It took me what seemed like ages to learn this but when I got it I couldn’t stop wheelieing every where, so what helped me was… Tilt the seat forward a little Put the seat forward in the rails seemed to help with the balance point too Heels down with the kick Weight in the seat not the feet More engagement points helped for when you stop pedalling it’s easier to hook back up And staying loose and moving at the hips too helped
So many good tips in this comment - thanks so much for sharing this! I haven't done anything with my seat yet, but I think I'm going to try that next. Might go for a full lap wheelie at this track!
Also, tire pressure seems to have a role. I find around 30-35 psi, it seems if it’s less the front to back is easy to control but side to side is hard. If its more side to side is easy but front to back balance point is harder. Also, I found feathering the rear brake touchy they didn’t look dirty but I cleaned them and it was so much better, make sure your brake rotor and pads are clean.
I'm SOOO HAPPY that you posted this video... At least for once I can watch a video and say... "dang, this dude sucks! I'm better at this!!!" I started on april 2nd this year and my record at that time was about 10yd.... as of today sep 15th I managed to go 350yd!!! it took "only" 30 min a day of sole wheelie practice to get there, that was a LONG TIME!!!! But at least I found out that you can teach an old dog new tricks... being able to learn to wheelie, gave me the confidence boost to start to try to learn trials at the young age of 50 y.o. 😀and all of your videos and tutorial are being So helpful in this journey!!!
Hahaha! Glad to be of assistance! :) Amazing how much the skill builds up with consistent practice. I'm motivated now....the real goal is to complete an entire lap on the track! There are a lot of people on this channel (and in the Discord, which I highly recommend joining - there's a link in the description) that have started Trials around the same time. You'll find a solid, supportive group of riders here. Excited for you!
Thanks for the great tips. I'm 63 years old, {post quad bypass) and also ride a Chameleon. Still practice wheelies and probably can do half that distance on my best day. Biggest problem is feathering the back brake, it's always "grabby" but I'll I'm still getting better at it!
Right on! I found the pedaling really helped balance out the back brake situation. I feel like I put all of my mental energy into that one element, and that is what made the biggest difference for me.
That's pretty epic. I am still working on keeping the balance point over short distances. I didn't realise until I first got there that the balance point feels weightless, no weight pulling forward or back, it freaked me out the first time. Now I try to find that feeling each time I try.
balance is scary because it exists without our control so we have to surrender control and trust the balance point... not something many of us feel comfortable doing !
Fun video. I spent a long time before I took up trials learning to wheelie with my goal being a lap around my roughly 1/8 mile cul-de-sac circle. You had some really great tips in this video. Two more I'll throw in. Learn to shift gears while in a wheelie. It helps solve the problem you were having of finding the right gear to match your speed. You can start in an easy gear to initiate and as you speed up shift. The 2nd tip is one you already do a bit, but learning to freewheel and do "coaster wheelie" a bit. When you are starting to loop out, instead of feathering the break, just see if a bit of coaster wheelie will solve it, allows you to maintain speed without looping out most of the time. A bit like avoiding the brake when doing manuals. Pretty cool to see how much progress you made in just a short video; I'm not at all surprised, you have all the pieces already in your skillset.
I almost died trying to shift on one of the attempts, I reached for the shifter and my hand almost slid completely off the handlebar! I might need to adjust my shifter position, because I feel like if I could have shifted, it would have made a huge impact for sure. That coaster wheelie tip is so spot on, too - I did that a lot when I felt like I was going too fast, and it helped bring things back in check. Stoked - thanks for adding these to the mix!
I couldn't agree more! I had set this skill to the side for a while, but it was satisfying to dig back into it and make progress. Seems like it's going to be an ongoing process!
What I am doing right now is doing really good wheelies, I can wheelie for a really long time and do some really good tricks, but I have had some negative comments and they have put me down for a bit but what I’ve done is not listen to negative comments and keep confident and believe
Aaron, you have a great channel. I have discovered you recently and you're already my first place to go for tips to learn something new or get better at something that I'm struggling with.
