Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - wheelies on a fixed gear, or any road bike

how the heck does anyone do 'em?
i can get my front wheel up maybe 8 inches to get over curbs but it is almost impossible for me to sustain a wheelie.
any tips? does a high gear make it easier?
on my bmx i can get them up much higher but i'm not exactly good at them

the geometry of a road bike makes wheelies very difficult. To be perfectly honest, untill u can ride a wheelie for DAYS on a bmx, you really have no chance of successfully doing them on a road bike. I've ridden trials for a little over a year now, and can get up walls over 3 feet, but cannot sustain standing wheelies on that bike because the geometry is so whacked for that type of riding.

Once you master it on a bike that makes it easy (an urban bike w/ short wheelbase and a really short stem) you can move to doing it on a road bike.

Also, learning on a bike that is easier will help u not to mess up your nice road wheels :_D when you slam them back down from a wheelie.

(oh and gearing is important... you want to be able to apply enough pressure to get the front up, if you can't get it up, you either need to go faster so u can apply more torque, or get new gears)

low gear+ riser bars= success!!! I used to get 4-5 cranks in on my old khs when I put the risers on it.

If you're a real stud (unlike me) you'll be able to pop a wheelie on a fixed gear and trackstand on it, and yes I have seen it done, holy crap.

a good friend of mines did this in front of us after not riding a track/fixie for 3 years..

wheelie to tight rolling 360 wheelie to track stand to backwards figure 8's (3 of them, all tightly spaced) all without putting a foot down or stopping. after that, our jaws dropped and he had to help pick them up. lol.

i'm new to riding a track and i can do them all day on a 24" bmx. it's all about gearing and momentum and knowing your bike.

^^^ Please, tell me he didn't do the 8's on his rear wheel...

no, he was on the ground on both wheels. backwards figure 8's = super duper control!

BTW, anyone remembers who was the sprinter who celebrated making the time limit on the mountain TT of a Tour/Giro/Vuelta last year by wheelieing across the line? It was amazing. The guy was obviously totally exhausted, the bike was not exactly made for manouvres like that, and he pulled it off as confidently as a BMX flatland rider on his BMX. Totally cool.

In a few days, I will rearrange the funrinture in my room, so I'll have space for practicing backwards circles indoors:D:D:D Some good fun at home during the coming winter!

Farkas, was it Robbie McEwen or someone like that?

Yes, McEwen, I think

Yup.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour04.php?id=photos/2004/tour04/stage12/S-McEWENARRIVO12a-2878

here's one of floyd landis, no hands wheelie

Farkas, was it Robbie McEwen or someone like that?

I remember seeing that. I heard he first got started in cycling with BMX. Remembering his roots.

i'm almost able to ride a decent wheelie. on drop bars i put my hands on the top right before the drop transition. As my rightpedal comes around to 9 o'clock and i slide to the very back of my seat pull up on the bars and hard and start cranking. 2 things to work on, a)getting comfortable with pulling the front wheel up(its never as high as you may think/feel it is) and b) coordinating a strong crank with that upward tug.

I know this has been posted here before but I couldn't resist. You all have to see this...

http://www.hk-icycling.net/movie/erl4men.mpg

Unfortunately, it's really slow, right-clicking and saving the link speeds it up a little.
Enjoy.

Fixie Balet: http://www.cmatts.com/dink/Finale.wmv

there is a block long wheelie by demarco at the end of this clip. and it's on a persuit frame. now he has a 650 front wheel and still kills them!

http://www.michaelmartin.com/blog/photos/track_video.html

sorry, i know this has been posted on here 3 times. come check it out at the bike film fest in sf oct 8th!

bicyclefilmfestival.com

thats some really sweet stuff! I have been thinking about doing a wheelie to a trackstand for days, then I remembered I don't have a fixie!

AH HA!!!
(i made this thread two years ago!)
i came on my gearing to 44 - 16 and now i'm popping wheelies left and right
if i come down a few more on the chain ring i can probably even sustain them!

really short stem and risers makes the front end lighter(feel)

this is silly. wheelies scare me. goodnight.

