Wheelies are an essential skill that you need to perform on the trail to help conquer situations such as logs, rock ledges, creek banks, sand whoops, etc. There are four types of wheelies that you will use. The first one is from a dead stop and it is the one that allows you to learn all of the necessary wheelie skills the easiest while remaining the safest. Sit to the rear of the seat finding the best compromise between being far enough back to maximize your body weight/traction on the rear tire, but not too far back that you get into a funky body position. Use a little bit of throttle but a lot of clutch, letting it out smoothly but aggressively to help pop the front wheel up. If you are struggling to get the front wheel up either sit back further, or use a little more throttle, or pop the clutch out a little faster, or a combo of all these things. An auto clutch works pretty good doing this first type of wheelie, although you may need to load up the auto clutch by dragging the rear brake initially to help provide a little more "snap" to the power delivery.

Start off getting the wheel up just a little bit off the ground and then as you build your confidence start to challenge yourself to get it higher in the air. On the trail you only need to do a wheelie as high as 3 feet, but when practicing this you need to do it up to 6 feet, straight up and down vertical. Doing it to this height gives you a bigger skill range and comfort zone while popping a wheelie, plus it really reinforces the use of the rear brake as the safety feature to stop you from looping out. When the front wheel comes up too high off the ground out of your comfort zone the natural reaction for the majority of riders is to take both feet off the footpegs and get ready to step off the back of the bike. In this situation you need to retrain your brain to the correct automatic reaction which is to keep your feet on the footpegs and apply the rear brake to bring the front wheel back down and "save it".

So when practicing your wheelies you need to push yourself to the point of trying to loop yourself out, and then obviously use the rear brake so as you don't. Once you are able to confidently get the front wheel up high, and to control it at that height, you will be able to easily and safely conquer those difficult advanced trail situations, plus be able to impress the hell out your mates by pulling some pretty mad long wheelies.

G'day!

Shane
http://www.shanewatts.com



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