What helped me extremely was to ride the bike no handed and keeping my hands locked behind my back or in front so i would have to use my knees, hips and body to balance, rather than my arms flinging around. The balancing from that translates 1:1 to wheelies and it took me from 3 meter wheelies to 30 meters in a few days.
The angle of my seat helped get me more comfortable, and gave me the extra bit I needed to "sit" more balanced and keep progressing. Maybe try pitching the nose of your saddle down a bit. It helped minimize the feeling of falling back when my angle changed as the front wheel is up
@@SuperRiderTV wholeheartedly hope it does! If it helps you, then it'll be like a mouse helping a lion 🐁 🦁 bc you and your channel are helping me in nearly every aspect of my riding. So thank you! And here's hoping it helps some (even a tiny bit)
These are wheelie good tips! I'll be practicing wheelies on my next ride for sure. The constantly adjusting for balance is my favourite way to think about this, I 'knew' it but it's one to keep conscious of during practice rather than just 'knowing' the concept. Same applies to manuals.
Those practice sessions will make it autonomous. At that point, there is no real conscious thought going to making fine adjustments, it tends to be automatic.
I really felt like I was missing something before I learned the pedaling faster to raise the front end thing. I could balance a wheelie, but as soon as the front dropped - it was over. Pumped to have total control over all the different elements to keep the wheelie going!
I switch my breaks to moto then I can modulate the rear break with my left while shifting gears with the right. With enough practice you can be guarding the rear break just a bit and gently applying it as you wheelie. I also spend a lot of time with the bars close to my chest.
The one trick that got me into a wheelie was not dropping the saddle. Previously, I had been trying to lift my front wheel while sitting on the saddle dropped all the way down. That got my body weight too close to the BB that it was impossible to lift the front wheel. Then I came across another wheelie clip on RU-vid that said "lower the saddle only just slightly." Then I had an Eureka moment that everything clicked together in my head. I had to intentionally disrupt the weigh balance of my bike to go into wheelie, and it was necessary for the saddle to be sufficiently high to push my body weight away from the BB.
Isn't it amazing how these little tips unlock the skill? I hadn't heard that one until a few weeks ago and that helped me out a ton, too! I wonder how close we are to conquering other skills and techniques, all by just a minor tweak or two?? If only it was always this easy! :)
I always thought my wheelie skills were shit, but if 100m is this guy's record I'm really not doing bad. My take is; if you can wheelie for 30+ seconds, ur decent. Over 1 minute is pro, and if ur the guy without a front wheel on a group ride ur a master.
Hey Aaron- I was practicing my wheelies today and when I tried to initiate the pedal with my weak (left) foot first, I kept pulling too hard to the left. When I start with my right foot, I lift the front wheel straight. I couldn't figure out how to pull back evenly starting the pedal with my left foot.. Any ideas?@@SuperRiderTV
@@VoltaDoMar Your issue sounds like something I was experiencing, but I figured out the problem. My bike kept veering off to the left (I'm right-foot dominant when I start the power stroke) until I put more emphasis on throwing my weight back toward the rear tire a nano-second before delivering the "power" stroke to the right pedal. When I don't do this, the bike veers off to the left because I'm creating torque. Hope this helps.
remember to look up and keep your eye on a target ahead of you. this may be a stop light or a speed limit sign but make sure whatever object it is that you have to look up at it.
Great video. I’ve been riding all my life and always sucked at wheelies. Well, I was mostly riding road bikes. Last year I started riding MTB more seriously and been trying but no consistent practice… one day…
The easiest way to start out is by using your biggest cog going up a steep hill, then gradually go flatter on smaller cogs. Relax, head up with a straight back. Hardest issue for me is steering. After months of attempts, I'm finally getting the hang of standing wheelies. Those are easier to steer for some reason. Still not consistent enough to try it off a drop though.
