s practice. Somewhere slightly uphill so you don’t need as much rear brake. Most people make the mistake of not getting the front wheel high enough. Also worth learning with flat pedals and learn to jump off the back if your going to high. I used to wheelie about 2 miles along the canal on my way home from work. It passed the boredom.

Bit of both then Good riding by the kid and me being crap!

No shortcut with wheelies , it’s time and effort .It’s not you being crap its you being not bothered to learn them . There is a difference 🙂 If you want to learn them you’ll get them good in a month , practicing everyday . No problem. If you can’t , then you can say you are crap.

Go and practice. Just keep trying. There are probably some good tutorials on YouTube.

If you learn to wheelie is it then fairly easy to do or learn manuals?

I’ve been at it for a few months now, practicing for 30mins or so at a time while the kids are playing out front. Feeling like i’m almost there – can get the wheel up and just starting to get over the feeling to grab a fistful of rear brake when I feel like i’m tipping back and can now just regulate my pedalling, so a bit softer if I feel i’m tipping back and harder if i feel like i’m falling forward. Just struggling with the lateral stability bit now.

The key is not to pull up with your arms and lean back and use the gearing to get the front up, the more you do it the more you get used to the wheel being up and start to feel more comfortable. Hopefully a few more sessions and i’ll have it cracked.

It’s a Wishaw thing. We can all do it. 😉

Everybody knows it’s a scally thing – Teenage chavs are the best. Now I’ve grown up and got a respectable job, I can’t wheelie half as well as I could when I was 15.

QED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0tPro429uA

Despite being able to wheelie like a total boss at one point, at no point in my life have I been able to hold a decent manual 🙁

Wheelieing doesn’t directly translate to manuals and vice versa. It helps but it’s not a guarantee that you can easily learn one because you can do the other.

I always seem to veer off sideways after a couple of pedals.
Wish I was 14 again.
Actually…no I don’t.

I always seem to veer off sideways after a couple of pedals.

Can you confidently ride with no hands? (I’m just wondering if there is a related balance thing).

even an owd fart like me can still pull one 😆

Yeah but riding on the pavement…set an example would you please 😀

get further back than you think and be gentle on the back brake, its easy after a while.

cant bloody manual though!

Manuals are far harder to master.

Go and practice. Just keep trying. There are probably some good tutorials on YouTube.

+1
If your struggling to get it up and all the videos online don’t do it, you can get some pills too 😉

Quickest way to blow the minds of local kids who are masters at wheelies?

roll past them doing a nice manual 😉

“He’s not pedalling? How the eff?”