Wheelies - Who can do them ?

[TOMAS]

scrotes and chavs seem to be naturally talented at wheelies. Their default response to seeing a "cyclist type" seems to be to pull an enormous 200 foot wheelie of incredible smoothness and elegance

I Always and without fail give chavs doing wheelies a beep and thumbs up when I drive past them. The confused look I get back always amuses me immensely.
I haven't tried a wheelie for about 30 years but is now on my to do list.

Its school yoof around here. They are amazing and im jealous. They have some great parkour moves going on too. I feel so old but always show interest in it but im tired feeling like an old numpty, so its time to learn to do it again :shock: I suspect its easier to do them on modern bikes or is it just the same as a retro set up similarly ? Heard its best to practise on a slight gradient.

Some serious skills on here @ Scant, TOMAS, Joe-Rides Bunny hops were std but manuals were not such a big thing bitd.

I find it harder on bikes with rear suspension as when the rear compresses it throws out your balance point, my suggestion is SLIGHT downhill gradient and a good back brake that you know well, also maybe practice on grass. I find a lot of people starting out tend to pull the bars up towards their face, I find this totally the wrong approach, you need to throw your weight over the back end whilst sitting down, arms fully extended and pedal quickly to get the front end up, from there its just a case of controlling the balance point between accelerating on the pedals and if you go too far back then feathering the brake, this is why one the THE most important factors is the back brake, ideally powerful but not too grabby like some disc brakes can be, TBH well setup V-Brakes are ideal

 

[2manyoranges]

Re:

I have a problem with the planet’s gravitational pull re wheelies. My son lives in a low-gravity environment and seems to be able to float free of the earth’s pull at every moment. Despite me being 66kg only, and riding featherweight Hardtails, the Earth exerts a disproportionately high force in my body, which makes wheelies and jumping impossible. I will search my kit pockets to see if I left a small piece of black hole in there somewhere......

 

[legrandefromage]

Wheelie? No, never managed more than a few feet.

Reverse 180 on a Zaskar? Once and once only never to be repeated, it may have been a passing worm hole effect.

Llammas Gardens, Huntingdon in about 1995

 

[mattr]

My record is about a kilometre on the back wheel of my Raleigh Strika XL, with completely threadbare blue tyres. :/
Went from that to a Raleigh Quasar which wasn't really built for wheelies....... 7 or 8 years later i got my first mtb and just never really got back into wheelies, as they serve no purpose for racing. I can get the front wheel (very) high in the air for attacking short sharp banks etc. but not keep it up (phnarr) for more than a handful of metres.

 

[M-Power]

Re:

So most of us are past-it, some never had-it and the retro bikes are not best suited to it :|
OK...gonna look into adapting a retro to make it more wheelie friendly, as this looks like a serious test. Looking at a smaller frame than usual for me, big wide moose style bars, short stem, massive set back seatpost to get my weight right back over the rear axle, big rubber, powerful rear brake U brake maybe, plenty of foam padding on the frame to protect me and practise on a sloping uphill grass surface. :roll:

 

[The History Man]

Re:

Cholton can.

 

[Grubby]

i've got the likes of Jez Avery and Ashton/Hawes to thank for inspiration to my teenage self in the late 90s!

Same! Got hooked on trials and perfected the wheelie, get the bike as vertical as you can until it becomes "light" you can pedal all day like that

 

[Peachy!]

Re: Re:

Cholton can.

I hate that dragon......

 

[kalex]

Re:

I remember pulling very good wheelies on my old giant rigid mtb bitd, then after a fair gap I bought a trek zx7000 which I couldn't wheelie. I just presumed I couldn't get the balance right because of the suspension fork weight.

I've since had a 29er full suspension specialized stumpjumper and I'm even worse on this as I think the rear suspension takes the slack out of the initial start of my technique away.

I can still do them albeit no way near as good as when I was a teenager but it has to be on a rigid bike

 

[M-Power]

Re:

Most of the yoof use rigids but some can still ride up and down obstacles on a full sus while at it. Thought it might be easier to compress the rear shock to get the right balance point :?