A BIG thing that i wish i knew when learning is the impact that the front wheel have, You want it to spin as fast as possible and it make the bike so much more stable, espacially if you have heavy and tall wheels, and then, by trurning the wheel you can actually control your left and right balance very precisely and take turns. that is an other key to why going faster help.
I was wondering do you think having more core strength helps with wheelies? I've started working out and focusing on strength and endurance. I'm hoping it will help with wheelies and manuals.
Now we have to learn to manual! Sitting and standing. Oh, and you have to feather the back brake, not jam the crap out of it! You actually can shift gears during the wheelie too with practice ( and a good drivetrain lol.)
Aaron, much has to do with modulating throttle and brake... Post cancer treatment and I am working on getting it back. :/ Everything has been affected from muscle mass loss to equilibrium. Needless to say, my pithy, punkass RSD Middlechild has been instrumental in the process... Balance adjustments are more subtle than many realize. The slight knee movement for correction that you mentioned is an example. Teracis, jou got this, mang!!
Glad to hear that you're on the mend and getting it all back! That throttle element was a huge unlock for me, I can't believe I somehow missed that one in the past. Stoked to be making progress once again!
I can do a lot of things but I can not find my wheelie, I have good balance normally but can’t keep that wheel up for the life of me. Or I fall right or left. I can do jumps and plenty other basic tricks but can’t wheelie😭
Im scared to do wheelies on my 15k trek because it doesnt have bumper when i drop something can break. And doin wheelies on cycling steering bars feels so weirdo
I need to spend some timing working on wheelies. My best is probably about 50 feet. In my house, my son can wheelie long distances but can't back wheel hop. I can back wheel hop but can't wheelie long distances. 🤷♀
Hello folks. I'm no wheelie master by any means. I ask those who can here the feedback. • do the same what and how you use your knees. Using your head because it's aboutb15% of your body weight pretty heavy. Control by using head not more power by moving head forward or backwards. • find a spot with a little bit of incline. This way you'll won't spin the cranks to fast before your legs feet start to cavate out of control. The incline will slow you down. Ride Easy BJO
Were you using two in the front or 1 cause most people will be wondering not being rude but just asking which one it is it looks like two ngl and I have two in the front and 9 at the back Edit: is yours the same? And what front gear should I do?
I have just the one chainring in the front (with a bashring around it, which probably looks like an extra chainring). I would probably use the smaller gear in the front in your case, and maybe 5 or 6 in the back.
I just got my hands on an e-bike, trying to learn the wheelie on there too - adjusting to the weight in the down tube has taken a bit more effort, that's for sure!
I found that if you pedal a little harder than usual, it tips the back wheel up a bit. I usually try to pull my hips back a little bit to utilize my weight to assist, too.
Peddle faster lol . I did down my drive way and across the road quite a few times , I was stoked as . Esp that I didn't get hit by a car . I often just use a super low gear . I lift it up straight away , I wait till I pick up speed then lift it back . 5 th gear that must be real hard to peddle lol . Nice one tho .
Well.... I have the weirdest skill of all..... I change my gears while im wheeling if my gears are too low... I cannot go tge other way around tho sadly
There's a video on this channel that can help - how to lift your front wheel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HqMwiQJrXtQ.htmlsi=6SLobYHZIPV4maY_
Are you grabbing your front brake? My best attempts were without a finger on the front brake, and I felt like the spinning front wheel helped me balance a little more on the takeoff.
