Today I had a crack at implementing @Neil Price's advice from last night on slow sit-down wheelies. I do practice 2nd or 3rd gear wheelies regularly with mild success but tend to lose balance in 10-20 metres. I'm well trained with the one-finger-on-the-lever thing. And I remember to cover the rear brake MOST of the time, with a few notable panic-moment exceptions (ahem). But mostly I do standing wheelies and haven't done much on sit-downs. I feel like my knees are up around my ears when I do. Anyway initially today I did the front brake jab and my normal standing wheelie and it was a great, quick, smooth transition. Nice. But then I tried sitting down on the fender as the wheel came up. Oh and also I tried to keep my arms straight, which I'm not used to doing. I found that both of these things tended to pitch the bike back past balance point much faster than I was used to. I need to spend a lot more time on the sit-downs. But certainly initiating the wheelie with the front brake works well, and it makes me realize how much I've progressed because I remember a friend telling me to do that on my enduro bike a few years ago, and the coordination was totally beyond me. I've also tried using the front brake to help stop the bike in the punch technique ... and to my surprise found that I can do it, and it really works. That's it. As you were.

Posted by Andrew von Berky at 2021-09-23 08:56:13 UTC