How To Do A Wheelie On A Dirt Bike For Beginners

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Among the various dangerous acts, you can do while riding a dirt bike, from racing on death-defying courses to traversing dangerous terrain, the easiest trick that any dirt biker owner can pull off is doing a wheelie, but while everyone can do it, not everyone can do so.

If you were wondering how to wheelie a dirt bike, here are the steps you should follow if you want to do a wheelie.

Get into position on your dirt bike then grip the handlebars firmly. Get into a gear that provides the most torque and shift your weight to the rear wheel.

Once it’s done then undo the dirt bike’s clutch and open the throttle and engage the clutch. Lastly, make sure to maintain the balance while doing a wheelie.

Make sure to read the entire article as not only will I be going over these steps in extensive detail, but I will also talk about certain aspects of wheeling and tips to help you get better at them.

3 Different Ways To Wheelie A Dirt Bike

Is doing a wheelie on a dirt bike hard? Read my guide to learn how

While I have explained the steps briefly on how to conduct wheelies, you should know that there are different methods you can use to carry out a wheelie.

Each of them follows the same principle and can utilize the same tips I will mention later in the article, so make sure you read the article until the end.

1. Wheelie With A Clutch

To attempt a wheelie with a clutch, you must first ensure that you get into the proper position on your dirt bike and confirm that you are comfortable.

Grip the dirt bike handlebars as firmly as possible and get into the gear of your choice. You need to shift your weight to the rear wheel of the dirt bike, which you can do by either standing up or sitting down.

You need to disengage the clutch so you can get to the right RPM without powering the rear wheel. Then quickly open the throttle.

Since you want to catch the rear wheel with a lot of power, you will open the throttle and engage the clutch, which will give you a sudden acceleration.

At this point, your dirt bike’s front tire should be in the air, and all you have to do is maintain the proper balance of your body and the bike and make sure that you can maintain the wheelie by manipulating the brakes and throttle.

2. Wheelie Without A Clutch

Trying to carry out a wheelie without a clutch is also very simple. For this, as the heading suggests, you do not need a clutch. Most of the steps you follow are the same.

The only thing that changes in this method is the fact that you will not be popping the clutch.

You should carry out all the steps mentioned above and instead of popping the clutch, simply increase your speed to get a more controlled boost.

This will not give you the speed boost I mentioned in the above method, but this might be helpful to you if you are just learning how to carry out a wheelie.

You can then incorporate clutch-based wheelies once you have enough practice.

3. Wheelies On 2/4 Stroke

If you want to carry out a wheelie on a 4-stroke, you can use either of the two methods listed above. If you are riding on a 4 stroke dirt bike, you will have much more control than driving a 2-stroke.

However, if you want to do a wheelie on a 2 stroke, you will need to have much more control over the throttle, balance, and most of all, patience.

Aside from this, all the steps are the same for doing a wheelie on a 2 stroke dirt bike.

3 Things To Take Care Of When Trying A Wheelie

There are a lot of variations that you have to consider if you are trying to do a wheelie. In this part of the article, I will go over the things you need to take care of while attempting to execute a wheelie.

1. Standing Vs. Sitting

If you are just getting into attempting a wheelie, you will be surprised to know that standing can give you more control in executing a wheelie.

But this may not be convenient for people who are just starting, for which case you should try to learn doing a wheelie while sitting on the dirt bike.

Once you get enough practice in, you should be able to establish a sweet spot, and then you can attempt to carry out a wheelie while standing on your dirt bike.

This should only be attempted once you properly understand how a wheelie is done. Until then, you should stick to doing a wheelie while sitting.

2. Balancing

Balancing is another integral part you must manage while trying to do a wheelie while riding a dirt bike.

As you start to lift the dirt bike in the air, you need to ensure that you maintain a good balance o the dirt bike unless you want to fall.

The sweet spot mentioned above also depends on your balance which in turn depends on your position.

To maintain your balance, you should try shifting your position here and there to retain perfect balancing. This shifting should not be so drastic; otherwise, you risk losing control of your dirt bike and falling.

3. Using Clutch Vs. Not Using The Clutch

As I mentioned above, there are different methods you can apply if you want to carry out a wheelie, and this can be via the clutch or without the clutch.

Using the clutch can be dangerous, especially for beginners, as you get a sudden speed increase which beginners may not be able to handle.

The clutchless method is safer for beginners, but experts do not carry it out, so you should try to learn the clutchless method first and then move on to the method which utilizes the clutch.

5 Tips To Master Wheelies

Now that you know how to successfully carry out a wheelie and know all the intricacies that go into pulling off a wheelie, you should concentrate on making sure that you easily and efficiently pull off wheelies.

For that, here are a few tips which you should follow:

1. Maintain A Moderate Speed

What a lot of beginners do wrong when going into attempting wheelies is that they rather go in too slow or they start off too fast.

Either way will make it very difficult to pull off a wheelie, with the former speed being too slow to gain any momentum needed for a wheelie to take place and the latter being too dangerous.

If you are too slow, the chances are that you may not get the momentum you need to lift your dirt bike off the air.

On the other hand, if you are too fast, you can easily lose control if you attempt to lift the bike, where the higher the speed you have, the more you risk losing your balance or simply losing control of the dirt bike and crashing.

2. Make Sure That You Have Good Positioning

The position of your body can also have a great effect on the capability of whether you can pull off a wheelie or not.

A lot of pros and guides that you will see will emphasize that good positioning is integral for you to execute a proper wheelie.

This position can be attained either in a standing position or sitting position, as talked about above.

Either way is a good method to try and carry out a wheelie, but you have to make sure that you are comfortable with one method first.

Next, you must make sure to maintain this positioning throughout the wheelie.

As you lift the dirt bike up and balance yourself then shifting your position is also integral to make sure that you can continuously hold your wheelie.

3. Try To Practice As Much As Possible

I think this goes without saying, but if you want to get good at anything, then you have to put in the time and effort needed to successfully carry a task out.

While trying to pull off a wheelie can be a difficult task, if you make sure to take proper safety measures and do not try anything too extreme, you should remain healthy even if you fall off your dirt bike during a wheelie.

This is almost a certainty; you will fall off when doing a wheelie which is why you should not get disheartened.

4. Wear Protective Gear

As mentioned above, you have to take precautions and carry out safety measures if you are trying to execute a wheelie or practicing for it.

You can achieve a good amount of protection by wearing good quality:

  • Boots
  • Helmets
  • Gloves
  • Knee Pads
  • Shoulder Pads

Anything helps, as while you practice doing a wheelie, the chances of you falling face-first into the ground are very high, so you have to take precautions.

Even if you are experienced in carrying out wheelies, you should wear protective gear as anything can happen, which can make you lose your balance and fall from the dirt bike.

5. Use A Gear That Works For You

While many different guides talk about using specific gears, I will recommend that you use any of the middle gears that you are comfortable with.

The trick that you have to work with is to make sure the RPM is perfect before the power hit you will give the dirt bike. This RPM can be achieved by any of the middle gears. However, most prefer the second or third gears.

Regardless of which gear you use, you should make sure that you are comfortable with the gear and how much RPM it can give out before you decide to roll the throttle.

Conclusion

By now, you should no longer be asking the question of how to wheelie a dirt bike. You should have enough knowledge, information, and advice needed to carry out a wheelie and be able to do so consistently.

If you make sure to follow the tips and the areas mentioned in this article, you will never fall while doing a wheelie again, and you will be able to consistently carry one out.

This should make you look cool while riding your dirt bike and increase your riding skill on your dirt bike as well.

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