Your issue sounds like something I was experiencing, but I figured out the problem. My bike kept veering off to the left (I'm right-foot dominant when I start the power stroke) until I put more emphasis on throwing my weight back toward the rear tire a nano-second before delivering the "power" stroke to the right pedal. When I don't do this, the bike veers off to the left because I'm creating torque. Hope this helps.
in my 40s i was determined to learn how to wheelie. i took ryan leach's 30 day wheelie course and practiced daily. All of the daily microlessons build on each other. By the end I could wheelie nearly 1/4 of a mile. here's my 30 day progress - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aJAmF1nrn8E.html
I have the same bike as you. It's the best for wheelies. It took me about a year to learn well. The secret is to pull it up and continually look for the balance point. Practice moving forward without pedaling. For safety, always wear a helmet and a soft backpack for your back. And lean back. This is my cideo of 9 consecutive minutes ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EgAa2vGTL44.html
One thing i think is misrepresented in other videos that i internalized is they say pull up on the bars. In reality i didn't make max progress until i lurched forward and gave my torso rearward momentum by PUSHING hard on the bars and locking out my arms. Also i started going faster as well and my sweet spot gear is 1.70 (front/rear sprockets) on a 29er
Here is the tip that no one ever talks about: after you can wheelie with 2 hands on the bars, it's actually easier to wheelie with only one hand on the bar. This might sound counterintuitive but once you try it I think you will agree. The arm that's off the bar can move freely to offer a massive amount of correction you can use to stay balanced. Furthermore the hand that stays on the bar is able to turn the bar much more freely than when 2 hands are on it and this also offers a massive amount of correction you can use to stay balanced.
I discovered that after breaking my collarbone using two hands like a noob. But with a sling, I was forced to practice my one handed wheelies, way easier.
Looking way, way off at the horizon helps side to side balance a lot. Also, keep pedalling when you dab the rear brake to stop yourself going over backwards. If you stop pedalling it takes a moment to get the pedals going again after the brake dab, so the wheel comes down before you get a chance to catch it. I spent ages doing small wheelies and deliberately bringing them down with the rear brake to kind of hard-wire in the link between the brake and bringing the wheel down so it becomes automatic.
Great advice, thanks for sharing this! That rear brake issue was the #1 thing I struggled with in the past, and pedaling through it was the key. Thanks again!
I get all those tips but i just cant lift my back wheel back enough to wheelie even while pedaling and if i sit down i cant pick it up at all and if i try standing up to pick the wheel up and sit down it doesnt work, i recorded myself and realised im not shifting my weight back enough , if anyone has any tips help me please 🙏
Every single Wheelie video i watched mentions these 3 points. I never got to learn it though. Now i am getting too old to do balance stuff like that. I thought you would run a few laps on that track.
I always find the higher the seat the further it pushes your center of gravity back when you are on one wheel. Keep them arms straight out too unless you want to start steering the front wheel to start going around a corner (some of that is leaning too though.) Good video I'm actually surprised you haven't totally mastered this.
i was learnin wheelies last season on 5th gear on 11 gear casette, but this season im improving to 7 and 8, i just need to get some speed and get in the air with the help of the fork and my body weight
lucky im good at trials i can move my body around during the wheelie and learnt it in no time but i struggle with a heavy school bag on unless i go fast
I love this concept I've wheelie since I've had a bmx as a kid but I can't really hold it while pedaling, manual no issues but I've should had figured this 30+ yrs ago 😂
Harder gears = pedal way faster and really pick up the pace so that there isnt that "push" in the pedals that throw off balance. Speed Wheelies for the win !
I got a tip for you and you got a just your front wheel where you like it so when your front wheel spinning it actually gives you more balanced and stabled
How to do one handed is what I want to know. Whilst there are a million wheelie videos there are very few for one handed. Wheelie 100m, no problem! Take one hand off, impossible!!!
@@SuperRiderTV Thanks Aaron, love the channel. I think you are probably right about getting the weight further back, I need to try again! Too busy at the moment learning backhops, currently at 4 🙂
For me, picking the right gear is one that allows me to go faster so that balance is easier, yet it also has to be low enough so that when I feather the brake, I have enough torque to pull my front wheel back up without losing my wheelie. If you pick too hard of a gear that allows you to go fast, you won't have enough torque to pull your front wheel back up when you feather the rear brake.
