Finally starting to be able to wheelie my bike! Wheelie BLOG

One thing that always bothered me was I could never wheelie my bike. It just seemed impossible. When I came on the forum looking for tips, most people said it is very difficult with an ebike and you get the idea it isn't worth trying to learn how to do it and you should wait for gyro controlled wheelie option in the controller.

Well, after watching this guy wheelie his stealth bomber on youtube, I thought it must be possible. One thing that got me thinking was on his video he said he had practiced for a full week and 12 to 15 hours practice. That is the big secret right there nobody really discussed, you need a lot of practice. I wish he stressed that more in the video that you just need to put in lots of time and you are going to suck at it big time in the beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xID556Nevw

It got me thinking, it seems almost impossible to do a wheelie but maybe I need like 15 hours of practice to finally be able to do it. I figured with enough practice I may just be able to do it and 15 hours is a lot of time spent just trying to wheelie.

I start out with my practice, and for the first few days I kept trying to wheelie, I honestly didn't get anywhere. I could lift the bike up but it was impossible to hold the wheelie. Many times I wouldn't even get the front wheel up. It still seemed impossible.

I kept on with the practice, trying different power settings, didn't make a lot of progress. I'm glad I had my custom motor cooling because my hub motor heated in no time from the constant lifting up the front wheel (make sure you have a temp gauge before practicing). My recommendation is to just use the power setting you always use and don't lower it, you need to learn to control the wheelie with the throttle.

I then found going slightly up hill made it a bit easier to wheelie, and I was making a little progress but it was very small, maybe I was able to hold a wheelie a few times for a short distance.

Finally today after a lot of practice, I actually wheelied the bike for a good distance and felt I was finally in control. I felt it was all possible now and controllable. I still have a lot of trouble but I am able to wheelie it every once in a while for a good distance.

I also found that it is important where you sit when doing a wheelie, you have to be back a bit on your seat and it is much easier to do. Your body should naturally learn the best body position.

That is how you learn to wheelie, you basically have to put hours and hours of hard practice, you need your body and brain to adapt also so you need to spread the practice over lots of days. There is no way you will be able to wheelie unless you put in these hard hours of practice with almost all failures and many times almost falling off the bike. Lucky for me I never actually dropped the bike, but was close.

Remember, you need to be quick with that rear brake if you are going back to far, this will come naturally with practice.

funny. i watched the same video today as well showed up under recommendations ...
he really handles that bike very well. but what he didn't mention was, that he rides wheelies on his motorbikes as well. look up his other videos where he get's stopped by police for doing that. one time he had to pay $3000+ !!!! and one month of bike detention for doing wheelies in traffic. he's australian. you won't get fined like that here in middle europe.

so back to topic. i always wished i could wheelie. i tried it, but gave up quite soon. i destroy a lot of brake/clutch levers and mirrors on my enduro motos. and destroyed a lot of trousers and gloves when i fell off.

i would like to be able to handle that SO much, that is sometime DREAM about it. in my dreams i can do it REALLY good, and think to myself why i thought it would be hard, as it's sooo easy. then i wake up.

but having seen this video i might try it again. it MUST be possible. even if you're 40+.

Yeah, if you have prior wheelie experience it probably helps. Especially if you were able to wheelie a bicycle. Both of which I have no experience with doing.

It is ridiculously hard to wheelie an ebike. The only way you can do it is you have to practice all the time. Everytime you start accelerating from a stop try and wheelie, find good places and just keep trying. It is tough on your body, you can drop the bike, but there is no way around this.

I just wanted people to know it is possible, even if you think it is impossible. I decided I had enough not being able to wheelie and was going to keep practicing at it until I learned.

I am only able to wheelie the bike after every like 10th try now, I still have so much practice to do in order to get as good as that guy on the video. I'm actually going to go out now and practice.

What is great is when you get better you can actually start to wheelie the bike at higher speeds. It is also a big help when in the woods having to ride over fallen trees and stuff.

Add me to the 'want to learn' list.

I've had moments where the wheel lifts on acceleration and I've tried it for 10 minutes until frustration set in. 12 - 15 hours huh? ... maybe I can try to squeeze that out this summer.

Ur so right on practice makes perfect,when i first got my bomber it seemed strange to wheelie, with the weight in back wheel but just dont try to hard,cover back brake always and u can bounce the front up once u get going works great
https://youtu.be/WXvSVaG-wKw

I am so happy, I am wheeling all over the place now. It is amazing how the body-mind learns.

Yesterday was the first day I was finally able to hold a wheelie for a short distance but was only able to somewhat do it like every 10th try, I totally still sucked at it. Today when I went out to practice I was so much better at it. I didn't expect to be that good at it today. You really do a lot of learning when you sleep.

I don't even need to push the pedals to start the wheelie today, I just use the throttle and get the wheel right in proper position.

