Wheelie

In vehicle acrobatics, a wheelie is a vehicle maneuver in which the front wheel or wheels come off the ground due to extreme torque being applied to the rear wheel or wheels.^[1] Wheelies are usually associated with bicycles and motorcycles, but can be done with other vehicles such as cars, especially in drag racing and tractor pulling. Performing such a maneuver is informally referred to as "popping a wheelie."

Contents 1 History 2 Types of wheelie 2.1 Motorcycle 2.2 Automobiles 2.3 Bicycles 3 Wheelie bars 4 See also 5 Notes

History

Wheelies appear in popular culture as early as 1943, as U.S Army motorized cavalry are pictured in Life magazine performing high speed wheelies.^[2] Daredevil Evel Knievel performed motorcycle acrobatics including wheelies in his shows. Doug "The wheelie king" Domokos has accomplished such feats as a 145-mile (233 km) wheelie.^[3]

Types of wheelie

Types of wheelies include:

• Clutch wheelies are performed by disengaging the clutch and opening the throttle to let the engine race and then engaging the clutch abruptly.
• Power wheelies are performed by simply opening the throttle. If the engine has sufficient power, it will be able to lift the front wheel.
• Bounce wheelies are performed by opening and closing the throttle in time with rocking the rider's weight back and forth, thus pre-loading the front suspension so that the throttle is opening at the same time as the front suspension is unloading.

Motorcycle

A wheelie is also a common motorcycle stunt. The principle is the same as the bicycle wheelie, but the throttle and rear-brakes are used to control the wheelie while a rider uses body weight and the steering to control the direction the inertia of the spinning front wheel acting as a balance.^[4]

The world's fastest motorcycle wheelie record is 307.86 km/h (191.30 mph) by Patrick Furstenhoff. April 18, 1999.^[5] The world record for the fast wheelie over 1 km (0.6 mi) is 172.9 mph (278.3 km/h),^[6] set in September 2006 by Terry Calcott at Elvington airfield in Yorkshire, England. This event takes place every year.^[7]

In some countries, such as the United Kingdom and USA,^[8] motorcyclists performing a wheelie on a public road may be prosecuted for dangerous driving,^[9][10] an offense which can carry a large fine and a ban of a year or more.^[11] In Pakistan, India, and some other countries its illegal to perform these kinds of stunts. If someone is caught performing these acts, they can have their motorcycle impounded and potentially face jail time. ^[12]

Automobiles

Wheelies are common in auto- or motorcycle drag racing, where they represent torque wasted lifting the front end, rather than moving the vehicle forward.

Bicycles

Wheelies are a common stunt in artistic cycling and freestyle BMX. A variation of the wheelie is the manual wheelie. This is similar to a wheelie but no pedalling is involved. The bike is balanced by the rider's weight and sometimes use of the rear brake. A style of bicycle, the wheelie bike, has a seating position, and thus center of mass, nearly over the rear wheel that facilitates performing wheelies.

Wheelie bars

Wheelie bars help prevent a drag vehicle's front end from raising too high or flipping over on launch. Wham-O developed and sold an add-on wheelie bar for wheelie bikes.

See also

• Bicycle and motorcycle dynamics
• Stoppie
• Weight transfer

Notes