Wheelies

[momus3]

"Funnest wheelie I ever saw was a bike courier in Mtl. It was night and there was a huge building fire downtown. I was cowering on the other side of the street with a bunch of other gawkers. The courier comes whipping down the street, suddenly sees the fire, sees the crowd, then wheelies between us, silhouetted against the flames like some whacked out 80's video. That would just never happen here in Vancouver. Boringville."

Wow. That was definitely one of those "you had to be there" moments. It sounds memorable! The closest I saw to something like that was in San Francisco many years ago. I was listening to these harleys revving like crazy and apparently doing burnouts around the corner, but couldn't see them for all the buildings downtown. All of a sudden one of them comes roaring by on the back wheel w/ the pipes open, and the guy kept it up the entire block. I'd always dissed those bikes as being overweight pigs, but that taught me the old canard that there's no substitute for cubic inches. Even if pretty much every sport bike around could smoke it, nothing else on earth sounds or looks like a loud harley pulling a massive wheelie.

 

[Stealth_Chopper]

Funny
&
Wow

 

[MadRhino]

Courriers are crazy everywhere, but in Montreal they are one step further in craziness. I saw one bunny hop on the hood of a car that had closed the trafic gap where he had started to swerve to avoid a pedestrian. He just stood there in balance on the hood until the pedestrian had walked out of the way, then jumped back on the street and continued his ride at the exact moment the driver was getting out of his car.

Here it is the kids who are playing wheelies in the street after school. Some just don’t seem to have any use for a front wheel. So, once they are grown up, riding a wheelie from the top of the mountain to their home with a beer in one hand, just seen natural.

 

[markz]

Wheelies you say

https://youtu.be/SSy2fHhAj6s?t=24

 

[LeftieBiker]

I have never done any real wheelies on anything, despite having ridden dirt bikes while a teen. I've lofted the front wheel a few inches to maybe a foot to get over obstacles, but actual, sustainable wheelies? Nope. Oddly, though, I've had dreams of riding effortless wheelies for decades. Flying dreams are hard work, but when I'm asleep I have no need for a front wheel at all.

 

[DogDipstick]

I have never done any real wheelies on anything, despite having ridden

I used to love wheelies, owned a few bikes that could pretty easily. I once tore the valve stem off a chrome wheel at speed on the front of a Kawa comming down at about 90-100mph. Wheelies are very dangerous if they are unexpected.

I never hurt myself on a MC wheelie... except.... that ( mistake) time the front came up on the CBR at the crest of a hill and I shoved it back down.. pushed the front right out, hit a pole, some $35K of surgery later, a week in the hospital and minus 1 CBR..

First time I went to try to wheelie on my lil powerful hub motor bike I looped it really hard, landed on the top of my boot and the inside of my knee at the same time, almost tore both the MCL and the ACL.... Hurt like a bitch for a month ( still hurts like 6? mo. later)... Swelled up to near volleyball size.. Looped and threw the bike like 25 feet.

Ebikes come up quick. Launching an ebike of a crest is soooo easy. Its not like a gasoline bike.

 

[MadRhino]

The first back flip you do by accident, and if you don’t hurt yourself you start loving it.

Same for the stoppies, if you didn’t scratch the pavement with your teeth at the first one...

Once you love it, even when you hurt yourself later, you will continue doing it. :wink:

 

[flat tire]

To update this thread I stopped practicing after the last update due to lack of high power bicycles. But I started practice again and my wheelies are back. I'm using a low power bike that won't really power wheelie so I have to snap it up to balance right away or it won't work. I found out that earlier with my hub motor bikes I wasn't actually getting to balance point, I was just getting close and using power to keep the wheelie up.

I'm going to ride this thing like a unicycle.

 

[MadRhino]

A bike that lifts is not a matter of power. It is about geometry and weight distribution. You can build a bike that won’t lift at all, or one that will be PITA to keep the front wheel on the ground. If you want to be good at wheelies, you first need a bike that has proper geometry for this purpose. Otherwise you will have to use some tricks to succeed, thus won’t find the natural posture and method to ride a manual.

Lower your saddle, slide it to the rear. Best is to use a wide, flat or low rise handlebar
mounted on a short stem or direct mount. The bike must be your size. Shorter will make it harder to balance, longer will make it harder to lift. The bike cockpit setting must make it easy to lift by crank force in low gear, and must not need you to be behind the saddle to lift by hand pull. Once your bike is set for it, it will become much easier.