Front Hub Motors Vs Rear Hub Motors
When it comes to installing a hub motor, you’ve only got two options: a front hub motor or a rear hub motor. (There are actually a few electric bicycles with hub motors mounted as mid-drive motors, but that’s outside the scope of this article.) If you search around, you’ll probably find that the same hub motors are offered in both front and rear hub motor kits, begging the question “what’s the difference?”
Hub motors: weight matters
There are few issues to consider when deciding between a front or rear hub motor. Let’s start with weight.
Generally speaking, you want to try to spread the weight of your electric bicycle out as much as possible, front to back. You don’t want to have all the weight located in one area. Most batteries are mounted in the middle or rear of an ebike, meaning that a front hub motor helps spread the weight forward and can improve weight distribution of your electric bicycle.
Bicycles with heavy rear hub motors and batteries also mounted far to the rear, such as on a rear rack, are prone to “popping wheelies” during acceleration. This is especially true if the motor has fairly high torque and/or the wheels are smaller diameter.
While it may sound fun, this wheelie behavior can become rather annoying when it happens every time you accelerate after a red light or stop sign. It can also be dangerous if it happens when you aren’t expecting it, such as on a slight uphill. Letting someone test ride your ebike and having them flip it over on the first try isn’t good either.
Traction is affected by hub motor placement
Traction is another important consideration. While moving a hub motor forwards to the front wheel solves the problem of weight distribution, it can cause a different problem: traction control. Because there is already very little weight on the front wheel of the ebike, compared to the rear, a front hub motor has less traction.
The higher the voltage and the smaller the wheel, the more likely you are to “peel out” during acceleration with a front hub motor. 36V hub motors on a 26” can still usually get decent traction, but a 20” front hub motor wheel will almost definitely experience a spinning front tire, as will a 48V hub motor on any wheel size.
Most of your body weight is supported by the rear wheel of the bike, which is why a rear hub motor will get much more traction than a front hub motor. It would be very difficult to get a rear hub motor wheel spinning freely on a dry road with nearly any motor running at 48V or less. If you’re one of the guys pushing the limits of high voltage and high power ebikes, you can get about any wheel to spin though.
Hub motors and flat tires
Another thing to think about are flat tires. You are more likely to pick up road debris resulting in a puncture to your rear tire than your front tire.
Why? Because your front tire often kicks up objects laying on the road, such as nails, glass shards, staples, etc that were initially laying flat. They don’t cause much harm to the front tire since their flat surface isn’t sharp. Once they bounce up from the impact of your front tire though, every now and again you’ll be unlucky enough to have it land perfectly aligned to spear your rear tire as it gets passed over for the second time.
Flat tires are much more annoying to fix in a hub motor wheel than a standard wheel, so if you’ve got a rear wheel hub motor, you may find yourself with an annoying flat tire repair down the road. Regardless of whether you go with a front or rear hub motor, my article on avoiding flat tires can help you make this a non-issue.
Consider your hub motor installation
Another advantage of front hub motors is that they are easier to install than rear hub motors. You don’t have to worry about transferring over the freewheel or trying to adjust your derailleur to get rid of that funny chain noise.
With a front hub motor, you simply swap the tire on the wheel and place the motor back into the dropouts. Front hub motor installations are easier than pie, whatever that means.
Rear hub motors still have their advantages
Don’t count out rear hub motors just yet. Many people like their electric bicycle to look like a standard bicycle without any dead giveaways of their “assistance”, so to speak. Many small hub motors nearly disappear behind the gears of a rear wheel, and are often covered by the disc as well. This gives the bike an extra stealthy look and hides the dead giveaway of a naked front hub motor.
Powerful hub motors are also more appropriate for a rear installation because the higher power can be better handled by stronger dropouts in the rear of the bike.
Would you ever guess this bike has a rear hub motor?
So while front hub motors are easier to install, get fewer flat tires and help spread the weight around, but rear hub motors get better traction, provide smoother acceleration and can appear stealthier.
In practice, many small, weaker hub motors are used in the front of the bike to take advantage of the weight distribution while avoiding issues of tire spin due to the weaker motor, while larger more powerful hub motors are placed in the rear to take advantage of the gains in traction. In the end, it’s all about what works best for you.
