How To Wheelie A Dirt Bike Like – Dirt Bike Riding Tips
Russell Franklin - November 3, 2022Not only is it cool to know how to do wheelies on your dirt bike, but it can also help you get through and over some tricky and other very challenging situations. To navigate logs, ford streams, and overcome rutted or uneven terrain while trail riding, you must be able to raise the front wheel.
How To Wheelie A Dirt Bike (Step By Step)
Here’s how I suggest new riders learn to wheelie on a dirt bike.
- Locate a lengthy, straight section that is flat (a slight incline is even better).
Check for good traction and make sure there are no obstructions up ahead. The best gravel roads are those where the gravel is mostly gone and there is hard-pack or dirt underneath. Although pavement works well, I don’t suggest using it at first. - Start riding in second (or third) gear.
The secret is to keep your speed at a level that keeps your RPM just before your bike’s peak power hit. You want your bike to have a little pep when you roll the throttle. You don’t want to completely lug it, nor do you want your bike to reach the highest RPMs possible. For example, let’s say you want to have 1/3 of your gear used. - Knees slightly bent, rise up.
Do you see the man in the picture up top? The best place to start when learning to pop (and ride) a wheelie is in that position. His FEET POSITION is something you might miss, though. Ensure that your feet are not on the balls of them. To improve your balance, place the pegs in the middle of your feet. This will allow you to hit the back break if necessary. - Dropping your hips, lean back a little.
You’re not trying to pop a wheelie like you used to do on your bicycle, which is what you should be doing. You will land on your back if you jerk back on the bars, lean back, or goose it. Don’t inquire as to how I know, please. Your balance will be improved throughout the process if you lower your hips and almost push the bike out with your feet. - Pause, then pick up the pace.
Before popping a wheelie, you should actually let off the gas and lean slightly forward, despite the fact that this may seem counterintuitive. This will help you lift the front tire off the ground with less throttle and less jerk. It will also preload the suspension. - Keep the throttle open while easing off.
The easiest part of the process is lifting the front wheel off the ground. Balance and throttle control are now important once you’ve gradually and smoothly raised the front tire. The ideal situation would be to avoid using the bike’s acceleration to maintain tire pressure. To maintain speed, you must locate the balance point. If you start in second, it’s possible that you’ll have to switch to third in the middle of a wheelie before you find that balance. That’s alright; in fact, that’s pretty cool.
Tips For Not Crashing Horribly While Doing A Wheelie
- You could try dragging your feet along the ground instead of putting them on the pegs by hanging them off the back of the bike. As a result, the weight is distributed further back, and if you start to tip over to one side or the other, it will be simple to put your foot down. Just raise one foot onto the foot pegs if you feel the need to use your foot brake.
- Use a lower CC or smaller pit bike if you have one to practice wheelies. In addition to being much lighter and simpler to flip up, these bikes are also simpler to control if they begin to tip.
- To perform a wheelie, locate a very flat surface. Because you’re focused on maintaining balance front to back and neglect side to side balance, you can easily topple over if there are even the slightest bumps.
- Avoid leaning too far back on the bike or you’ll land on your back.
- With your right foot, make sure to cover the foot brake. You should tap the brake and slightly let off the throttle to bring the front tire down if you feel your center of gravity pushing you too far back.
Try This To Improve Your Wheelie Skills
Once you have mastered the main wheelie, try the following. Using these maneuvers will not only help you look cool while improving your wheelie balance.
- Give her a burst of revs while she’s seated and in first gear, then let go of the clutch and lift the front wheel. Hold the front wheel up as long as you can while proceeding as slowly as you can by using the clutch, accelerator, and rear brake. When accomplished, this appears really cool, but it is much more difficult than it appears to be!
- Try turning the front tire side to side with your handlebars once you’ve performed a wheelie. Maintaining the right throttle for the wheelie while continuing to travel straight requires some additional thought.
- While starting a wheelie from a stop is the simplest and safest option, you can also do it while moving quickly in second or third gear. In fact, due to the momentum on your side, some riders find that this kind of wheelie is simpler to maintain over a long distance.
- Rather than dragging your feet on the ground, try standing up on your foot pegs.
- You can actually stand with your feet on the back of your seat and reach for the handlebars once you get really good at wheelies.
How To Do A Wheelie With A Clutch
The use of a clutch to perform a wheelie is also acceptable. In actuality, eventually you ought to learn how.
Many of the same pointers mentioned above apply when doing a wheelie with a clutch. Clutching will (eventually) allow you to work less hard to get the tire in the air, but positioning is still important.
Check your balance and throttle control before attempting to wheelie your dirt bike with a clutch. For maintaining and feathering power and speed, be familiar with your bike’s power band, RPM range, gearing, and sweet spots.
How To Do A Wheelie On A 4 Stroke Or 2 Stroke
If you haven’t read my background, I actually learned to ride on a four-stroke motorcycle. Having said that, I (personally) believe that a four-stroke motorcycle is MUCH easier to wheelie on than a two-stroke, and it’s probably the easiest dirt bike to wheelie.
Just use the above tips to execute a wheelie on a four-stroke. For a four-stroke rider as opposed to a two-stroke rider, that is actually more accurate.
Again, remember the advice above to ride a wheelie on a 2 stroke dirt bike, but be prepared to take your time. Additionally, you’ll need to develop even slightly better throttle control and balance.
The objective is to develop balance in either case. Once you figure it out, positioning and balancing become more important than using the throttle.
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