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Free: 30-Day Wheelie Challenge


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On 3/20/2020 at 10:56 AM, circuitbreaker said:

i'm not gonna sign up, but i'm in for the challenge. just need to try and practice every day.

anyone make progress yet?

 

I got out today finally and made it to Day 5 of the program, which is pretty much where I've been stuck forever. I practiced for a good while and look forward to what comes next. Honestly I don't even care that much about wheelies but have heard that mastering wheelies is a great way to find your balance point for doing manuals, which to me is much more useful out on the trail. 

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On 3/20/2020 at 10:56 AM, circuitbreaker said:

i'm not gonna sign up, but i'm in for the challenge. just need to try and practice every day.

anyone make progress yet?

 

I keep spilling my beer down my shirt, but I'm gonna stick with it gawd dammit.

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Practiced a bit again today. Got one or two more pedal strokes on my best try. My body feels like its trying to figure out the side-to-side stability while pedaling.

I just ride on the street and clipped in. For some reason, i'm not scared of looping out, it all seems very controlled. I do prefer practicing on a slight incline.

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just went out for a quick 5 minute practice. that's 4 days in a row!

feeling more confident in general, probably got 10 pedal strokes in. i noticed the reason i don't really use my brake much, if i feel my weight getting too far back, i'm naturally leaning forward to counteract. i keep my arms straight the whole time, so it more like i'm leaning into my shoulders. i guess keep your arms out straight in front of you, and them move them back and forward by using the shoulders without bending your elbow. not a big movement, but enough to counteract the weight.

*just realized its silly for me to try and explain this, its something your body's just gotta figure out itself. it's all muscle memory. at the same time, it is pretty cool to feel it happening.

Edited by circuitbreaker
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I did my first practice yesterday.  I was already at a level where I could do 4 strokes, but it was a race to get those in before the front wheel dropped.  Yesterday I was able to get 10 strokes in, and I felt the balance point @circuitbreaker and Ryan Leech mention.  I also had never used the rear brake to bring the front wheel down but I practiced that yesterday.  I got a little bit of a lean to the left so I hope some of the next few lessons help with that.  Oh, I was clipped in since it's the same bike I use for my regular riding.

Edited by AntonioGG
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Not that I can wheelie, but have wondered if practicing simply riding with no hands would be a good thing to practice for help for side to side stability skills.  It seems like riding with no hands at slower speeds and doing turns may help with muscle memory of balancing when doing wheelies.  Maybe?

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I can ride and turn with no hands on any bike for an extended period of time.  That doesn't seem to help with tilting while doing a wheelie.


On my practice today, I finally looped out.  Thankfully today I decided to do it on my backyard where it was a nice soft fall.  It was weird because even though I practiced using the rear brake, and I'm finding the balance point, as I was looping back, my instinct wasn't to unclip or use the brake, I was trying to use my body to balance and I failed.   No true advance since yesterday, just more practice.  I forgot to watch today's video.

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3 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

On my practice today, I finally looped out.  Thankfully today I decided to do it on my backyard where it was a nice soft fall.  It was weird because even though I practiced using the rear brake, and I'm finding the balance point, as I was looping back, my instinct wasn't to unclip or use the brake, I was trying to use my body to balance and I failed.   No true advance since yesterday, just more practice.  I forgot to watch today's video.

Glad you got that out of the way. just keep those brakes covered.

I also practiced today, but it was kinda lazy. no breakthroughs. 5 days in a row though.

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If you HAVE to pedal to keep the front wheel up, then you haven't found the natural balance point yet. Front wheel needs to go higher. Once you are in the natural balance point you should be able to stop pedaling and the front wheel shouldn't drop. It's also much easier to control the bike left to right and it doesn't want to flop to one side like it does when the wheel isn't high enough. I've been practicing wheelies almost every day (when it doesn't rain) for the past 10 months or so. I'm not great at it, but it's definitely easier to find that balance point when the bike is already rolling fast.

But the biggest thing to remember is that if you have to keep pedaling and pedal faster to keep the front up, you aren't at the balance point. Same goes for if your front wheel keeps flopping to the left or right really easily.

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4 hours ago, radiantm3 said:

If you HAVE to pedal to keep the front wheel up, then you haven't found the natural balance point yet. Front wheel needs to go higher. Once you are in the natural balance point you should be able to stop pedaling and the front wheel shouldn't drop. It's also much easier to control the bike left to right and it doesn't want to flop to one side like it does when the wheel isn't high enough. I've been practicing wheelies almost every day (when it doesn't rain) for the past 10 months or so. I'm not great at it, but it's definitely easier to find that balance point when the bike is already rolling fast.

But the biggest thing to remember is that if you have to keep pedaling and pedal faster to keep the front up, you aren't at the balance point. Same goes for if your front wheel keeps flopping to the left or right really easily.

Good points.

I'm actually much worse the faster I go.  I can pop up and wheelie almost from a trackstand, and I feel that balance point b/c I can stop pedaling and keep the front end up.  My yard is not even though, so naturally I lose and gain forward momentum and that's when I have to do a half pedal.  But that feeling of being at this point is awesome.  And yes, the moment I feel like I'm just speeding up I know I didn't pop it up far enough so I just start over.

I skipped my practice today but did go on a good road ride.  Gotta keep the fitness up too.

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Funny how it seemed so easy on one these back in the day. I remember as a kid wheeling down the street effortlessly, slow and steady. Did the banana seat and sissy bar make the difference? There was no feathering the brake back then either! 

 

4e4023589ca1d4cad5f83c9b40eec3ef--cool-things-happy-things.jpg

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9 hours ago, throet said:

Funny how it seemed so easy on one these back in the day. I remember as a kid wheeling down the street effortlessly, slow and steady. Did the banana seat and sissy bar make the difference? There was no feathering the brake back then either! 

 

4e4023589ca1d4cad5f83c9b40eec3ef--cool-things-happy-things.jpg

I use to be able to ride a wheelie from my drive way to me friends house 6 blocks away like it was the natural way to ride a bike! On both my BMX and mountain bike. Now I’m lucky if I make it 50ft! 

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I pulled out the DJ bike today and my oldest son and I had a manual competition.  We have a slight downhill so we would start at a crack in the street and use sticks to mark our longest one.  When you find that balance point, it's so cool.  I managed to get a few good ones but I don't know what I did different from all the other times.  The weather was amazing for practice and you can easily maintain the 6' distance from any neighbor.  Also, you're going pretty slow with a helmet so even if you loop out, it shouldn't be an ER trip.

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