About Micah
Micah is a mechanical engineer, tinkerer and husband. He’s spent the better part of a decade working in the electric bicycle industry, and is the author of The Ultimate DIY Ebike Guide. Micah can usually be found riding his electric bicycles around Florida, Tel Aviv, and anywhere else his ebikes wind up.
Комментарии и мнения владельцев
Hello Micah Im A Student Our group ia Making A Project on self charging Elctric bicycle in which on rear wheel we are installing 26 V 250 W Hub Motor.Which are being supplied By two 12V 20Ah ( Series Connected).And For Self charging We are connecting 12V×3 Dynamos On wheel So as Hub will rotate Dynamo Will run And charge the Batteries. Before Ride the Batteries Will be charged. What is your opinion will it be successful.
It will charge itself, but the energy it puts back into the battery will be less than it used from the battery. That means it will eventually die. Look up the second law of thermodynamics. You can’t build a perpetual motion machine.
I love it. My current daily driver is a two wheel drive with two Q100H motors. Those little guys are each running 52V and 11.5A for just over 1,000W total. It’s a great setup in my opinion.
My Current Favorite Battery Source
My favorite source for batteries right now is Battery Hookup. They’ve also generously offered all of my readers a 5% discount if you use the discount code EBIKE.
This site is 100% free, so how do I support it?
All the help and knowledge I’ve provided here on EbikeSchool.com is 100% free If you want to support this site and help me keep it free, consider checking out my ebook and video course on building ebikes.
Ebikeschool.com has a lot of great info, but I’ve spent countless hours putting even more info, examples, how to’s, reviews, maintenance steps and buying guides into my book and video course. They are some of the most fact-dense and info-rich ebike resources available today. So check them out to see if they can help you with your own ebike!
If you want to learn more in-depth about building your own lithium battery, you’ll want to check out my book DIY Lithium Batteries: How To Build Your Own Battery Packs which is an Amazon #1 Bestseller in multiple categories! You can get it here on Amazon.
And if you don’t want to purchase my book (or you already have a lot of ebike knowledge), you can still support this site by simply clicking on this link before you shop on Aliexpress. Basically, that’s an affiliate link that shows Aliexpress that you came to them via my site. It doesn’t effect you at all, but if you make a purchase, this site will get a small percentage of the profit that Aliexpress makes. It’s a simple way to help support this site so I can pay the hosting and keep providing more free info (and to keep this site free of annoying ads). I have some of those affiliate links on a limited number of articles on my site. When I personally buy and test products that I find to be a combination of great quality and great prices, like these batteries, for example, I like to share them through those affiliate links. Again, it costs you nothing, but it allows me to keep cranking out more info and content for you guys!
Copyright © 2023 Powered by electrons, lots and lots of electrons
Front Hub Motors Vs Rear Hub Motors
When it comes to installing a hub motor, you’ve only got two options: a front hub motor or a rear hub motor. (There are actually a few electric bicycles with hub motors mounted as mid-drive motors, but that’s outside the scope of this article.) If you search around, you’ll probably find that the same hub motors are offered in both front and rear hub motor kits, begging the question “what’s the difference?”
Hub motors: weight matters
There are few issues to consider when deciding between a front or rear hub motor. Let’s start with weight.
Generally speaking, you want to try to spread the weight of your electric bicycle out as much as possible, front to back. You don’t want to have all the weight located in one area. Most batteries are mounted in the middle or rear of an ebike, meaning that a front hub motor helps spread the weight forward and can improve weight distribution of your electric bicycle.
Bicycles with heavy rear hub motors and batteries also mounted far to the rear, such as on a rear rack, are prone to “popping wheelies” during acceleration. This is especially true if the motor has fairly high torque and/or the wheels are smaller diameter.
While it may sound fun, this wheelie behavior can become rather annoying when it happens every time you accelerate after a red light or stop sign. It can also be dangerous if it happens when you aren’t expecting it, such as on a slight uphill. Letting someone test ride your ebike and having them flip it over on the first try isn’t good either.
Traction is affected by hub motor placement
Traction is another important consideration. While moving a hub motor forwards to the front wheel solves the problem of weight distribution, it can cause a different problem: traction control. Because there is already very little weight on the front wheel of the ebike, compared to the rear, a front hub motor has less traction.