Once you finally get that first wheelie you then start to learn even faster. Problem is it takes days and hours of practice to get that first wheelie.

What I recommend is to practice every day for maybe 15-20 minutes, if you go over that it isn't worth it and may be counter productive. What I find is that you need to sleep at night for your brain to learn, so it is better to spread the practice out over many days and not to do much in a single day. You need to take very small steps.

Unless you are using a thumb throttle like I am, you have to move the rear brake to the left side. It is very important to have quick access to the rear brake because that will prevent you from flipping back off the bike.

Being able to wheelie is so much fun, it adds a whole new level of fun to the bike. I recommend everyone to take the time and learn how to do it.

Jimboyr6 said:

Ur so right on practice makes perfect,when i first got my bomber it seemed strange to wheelie, with the weight in back wheel but just dont try to hard,cover back brake always and u can bounce the front up once u get going works great
https://youtu.be/WXvSVaG-wKw

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That is awesome. It is great how you start your wheelie at speed. Did you have prior wheelie experience before learning on your ebike?

If you had prior experience, do you think this has helped a lot?

Experience does help so u can feel the balance point easyer, but ebikes are not like anything iv wheeled before,it's definitely harder to learn.

Wheelie update!

Took the bike out today after a two day rest. Definitely getting better. I am able to wheelie for long distances now.

Things I noticed today that I didn't notice before.

1) I'm able to slightly control the direction of the bike when I am in a wheelie, but not all the time.

2) When I pull the bike up to start my wheelie, no matter how I do it I can now get into proper wheelie height by using the throttle. Before if I didn't pull on the handlebars hard enough and not lift the bike high enough I would not be able to wheelie. Now I can just use the throttle to get right into proper position. I believe learning throttle control for a wheelie is a big part.

3) If I am falling too far back, which is becoming more rare, and grab hard on the rear brake. I notice now when I slam the front of the bike down hard it doesn't hurt anymore. This could be because I now make sure the front wheel is perfectly straight on impact or my muscles and back have built up for the impact, probably a little of both. Before when I had to brake hard when in a wheelie I would slam down and it would hurt and jolt my whole body.

4) I noticed that my body found an even better balanced position to wheelie in. Now I don't sit so far back and lean back as far. What I do now is sit not so far back, and I don't lean as far back. I now pull the bike into my chest, hard to explain, but it gives me better control of the bike. My body just seemed to have found this better position. The old leaning back, sitting further back position may be better for really slow wheelies, need more time to experiment.


I noticed wheelieing seems more natural now and I have to think less about doing it. I was actually worried last time I practiced that it would always be a little difficult, but it is actually becoming easier to do. The thought came for a brief moment into my head today, "why did I ever find this so difficult". I now wonder after a couple more weeks of practice if I will now tell everyone wheeling is totally easy and completely forgot just how impossible it was when I started to learn.

Some issues I'll have to work out. It seems that many times I wheelie I keep accelerating to hold up the wheelie. My speed will get very fast. I am not sure yet if I can have control of the speed, but I think I should be. What I find is if I am in a wheelie and I am starting to lose it I will full throttle the bike to bring the wheel back up and that will start increasing my speed. 35-40MPH (56KPH-64KPH) is speeds I think I reach sometimes when in a wheelie.

Either way, loving being able to wheelie. Got some compliments from other drivers seeing me do it.

Offroader said:

I believe learning throttle control for a wheelie is a big part.

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Yep. That is a major problem with most high speed ebikes: throttle response is often twitchy at a lower speed. Once you achieve a natural throttle response progression, it becomes possible to control the lift angle with some practice.

Of course, practice is the key. The more you do it, the better you become at it.

I lift the front often in the mountain to pass obstacles. I was finding it unprecise with the ebike, but got used to it with the years, and better bike building experience making it much more controlable. On the street I lift the front out of turns in acceleration, very precisely now. I never ride on a wheelie though, I am too much into speeding for that. If I was going to, the first mods I would do, would be to put the rear brake lever on the left and set a steeper angle to the fork.

My progress update:

Last Friday I hurt myself pretty badly doing a wheelie. I went back too far and slammed on that rear brake in panic, for some reason I came down with such force that somehow my right pedal hit my right shin. It hurt a bit and when I got home discovered a golf ball size lump and gash where the pedal hit.

I couldn't believe how big the lump was at the one spot. My whole lower leg eventually got swollen. I am able to walk normally as the impact was just the shin and no soft tissue. It was just a really bad pedal strike.

That was the first time that happened, and I have not dropped the bike yet. I am not sure how the pedal hit my shin but I do know I came down fast as I squeezed that rear brake. I came down so hard that I heard one of my brakes rubbing for a couple of minutes afterwards but it went away.


I always wear knee pads, and sometimes shin guards. If I had shin guards I would be OK right now.

