Wheelie

How to do a wheelie

There are two things you should have if you want to learn how to do a wheelie:

1. A motorcycle (preferably not yours.)
2. Health insurance (preferably yours.)

Now, while moving forward slowly (at low RPM), sit as far back as possible on the bike, pull in the clutch, roll back on the throttle and then pop the clutch. If you feel like you're falling over backwards, tap on the rear brake.

If your front tire never never left the ground then you let out the clutch too slowly or too soon. If you've fallen flat on your ass you waited too long to let out the clutch.

If you're up on one wheel, then Yay!. Grin like an idiot and let yourself down (keep your front tire straight!) You can try to hold the wheelie as long as possible by playing with the throttle and finding the balance point.

Like stoppies, I've always thought that wheelies were a neat trick by still kind of stupid.

Transforms from futuristic car to robot and back!

AUTOBOT: WHEELIE

FUNCTION: SURVIVALIST
"Only the fierce shall live."

Wheelie is the sole survivor from a party of intergalactic colonists who crash landed on Earth. He's a barbaric little savage who managed to stay alive by cunning, stealth, and fearlessness. Speaks in odd rhyming sentences and despises the Decepticons. Fights only when he's under attack and has to defend himself. Staunch friend to the Dinobots and a reliable ally for Hot Rod and Kup.

• Strength: 5
• Intelligence: 6
• Speed: 8
• Endurance: 9
• Rank: 5
• Courage: 8
• Firepower: 7
• Skill: 8

Probably because he was the only "futuristic"-looking member of the third-year minibots, Wheelie got special attention in "Transformers: The Movie" and in the TV episodes that followed it. He became a sort of successor to Bumblebee, since he was close enough to human size to be a friend to Spike's young son Daniel. They had to make considerable improvements to his robot appearance to make him more photogenic, though -- the toy had too-long arms, no visible hands, and a face buried in his shoulders instead of a proper head.

The first wheelie I did was by accident. At a bank drive-thru, I thought I'd impress some girls in a convertible by doing something stupid on my KLR 650. So I pinned the throttle out of the drive-thru, then realized I couldn't steer. Front wheel had lifted, cool.

Be wary of long wheelies though. My brother, former motorcycle mechanic, says you could mess up crankcase bearings on some bikes by riding out wheelies. Since the engine is tilted back in a wheelie, some bearings might not be oiled properly and sieze or wear out. Sounds iffy, but I've never heard otherwise. Trials and motocross riders seem to do it all the time, but maybe 2 cycle engines aren't as affected.

Oh, and don't try to impress chicks on a KLR 650.
Girls aren't impressed by dual-purpose bikes.

wheelie n. lifting the front wheel off the ground, usually with some combination of pulling on the handlebars, pedaling harder, and balance.

From the Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang

A Wheelie is the name of a move on either a bike or a motorcycle. It involves increasing power to the back wheel and leaning back. The result of this turn of events is that your front wheels leaves the ground and you begin to ride on just one wheel.

There are two types of wheelies on a bicycle, sitting and standing. The easiest to learn is sitting down. To do a sitting wheelie, start at a walking pace using a fairly low gear. You want to be pedalling at about 60 RPM, in other words medium slow. Now, while pedaling, lean waay back and pedal really hard.

At this point one of two things is probably going to happen. Either you're going to go up a bit and then come down again, or you'll pedal too hard and if you can't get your feet down fast enough, fall on your back. The trick is to lean back a lot and just practice until you find your balance point.

If you find yourself completely unable to stay up, there are a couple of things that could be going wrong. The first is that your seat might not be up enough. On my trials bike I'm unable to do a wheelie sitting down because my seat is very low. This makes it impossible to shift your weight back enough, and very difficult to pedal hard enough. If you can't keep you left/right balance, then read on.

The main disadvantage to wheelying while sitting is that it's difficult to keep your balance while stuck in a seat. When you stand up this problem is eliminated and it's easier to keep you balance.

To do a wheelie while standing, start off at about a walking pace. Try to get your weight as far back as possible, and then pedal hard. Keeping your seat down will reduce the risk of a bad testicle smashing and make this easier. What will often happen is that you'll rise when you first start, but as soon as you reach the bottom of your pedal stroke you'll drop. What your problem is, is that you need to have a pedal more smoothly. Try to stop pushing down on you pedals when they get to the 6 O'clock position and concentrate on pushing backwards instead of downwards. And keep your weight back.

With these tips and a lot of practice, you should be wheelying and outcooling all your friends with ease. Just remember practice practice practice. It took me about 6 months get to where I am now (I can stay up for max. 14 pedal revolutions). So if you don't seem to be getting anywhere don't be discouraged.