I attended iwanttowheelie.co.uk which is based on an old airfield near Silverstone a few years ago to learn the basics on someone else’s bike and since then have enthusiastically wheelied pretty much everywhere. I even incredibly stupidly blew up an engine through excessive 1st gear practice wheelies & starving the front cams of oil… ooops (expensive lesson learned there!).
This school teaches the power wheelie method whereby you accelerate up to around 30mph, shut the throttle for a second to dip the forks then as they rebound, open the throttle back to where it was (not fully wide open). It was a really good day, riding Fazer 600s with anti-flip devices which cut the power momentarily if you get over-enthusiastic with your wrist, and these are adjusted to allow more height as you progress. Later in the day, you can switch to your own bike if you wish to.
This day is aimed at getting you used to the feeling of the front coming up so you can go away and practice confidently. I’ve read some reviews of people who weren’t happy with their day because the tyre pressures were lowered to make it easier to wheelie and they didn’t come away being able to hold a balance point wheelie but this isn’t the point of the day. Balance point wheelies take a lot of practice and you aren’t going to get this experience in a one-day training session.
Personally, I came to this day having never had the front off the ground and left being able to wheelie over 30m, so I was happy. I then went away and practiced loads and have since done a clutch-up school when I went to learn stand-up wheelies.
I had a really good day at this school and came away happy but would definitely recommend learning the clutch technique if you intend on pulling wheelies in any gear other than first rather than having to learn two different techniques.
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