Wheelieing a road bike.
It makes you look cool, and gives you street cred.
Guys, Peter Sagan wheelies, it must be cool.
(upbeat music)
Right, before we get on with the tutorial,
a couple of recommendations when it comes to your bike
and also your wheelieing venue.
Firstly you want to choose somewhere
which is ever so slightly uphill.
That's gonna make it easier for you to get
your front wheel off the ground,
and also easier for you to control your speed.
Also, if you're new to this,
which you probably are, watching this video,
try and do it on something which is slightly softer
than tarmac.
That way it's not gonna hurt as much
if you do happen to come off.
Also try to do it on a calm day,
because if there's any wind,
especially if you've got a deep-sectioned front wheel,
that can really throw you off your balance.
And finally, use flat pedals when you're starting out.
You do not want to be locked into clipless pedals
when you're learning to wheelie.
Other than that though
we're going to leave the bike the same,
because ultimately, you want to be able to wheelie
your ordinary road bike.
Right, let's get started by practicing
getting that front wheel off the ground.
And this is where gear selection becomes important
because not only are you using your body
to pull your front wheel up,
simultaneously you're going to be
pushing through the pedals,
so you want to be in a nice easy gear to start with.
Roll along at just below walking pace,
and then, staying seated, hold onto your hoods,
and then bend your elbows slightly,
and pull the wheel up while simultaneously
pushing down on the pedals with your favoured foot.
Now you want to push down from around
the two o'clock position,
and your front wheel should be off the ground
by the time you're down to the bottom of the pedal stroke.
Initially what you want to concentrate on
is getting your front wheel off the ground
whilst keeping the bike straight.
As you get more confident,
you will find that eventually,
you're getting to the balance point
and sometimes even over it.
It's at this point that we will tell you
that you're back brake, when you're wheelieing,
is your best friend.
In essence, applying your back brake
will pull your front wheel back down to the floor.
So that's the next thing to practice.
Pull your front wheel up,
and get used to pulling on your back brake,
and coming back down again.
Eventually, we want to just be dabbing the back brake
slightly, in order to stay in the balanced wheelie position.
But for now, it's just about getting your brain
used to using the back brake.
That's really important.
Once you've spent a fair amount of time
practicing getting that front wheel up,
and also engaging your brain
as to what the back brake does,
you should be able to then
get yourself to the balance point
at the end of your first push through the pedals.
If you pull your front wheel up slightly too much,
remember it's now time to dab your rear brake.
And what you need to get used to
is dabbing the brake enough that you don't fall off the back
but not so much that your front wheel
comes crashing down to the ground.
When your front wheel does
begin to come back down to the floor,
putting a little bit more power through the pedals
should send it back up again.
Again, like the brake, not too much,
just subtle pushes is what you want.
(relaxed music)
What you may well find after a good deal of practice,
is that you are easily finding your front to rear balance
point but you're going off to the left and to the right.
And that's where moving your wheel around,
and your knees, comes into play.
(relaxed music)
And this same technique actually,
is how you can start to turn corners
whilst you're in a wheelie.
So leaning the bike ever so slightly
one way or the other, will mean that you can negotiate
some small turns, all the time using that front wheel,
and your knees, to stay on your chosen line.
Now, like everything in life
which gives you this much street cred,
a wheelie is not something which you are
going to be able to pick up overnight.
It's going to take a lot of time,
a lot of patience, and a lot of practice.
And we would love to hear how you get on though,
you can leave your thoughts and comments
in the section just down below this video.
And if you're experiencing any problems,
leave them there as well, and we,
or other viewers, will try to answer them for you.
Now if you've enjoyed this video
please give it the thumbs up,
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and then a couple more street cred videos for you,
down here is how to bunny hop,
and down here is how to track stand.