Every motorcycle rider on Earth either knows how to wheelie or wants to learn how. It’s in our blood, like wearing hoodies and saying BRAAAAP all the time. It’s just how we do.
If you didn’t learn to wheelie as a little kid, it may seem intimidating to learn how to do it now. But it isn’t! Like anything else, you’ll make some mistakes before you get it right, but with wheelieing, going too far is actually a big part of learning the ropes.
Having a motorcycle wheelie bar makes learning how to wheelie a whole lot easier, but wheelies aren’t the only thing this metal is good for. Here are six reasons to drop a few bills on a motorcycle wheelie bar ASAP.
Real quick: if you’re learning to wheelie your dirt bike, you might also consider picking up a Wheelie Guard. It’s basically a set of training wheels for your dirt bike, and while that might sound childish, it’ll keep you from busting your ass on the pavement while you figure out how to get your bike vertical.
Wheelie Bars Help You Get It Up
Learning how to stunt is a rite of passage for any supermoto rider. You may meet the occasional Joe who doesn’t know how to wheelie, stoppie, slide, skid, or do a burnout, and that person is missing out on the best things in life. As an upstanding citizen it's your job to convince them to seek help immediately, in the form of YouTube videos or good ol’ fashioned parking lot shenanigans.
First, go learn to wheelie from VroomVroomDana – he’ll have you one-wheeling like a boss in an afternoon. Trust me, it’s wheelie easy to do sick wheelies.
In case you’ve never been mesmerized by a stunt video before, go ahead and watch the one up there by the very first dick joke. Trust me, there are more coming.
Look at how gracefully those guys pull the front wheel up, find the balance point, and hold the bike there like it’s not even a thing. Sure, they have tons of practice under their belts. But everything they’re doing you can do too, and it all starts with confidence.
Like so many things do.
Another thing that helps is a wheelie bar / stunt bar / foot hoop. It’s a big metal loop that bolts onto the back of your dirt bike, supermoto, or stunt bike. A wheelie bar allows you to put one foot at the very back of the bike, so you can use your weight to leverage the front wheel off the ground while covering your back brake with the other foot. Safety first!
At about 2:40 in that video you see a guy using a wheelie bar. Without it he would have to keep his feet on the pegs or try to stand on the slick seat or tail fairing, and none of those are good ideas. You’ll see some guys running around with holes cut in their seats. That’s because they need somewhere to put their foot and they don’t have a wheelie bar.
Don’t be that guy.
Wheelie Bars Protect Your Goods
It doesn’t matter if this guy scrapes his tail, because the only part that will hit the ground is the wheelie bar.
Notice how the riders in that video never scraped their tails. Of course that wasn’t their first rodeo, but even professional stunters scrape from time to time - pros can even do it on purpose. If you want to learn to ride wheelies and do stunts, there’s a 100% chance you’re going to loop or 12 o’clock a bike at some point. That’s why it’s best to learn on a bike you don’t care that much about, but you should also protect your bike from damage with crash guards and a wheelie bar.
Make sure to check out our article on the Best 6 Factory Street-Legal Dirt Bikes!
Wheelie bars help protect your tail light and rear fender from damage, so you can kiss the ground with metal instead of plastic or your face.
Wheelie Bars are Easy to Install
These days it doesn’t matter if your bike is rare or popular, because there are companies that make custom wheelie bars for pretty much every stunt bike, supermoto, and dirt bike ever made. Installation is easy – you only need basic tools to install a wheelie bar on most bikes. There’s no cutting your plastics, there’s no welder, there’s no emergency trip to the hardware store. Just four bolts and away you go.
You Can Carry More Stuff
At some point you’ll want to take a longer ride on your bike. See how those guys are using nose bags, tail bags, and tank bags? That’s nuts. Not to mention all that luggage costs buku bucks. Just get yourself a wheelie bar, strap a duffel bag to it, and call it a day. Then take the money you saved and go buy yourself some sick wheels or a new wrap.
You Can Carry More Girls
We all know you’ve wanted to take a second passenger on your bike at some point, and there are few reasons for either one of them to be a guy. See this guy right here? He’s got a wheelie bar and two girls. Dude wouldn't be happier if he won the lottery.
A wheelie bar will let you carry a second passenger with ease by adding structural rigidity to the back of your bike. Hell, you could carry a girl AND luggage if you have a wheelie bar, and that's living the dream, my friend.
Wheelie Bars are Worth It!
There’s no reason not to drop some change on a wheelie bar, and if those videos didn’t convince you, maybe the price will. For under $175 you can have an accessory that not only makes your bike more versatile, but adds to its resale value as well. Not to mention, you won’t have to tell stories about why the tail plastic is cracked and the tail light is held on by zip ties and crossed fingers.
Dirt Legal has the best prices anywhere on hand-made WR250 wheelie bars in any color you want. We offer 3-day shipping to anywhere in the US, so you could be getting your hoon on by next weekend if you order now.
Get yours now!
Did buying a wheelie bar change your life? How did it feel to land your first wheelie? Tell us in the comments!
Stunting is in our blood, like wearing hoodies and saying BRAAAAP all the time. It’s just how we do. But how about we do the same thing with our hoodie friends, but on a street-legal dirt bike? Yes, we can.