The higher the voltage and the smaller the wheel, the more likely you are to “peel out” during acceleration with a front hub motor. 36V hub motors on a 26” can still usually get decent traction, but a 20” front hub motor wheel will almost definitely experience a spinning front tire, as will a 48V hub motor on any wheel size.
Most of your body weight is supported by the rear wheel of the bike, which is why a rear hub motor will get much more traction than a front hub motor. It would be very difficult to get a rear hub motor wheel spinning freely on a dry road with nearly any motor running at 48V or less. If you’re one of the guys pushing the limits of high voltage and high power ebikes, you can get about any wheel to spin though.
Hub motors and flat tires
Another thing to think about are flat tires. You are more likely to pick up road debris resulting in a puncture to your rear tire than your front tire.
Why? Because your front tire often kicks up objects laying on the road, such as nails, glass shards, staples, etc that were initially laying flat. They don’t cause much harm to the front tire since their flat surface isn’t sharp. Once they bounce up from the impact of your front tire though, every now and again you’ll be unlucky enough to have it land perfectly aligned to spear your rear tire as it gets passed over for the second time.
Flat tires are much more annoying to fix in a hub motor wheel than a standard wheel, so if you’ve got a rear wheel hub motor, you may find yourself with an annoying flat tire repair down the road. Regardless of whether you go with a front or rear hub motor, my article on avoiding flat tires can help you make this a non-issue.
Consider your hub motor installation
Another advantage of front hub motors is that they are easier to install than rear hub motors. You don’t have to worry about transferring over the freewheel or trying to adjust your derailleur to get rid of that funny chain noise.
With a front hub motor, you simply swap the tire on the wheel and place the motor back into the dropouts. Front hub motor installations are easier than pie, whatever that means.
Rear hub motors still have their advantages
Don’t count out rear hub motors just yet. Many people like their electric bicycle to look like a standard bicycle without any dead giveaways of their “assistance”, so to speak. Many small hub motors nearly disappear behind the gears of a rear wheel, and are often covered by the disc as well. This gives the bike an extra stealthy look and hides the dead giveaway of a naked front hub motor.
Powerful hub motors are also more appropriate for a rear installation because the higher power can be better handled by stronger dropouts in the rear of the bike.
Would you ever guess this bike has a rear hub motor?
So while front hub motors are easier to install, get fewer flat tires and help spread the weight around, but rear hub motors get better traction, provide smoother acceleration and can appear stealthier.
In practice, many small, weaker hub motors are used in the front of the bike to take advantage of the weight distribution while avoiding issues of tire spin due to the weaker motor, while larger more powerful hub motors are placed in the rear to take advantage of the gains in traction. In the end, it’s all about what works best for you.
About Micah
Micah is a mechanical engineer, tinkerer and husband. He’s spent the better part of a decade working in the electric bicycle industry, and is the author of The Ultimate DIY Ebike Guide. Micah can usually be found riding his electric bicycles around Florida, Tel Aviv, and anywhere else his ebikes wind up.
Комментарии и мнения владельцев
Hello Micah Im A Student Our group ia Making A Project on self charging Elctric bicycle in which on rear wheel we are installing 26 V 250 W Hub Motor.Which are being supplied By two 12V 20Ah ( Series Connected).And For Self charging We are connecting 12V×3 Dynamos On wheel So as Hub will rotate Dynamo Will run And charge the Batteries. Before Ride the Batteries Will be charged. What is your opinion will it be successful.
It will charge itself, but the energy it puts back into the battery will be less than it used from the battery. That means it will eventually die. Look up the second law of thermodynamics. You can’t build a perpetual motion machine.
I love it. My current daily driver is a two wheel drive with two Q100H motors. Those little guys are each running 52V and 11.5A for just over 1,000W total. It’s a great setup in my opinion.
My Current Favorite Battery Source
My favorite source for batteries right now is Battery Hookup. They’ve also generously offered all of my readers a 5% discount if you use the discount code EBIKE.
This site is 100% free, so how do I support it?
All the help and knowledge I’ve provided here on EbikeSchool.com is 100% free If you want to support this site and help me keep it free, consider checking out my ebook and video course on building ebikes.