I have been messing with them a bit, but I always start from a rackstand or barely moving because i run a 49x16. I can balance on the rear wheel but not for long, trying to ride them seems hard for some reason. There are a handful of cats out there that do no handed wheelie trackstands...i aspire to do that.

If you're a wheelie kinda guy, it's not difficult. The key is that you've got to commit. Longer top tube, weight over the front and long stem make it difficult, compounded by tallish fixie gear. It's much easier to pull one from the tops or hoods if you have them. I always feel that I'm going to square off the front wheel when I set down wheelies from the drops. Pull from the tops, crank it like you mean it (in all aspects of life) and be ready to apply backpedal pressure when you do get it up. I used to ride regular, geared roadrace bicycles and was notorious for pulling 30mph wheelies in pacelines (roadies FREAK the fk out) and launching low tabletops and whips over train tracks. It's a lot of fun to whip a road bike. It's a bike, do whatever you want with it. Take it easy on the wheels though, I exploded a rear carbon wheel when I landed crooked off a whip once and had to walk miles and miles home. Embarassing.

I can wheelie a road bike far.
Its really no big deal. If you can wheel a bmx bike the same stuff
applies just the initial hoiking process takes alot more snap. Once
you get it up, its really quite stable. I always found some stationary,
1st gear pull up and overs where you jump off the back of the bike before
you try it moving really helps. I was wheelie-ing an old 10sp a few years ago
and the derailluer wrapped itself around the wheel and stays somehow........
My ghoulies hurt for days :cry: Maybe put a bmx or top tube pad on your
bike if you are going to make a habit of it.

there is a block long wheelie by demarco at the end of this clip. and it's on a persuit frame. now he has a 650 front wheel and still kills them!

http://www.michaelmartin.com/blog/photos/track_video.html

sorry, i know this has been posted on here 3 times. come check it out at the bike film fest in sf oct 8th!

bicyclefilmfestival.com

getting a 404... :(

that link is so two years ago

If you're a wheelie kinda guy, it's not difficult. The key is that you've got to commit. Longer top tube, weight over the front and long stem make it difficult, compounded by tallish fixie gear. It's much easier to pull one from the tops or hoods if you have them. I always feel that I'm going to square off the front wheel when I set down wheelies from the drops. Pull from the tops, crank it like you mean it (in all aspects of life) and be ready to apply backpedal pressure when you do get it up. I used to ride regular, geared roadrace bicycles and was notorious for pulling 30mph wheelies in pacelines (roadies FREAK the fk out) and launching low tabletops and whips over train tracks. It's a lot of fun to whip a road bike. It's a bike, do whatever you want with it. Take it easy on the wheels though, I exploded a rear carbon wheel when I landed crooked off a whip once and had to walk miles and miles home. Embarassing.

holy thread resurrection Batman.

I know I am going to get a lot of guff for this but...I do some wheelies and I am pretty bad at them. But I am worried about breaking my HED3, but maybe I shouldn't be. Does anyone have any tales of them cracking from this?

i have never ridin bmx, or done wheelies on them but i can still manage to get some ok start on my fixie. Given, my gear ratio is a little too little (the acceleration is working against me) 42-16, i could see a 46 16 being perfect. The trick as i've seen it so far is to get about two good pumps on the bike then wait for the pedal your pushing on to be about.. 9 oclock when you yank up, then throw your weight backwards and push your foot. First couple times you might throw the bike out from under you, i don't reccomend using toe clips or baskets hah. hope this helps

i've done some short wheelies on my track bike. it annoys me when i turn the front wheel some while it's in the air and my foot hits the front tire as it comes around...i usually end up with the front wheel on the ground right after that.
all you have to do is get the front end up high enough so that you are at the balance point...then you don't even have to pedal hard to keep it there.

...
It's a bike, do whatever you want with it.

+1

's not that hard to get it up...the easiest is to watch someone who can pop it up to get a feel of what you need to do (load up, shift weight back, hold tight, etc.) then try it

what helped me a lot was sitting in wheelie position on the bike and getting a feel for the position (using a railing or wall to support myself)
popping up no handed wheelies out of a trackstand also helps cause you have to get a feel for shifting your weight back on the seat

road bike/track bike wheelies are that ish..