Learning to Wheelie

I have always wanted to Wheelie.  Ever since I was 6 years old and could pedal a “grown up” bike without training wheels.  It just looked so fun.

If I were a boy- I would probably already know how.   It seems like all the boys knew how to wheelie when I was a kid.  They rode around doing tricks on their bikes, falling off, skinning their knees and elbows- they learned by trial and error.  They were comfortable being uncomfortable.  They liked to go fast and scare themselves.  I rode my bike to get somewhere, for transportation, trying desperately to stay upright and not fall.  I didn’t want to look stupid or get in trouble for breaking my bike.  Well look at me now, a grown woman who can’t enjoy a decent wheelie.  It turns out the older I get the more afraid of falling off and hurting myself I am.  It just takes too long to recover- what if I break something?

Well no more, life is too short not to be riding a wheelie when you feel like it.

 I went about my wheelie education the way one does in this day and age- I googled it.  There was so much information out there I was a bit shocked. Most of the videos were of  guys riding wheelies, only a few women posted their videos- it made me want it even more.  With all of information and you tube videos online, I couldn’t believe that everyone wasn’t riding wheelies.  All of the basic concepts were there and a ton of people broke the wheelie down into easily digestible bits.  Armed with that I took off to the nearest grassy field to see what I could do.  Not much it turned out.  I could barely get my wheel off the grass.  The next morning I woke up with a sore back, sore arms and one sore leg (from stomping down on one pedal while trying to pull up the handlebars).  Still not discouraged, I decided to source it out and hire a coach.  I needed live feedback for what I was doing wrong.  Why didn’t I think of this before.

I hired the best wheel-ier I knew to teach me. Cole. He’s 14. He’s got the sickest wheelie in town.  This kid can out wheelie anyone I know, so who better to teach me than him.  I wish I was 14 again, I feel like it would be easier.  I texted Cole and decided to meet him in the park across the street from our houses where there was some nice soft grass.  I can’t imagine what he thought about teaching a woman (his mother’s age) how to wheelie, but there was money involved so he showed up.

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We started with observation- “just show me how you do it”, I said,  feeling like if I were riding near him, his wheelie mojo would rub off on me.  No such luck.  My first of 4 lessons over the next month was very frustrating.  I was afraid of flipping over and landing on my back, so much so that I could not relax and lean back far enough to get the wheel off the ground.  In fact, every time I got close to lifting my wheel up too far, I stopped pedaling and the wheel slammed back down to the ground.  I never fell over but I was so scared- not sure of what.  Perhaps still the fear of looking stupid was with me, even more so after all of these years.  After looping out a couple of times and stepping off the back of the bike or tapping the rear break to bring the front wheel down, I still had a paralyzing rush of adrenaline shoot through my body every time I tried to wheelie.   I was exhausted after the first 30 min of a hour long lesson.  Learning something new made me a motor moron, I was so tense and afraid.

Cole was patient and always optimistic, “you just need more practice,” he would say.  After each lesson, I left the field with one tired leg, but my arms were not sore anymore, I finally began to lock my arms out and lean back, way way back, further back than you would imagine you need to.  Every time I felt that “sweet spot” of balancing on my rear wheel while pedaling my front high in the air, I freaked out a little less and held onto it a little more.  Cole was impressed, but played it cool.  “See.  That’s what it feels like.”

I set a goal of 5 full pedal strokes by the time my lessons were over.  After a total of 4 lessons I was pretty inconsistently getting 2-3 full strokes in.  I wanted more.  It seemed like there was never enough time in the day to set aside to practice.  If I was on my bike, I just wanted to ride trails.

By the end of the lessons I had gotten 5 pedal strokes in, not on camera of course, and not consistently.  I could not do it with the added stress of being clipped into my pedals.   What do you expect, I am not a wheelie master.  I do, however have the fundamentals of wheelie-ing hiding deep down in my synapses. All they need is be consistently activated by practice and I one day will be a true wheelie master.

I’m going out right now to practice.

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