i'm trying to figure out how to wheelie. i'm 29 and i didn't learn how to do tricks when i was 12 like i should have. i'm not gonna die w/o being able to do a good wheelie and bunny hop. i refuse to be one of those dudes that rides constantly and can't even pull a decent wheelie.

anyway, been trying to do ******** wheelies outside for the last hour and my arms are sore trying to unweight the front end. i KNOW i shouldn't have to pull this hard. i watched some kids doing wheelies on youtube for a while and some of them are able to unweight their bikes without even touching the bars. i'm all, WTF? how do you do this???

how???

example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1KEl-wifmg

ps - the only bike i have to learn tricks on is a fixed gear surly crosscheck w/ knobbies and dirt drop bars. i ride it on trails sometimes.

pps - don't ******** troll at me or tell me to practice or that i'm a puss. i know these things. i'm yanking on my bars w/ all my might and getting nowhere and there are kids who can wheelie w/o even touching the bars. HOW?

Wheelie-ing is more about shifting your weight back than it is pulling on the bars.

Unfortunately until you do it a few times you don't know where the tipping point is, so you'll fall. And at 29 you may break a hip.

Holy flap, that picture is completely full of win.

OP, I won't make fun of you, but I genuinely believe that your question could be better answered on some kind of bike tricking forum? I don't if there are enough people here who do tricks that we could be actually helpful, haha.

dsh already said it, weight distribution is the key to a successful wheelie.


TrickTrack is where you want to ask.

and my shoop is now of poor quality and lose.

it's waaaaay more e-credible, and was the sole inspiration for this one.

let's pretend the OP is not trolling...
fgfs is probably the topic this forum is least informed and most ill-informed on.

go to trick track.

I broke my hip when i was 13.. but it was skateboarding.

It's leg power too. Especially when running a higher gear.

Just sit on your bike, get a leg ready at like 2 or 3 o clock, lean back, pull up, and push. Once you get the wheel up it's a combination of balance and the right amount of leg power.

It's more balance than power once you learn, but to learn you will need power since that will keep your wheel up.

If you can get your hands on an older smaller bmx, easiest to catwalk on those than a bigger ike with a high gear.

Like diff said, a lot of it is in the initial pedal.

Pedal hard downward with whatever leg is at the 3 o'clock position. At the same time lean back and pull up with your arms. You'll find the right combination of all three with practice.

This thread is stupid.

To hurry it to it's end I'll tell you that you need a ridiculously low gear ratio to pop the front wheel up that way. This I learned from BMX flatland.

carleton - your boulder is dangerously close to the top of the mountain. I hope I'm not around the day gravity once again takes over.

I can ride endless wheelies on my MTB, but can't on my roadies or fixed gear. I tried a few times, the balance point is way different because of the bigger wheel. I don't want to risk crashing the rodies so I gave up

But gravity always win and it wears him out.

I'm tryna stay scrong.

Combination of pulling on the bars, leaning back and pushing on a pedal. Higher bars make it way easier. Get out on some grass and practice lots. If you've got brakes keep a trigger finger on the rear brake to keep from looping out.

Dude in that video is sitting just barely in front of the rear axle so he's almost at the balance point already, so very minute shift back of the shoulders and light blip on the pedal and he's up.

One thing I've never gotten down is manuals. I gotta pedal all the while my front wheel's in the air.

Here's more video for inspiration: they got squishy forks, so use that - compress suspension, then pull up, lean back and pedal.