Ebikeschool.com has a lot of great info, but I’ve spent countless hours putting even more info, examples, how to’s, reviews, maintenance steps and buying guides into my book and video course. They are some of the most fact-dense and info-rich ebike resources available today. So check them out to see if they can help you with your own ebike!
If you want to learn more in-depth about building your own lithium battery, you’ll want to check out my book DIY Lithium Batteries: How To Build Your Own Battery Packs which is an Amazon #1 Bestseller in multiple categories! You can get it here on Amazon.
And if you don’t want to purchase my book (or you already have a lot of ebike knowledge), you can still support this site by simply clicking on this link before you shop on Aliexpress. Basically, that’s an affiliate link that shows Aliexpress that you came to them via my site. It doesn’t effect you at all, but if you make a purchase, this site will get a small percentage of the profit that Aliexpress makes. It’s a simple way to help support this site so I can pay the hosting and keep providing more free info (and to keep this site free of annoying ads). I have some of those affiliate links on a limited number of articles on my site. When I personally buy and test products that I find to be a combination of great quality and great prices, like these batteries, for example, I like to share them through those affiliate links. Again, it costs you nothing, but it allows me to keep cranking out more info and content for you guys!
Copyright © 2023 Powered by electrons, lots and lots of electrons
How much power does an electric bicycle need? Here’s a helpful guide
Electric bicycles are available in a wide range of power levels. From cute little 250 W e-bikes to massively overpowered 10 kW motorbike-level e-bikes. But how much power is right for you? Read on to learn more!
Just a quick note before we jump into the power level comparisons: not all motor ratings were created equal.
Because of differing standards for measuring electric motor power ratings, a pair of 500 W motors from different companies can have fairly different power levels. Also, laws limiting power output in Europe and other restricted areas have forced many manufacturers to often underrate their power levels.
For example, Bosch mid-drive systems are often listed as 250 W motors, despite actual power output often being upwards of 500 W peak.
So when we discuss motor ratings, we’ll be largely taking e-bike manufacturers at their word. But keep in mind that just because two motors are labeled similarly doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily have the same power.
Lastly, if you’re the kind of person that likes to watch and listen, check out my video on the topic of e-bike power. Then read on for all of the details below!
250 W electric bicycles
The lowest power class for electric bicycles is usually the 250 W class. There are some 200 W e-bikes, but they are often smaller scooter-style bikes.
With 250 W of power, you’re basically looking at a flat land cruising e-bike. Most 250 W e-bikes will struggle to climb hills without any user-added pedaling, though mid-drive e-bikes will offer better hill climbing performance than hub motors at these low power levels due to their ability to achieve higher torque through downshifting the bike’s gears.
If you’re a heavier rider, you can still ride a 250 W e-bike as long as you are on flat terrain. The acceleration will be quite sluggish, but the bike will move you. Keep in mind that 250 W continuous is more power than most people create when pedaling.
I weigh 70kg (154 lb) and I find that 250 W can still move me around comfortably. But as soon as I hit hills, the performance diminishes quickly and the bike slows down considerably. Heavier riders shouldn’t really attempt to climb long hills on 250 W hub motors without risking damage to the motor from repeated high heat cycles. Heavier riders can sometimes still find 250 W mid-drives sufficient for small hills, especially if they want to add some pedal input, but major hills are still going to seriously degrade the performance of a 250 W ebike with a heavy rider. There just isn’t enough power or torque in a 250 W system to power heavy riders up medium-sized hills while maintaining a reasonable amount of speed.
When it comes to speed, 250 W motors are also usually limited to somewhere between 25-32 km/h (15-20 mph). Above such speeds it becomes difficult to overcome wind resistance without adding more power.
350 W – 500 W electric bicycles
The next step up in power brings an increase in acceleration. While 250 W e-bikes are sluggish to accelerate, bikes that reach closer to 500 W will pull much quicker off the line.
For lighter riders like me, this will feel like a fairly large difference. Heavier riders though will likely not feel too much of a difference on flat land, depending on the motor.
On hills, 500 W will do a much better job of powering light riders to the summit. Smaller hills may become conquerable for heavier riders. Again though, such riders won’t see a huge difference as compared to lower powered 250 W motors when it comes to any decent hill.
It should also be noted that 500 W is usually the minimum power necessary for an e-bike to surpass 32 km/h (20 mph) of speed.
750 W – 1,000 W electric bicycles
Now we’re talking! Once you’ve reached 750 W, you’re dealing with some actual power. For light riders like me, 750 W will give much more exciting acceleration off the line. This level will also start to offer good hill climbing performance.
For heavier riders, 750 W is when flat land performance starts to become more enjoyable and hills actually become consistently possible. At 1,000 W of power though, most heavy riders will be more pleased with the performance.
Speeds of 45 km/h (28 mph) are increasingly common with 750 W e-bikes. You’ll still see Bosch-powered mid-drive bikes capable of 45 km/h (28 mph) while claiming a “250 W” motor. But again, these are underrated motors and aren’t really fair comparisons to true 250 W motors.
45 km/h (28 mph) Cafe Moto Go e-bike with a “250 W motor”
1,500 W electric bicycles
At 1,500 W, you’re starting to leave typical bicycle territory and begin encroaching upon light electric motorcycle levels. I built a 60 km/h (37 mph) electric bike using a 1.5 kW hub motor, and the performance is incredible. It doesn’t matter if you put me or a 110 kg (250 lb) rider on that bike – the thing just freaking pulls!
I recently rode the Rungu all terrain three-wheeled e-bike with a 1.5 kW Bafang BBSHD mid-drive motor. That was another great example of extreme power that can carry both light and heavy riders up the highest hills. In fact, the only time it failed to carry me up hills was when they became so steep that the bike simply couldn’t get traction in the loose dirt.
Keep in mind though that mid-drive motors at such high power levels require special chains and sprockets to keep from completely destroying themselves.
Choosing the right power level for you
I hope that the take-home message for you will be that e-bikes come in many flavors and power levels and that the right power for you is a highly personal decision.
While I’m perfectly happy commuting on a 250 W e-bike in my flat city, I’d never take anything less than 750 W off road. Others might say that it’s 1 kW of power or nothing for them. The key is to find what works for you and how much power will achieve your goals.
Stay up to date with the latest content by subscribing to Electrek on Google News. You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.
How to Do a Wheelie
This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff. Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow’s Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards.
There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.
This article has been viewed 426,653 times.
Popping a wheelie is a great way to impress your friends or look cool on a bicycle or motorbike. Although it’s one of the easiest tricks to learn, if you don’t have your balance right it can be a difficult one to master. By accelerating quickly, pulling up on your handlebars and knowing how to position your weight for balance, you can learn to pull off a wheelie on almost anything with two wheels.
Doing a Wheelie on a Bicycle
- As you get more practice at pulling off a wheelie, you can adjust the seat height to whatever you want. Keep in mind that this may change your center of gravity and mean you need to relearn how to balance your bike.
- As with the seat height, you can adjust the gear whenever you want. You should be able to do a wheelie no matter what gear you’re on. It’s much easier to learn on a middle gear, though.
- Local parks will be great as they are both large and grassy, which will mean you’re less likely to get hurt if you fall off your bike. If you don’t have a big park nearby, you can also practice on an empty sidewalk, a very quiet road, or anywhere that you can safely ride a bike.
- If you can, try practice your wheelies on a very gentle uphill incline. This will make leaning backward and balancing the wheelie more natural.
- Once you gain more confidence, you can start doing wheelies when traveling at a higher speed. Start slow and gradually get faster as you practice doing a wheelie.
- If you don’t know which is your dominant foot, try doing a few wheelies leading with each foot and see which way feels more natural.
- Your dominant foot is the foot that you put forward when you feel yourself falling over. While standing straight up, get someone to give you a light shove and see which foot you put forward to stop yourself.
- Make sure not to bend your arms more than 10 degrees when you pull back. Doing this is a bad habit, negatively messes with your center of balance, and also does not look nearly as cool.
- Start with small wheelies at first and slowly try and bring the front wheel higher and higher off the ground as you get a better sense of the balance of your bike. It’s much safer for you to undershoot the wheelie and let your bike land back on the front wheel than it is to overshoot it and fall backward of the bike.
- If you feel like you’re going to fall backward, pull on the rear brake. This will stop the back wheel from moving and set you back down safely on the front wheel.
- If you feel yourself falling backward, tap on the rear brake to lean forward slightly. If you start falling forward, pedal a little faster to gain some more acceleration and tilt backward a little.
- Keep in mind that you’ll also need to maintain your balance side to side. Try and keep your weight centered down the middle of the bike to prevent yourself from tipping over. If you feel yourself tilting to one side, slightly shift your weight to the other side or turn the handlebars the other way.
- Try not to land on your front wheel too harshly. While front suspension will cushion some of the blow, you don’t want to put the wheel under any unnecessary stress.
Doing a Wheelie on a Motorbike
- Full protective gear includes a helmet, face shield, gloves, jacket, pants, and proper boots. Make sure everything is covered to prevent serious injury if you fall off.
- Make sure the road doesn’t have any big potholes, cracks, or anything that could throw your wheelie off unexpectedly. Find the smoothest, bump-free road that you can when first starting out.
Start riding on first gear at around 25 to 30 kilometres per hour (16 to 19 mph). Start riding your bike and get it into first gear. You don’t need to reach a very high speed when first learning how to do a wheelie. Aim for something around 25 kilometres per hour (16 mph), which will let you easily pull off a wheelie without going too quickly. [11] X Research source
- As you do this, lean backward on your bike to lift the wheel up further and get a higher wheelie. This will take a little practice to avoid getting too high, so start small at first.
- Rotate your hand slightly forward and around the throttle before you pull it backwards. This will make pulling back on it sharply much easier, as well as naturally bending your elbow to help you lift up the front of the bike slightly. [13] X Research source
- If at any point you feel like the bike may start “looping” and fall back onto you, hold down the rear brakes immediately. This will stop the wheelie and set you back on the ground.
- If you need to bring down the front wheel very quickly, shut the throttle off and don’t accelerate again until the wheel is just about to touch the ground. Tap the throttle just before the front wheel touches down to soften the landing slightly.
Community QA
Yes, it just takes time to learn. As long as you want to put in the time, you can do it. It is rather time consuming to learn this trick.
⧼thumbs_helpful⧽ ⧼thumbs_unhelpful⧽ ⧼thumbs_nift_response⧽ ⧼thumbs_nift_button⧽ ⧼thumbs_contribute_response⧽ ⧼thumbs_contribute_button⧽
⧼thumbs_helpful⧽ ⧼thumbs_unhelpful⧽ ⧼thumbs_nift_response⧽ ⧼thumbs_nift_button⧽ ⧼thumbs_contribute_response⧽ ⧼thumbs_contribute_button⧽
Try smaller wheelies at first, and keep practicing. Once you’re comfortable with your balance, try longer ones.
⧼thumbs_helpful⧽ ⧼thumbs_unhelpful⧽ ⧼thumbs_nift_response⧽ ⧼thumbs_nift_button⧽ ⧼thumbs_contribute_response⧽ ⧼thumbs_contribute_button⧽
Practice makes perfect! It’ll take a while to get the balance of your wheelie just right. Keep at it and trying slightly different ways until you find the method that works for you and your bike.
If your bicycle has rear shock absorbers, it may be more difficult to maintain your balance. Remember this when practicing your wheelies and choosing a bike.
Riding a motorbike is very dangerous, especially when you a performing tricks. Always be very careful if you choose to attempt a wheelie, and know that it can be very risky.
Check the road rules for motorbikes in your country, as it’s illegal to do a wheelie on the road in many countries.
Don’t attempt a wheelie on a bicycle with clip-in pedals. If you feel yourself falling over, you won’t be able to do anything but fall.
About This Article
This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff. Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow’s Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. This article has been viewed 426,653 times.
To do a wheelie, start by setting your bike seat to a medium height and lowering your gears as far as you can, which will make doing a wheelie easier. Then, get on your bike and start pedaling so you’re moving at a slow to medium pace. Next, cycle your dominant foot around until the pedal is at the 2 o’clock position and then hold the pedal in place. When you’re ready, push down on the pedal with your dominant foot and lean backward to lift the front wheel off the ground. Finally, hold down on the rear brakes to land back on the ground. To learn how to do a wheelie on a motorcycle, scroll down!