I took my bike out today for the first time since I hurt myself last week. My shin is still very sore and the bone will even hurt a bit when I walk but I am OK riding. Took me a little time to start wheelieing again as I was scared and out of practice, but I got back into into doing them. I am slowly getting better at this point.

I love wheelies too! I have a little crf50 I can wheelie for miles but still haven't mastered my BBSHD FS mountain bike yet yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Kcl3k7xEg on my 50 it's all about the rear brake I pretty much never completely let off the throttle or the brake, they are always fighting each other and I regulate them both to maintain balance point. With my e bike I feel like a little more power would help me bring it back up if it drops too far. How about some videos and some detials on your bike. Im thinking of building a bike just for wheelies probably a hardtail mtb with a cyclone 3k.

I actually don't use the rear brake to keep my balance point, I only use the rear brake when I go back too far and that stops my wheelie.

What I find I do is continuously pump the throttle to stay in the right balance point. I don't or rarely hold the throttle steady at all. I am not sure if this is the best way to do it, but it is the way I learned. I do wonder if using the rear brake at the same time would be better.

My biggest problem seems to be veering off to one side. I think more power is actually better, I am currently pushing 7KW and have my phase amps maxed out on my Max-E. But I think it is easier to wheelie with more power because when I'm at my highest voltage 82 volts, I think it is easier than when I'm lower at 70 volts.

This is the bike I am using in the picture below Qulbix Q76R. I have been wanting to get some videos so I'll have to work on that. I am going to get a chest mount to mount my camera. Wanted to get a bit better before I do some videos, but should be soon.

Looks like a sweet ride! And serious power too!

Dogboy1200 said:

Looks like a sweet ride! And serious power too!

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Thanks, check out the size of the battery I put in it. 280 cells, over 3KW. I also have a custom cooling in the motor so I can drive it hard and not overheat.

Looks heavy to my eye. Love the rear tire though. :wink:

I find that if I preload the fork and apply throttle at the right time wheel comes off much easier and much more controllable.
I do however find that I miss the help from the clutch alot. When wheelie a dirt bike or motorcycle I always relied on the clutch to get lift. What helped a lot with using the clutch is that when you drop the clutch you get the bike up to the balance point quickly and without increasing much speed. If you try to wheelie e-bike without preloading the fork you will find that it is hard to get to the balance point and that speed increases too fast. Or at least thats how it is for me.
I haven't gotten to practice a lot yet, so not getting really long distances yet. But I do get up the front wheel, and I can easily wheelie up the curb, over bumps, water splashes etc.

i guess wheelieing a mid drive is even harder as you have all the lag the drive train imposes.
it takes some time to engage the rear wheel when i turn the throttle. and if i close the throttle the motor stops completely because of all the free wheels. so when i apply throttle again the motor has to rev up to match the bike's speed first.
this may be a really bad configuration, don't you think?


and those pedal spikes REALLY hurt

Hehe
DH pedals do bite. Yet, they are more likely to bite landing a jump than in a wheelie. They also prefer the front of your leg, where the experience is more durable.

MadRhino said:

Hehe
DH pedals do bite. Yet, they are more likely to bite landing a jump than in a wheelie. They also prefer the front of your leg, where the experience is more durable.

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you can still see the scars. those were really deep cuts. didn't hurt though. but it took some weeks to heal.

Thats gona sting in the shower
10/10 for effort though

Another quick update on my wheelie progress. I have stopped a lot of my practicing and just wheelie when I can while riding normally, like I'll wheelie after stopping for a red light. I have not been riding all that much lately.

What I do now is I always start my wheelies between 10 and 20 MPH, this way I can have some speed while wheelieing and not hold up traffic.

I'm also working on increasing my power a little bit to make it easier to bring up the front wheel.

It is still a hit or miss on how good my wheelie will be. I believe if the road is not perfectly flat the bike will fall to the side easier.

Quick update for today. I now start almost all my wheelies at speed, many as high as 20MPH, at these speeds my wheelies will will hit as high as 40MPH sometimes.

Starting at those speeds the bike lacks the power to lift the front up so it is all about pulling up the front of the bike. I notice it comes very natural how I control a lot of my wheelie with how I am pulling on the handlebars and how much I am leaning back. It is a combination of throttle control, leaning back, and pulling on the bars on controlling the wheelie.

This is all stuff your body needs to adapt over time, it is like learning to walk.

On a full charge, 82 volts, I can start a wheelie at 30MPH / 48 KPH. I was surprised to be able to do it at those speeds but on a full charge the bike is extra powerful. When voltage starts falling it does get a bit harder to get the front up at those speeds.

I have noticed that as I ride longer the wheelies get harder to do, I thought it was because I was just getting physically exhausted, but I think it may be because my voltage is dropping and I am losing power.

I wonder if there is anything I can do at lower voltages to get more power.

Yeah pedal :wink: