Aside from wearing a leather jacket and saying, "Ayyy," nothing makes you look cooler on a motorcycle than popping a wheelie. I'm terrible at them, despite many years on two wheels. I even struggle to do small, practical wheelies off-road to get over obstacles on the trail. That's why the Wheelie Fun Bike caught my eye. It promises to make even the world's worst wheelie popper (me) look like an expert by lifting that front wheel with just a press of a button.
In standard "Push to Wheelie" mode, all you have to do is push and hold that big red button by the right handlebar grip, and the bike will automatically lift and hold the front wheel in the air all by itself. You can adjust your speed on one wheel by leaning forward to go faster or leaning back to slow down. Keep leaning back past a full stop, and it'll do a wheelie in reverse. Try that at the next Grom squad meetup to make some heads spin.
While no skill is required to wheelie the Wheelie Fun Bike, the bike will help you learn those skills if you wish. An alternate "Digital Wheelie Bar" mode will leave the wheelies to you, but save you from tipping over backwards if you lean back too far, just like a physical wheelie bar would. That's a great way to avoid embarrassment, as well as injury, while learning to wheelie.
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It's Not Just For Wheelies, But Who Are We Kidding?
I suppose you can do things other than pop wheelies. The Wheelie Fun Bike has a top speed of 35 mph and a range of about 30 miles. It has a 10Ah 72V (84V max) battery, with a 20Ah version to be released later, and a maximum power of 5,000 watts. There's an app to customize numerous features and riding characteristics, including exactly how high you want to lift the front wheel when you hit the big red button. It even has a "Wheel Lift Resistance" mode to prevent accidental wheelies. But why would you want to? This bike's purpose in life is to ride on one wheel.
If its lean-to-accelerate characteristics sound a lot like a onewheel, that's no coincidence. That's the world that founder Jeff McCosker comes from. He also runs The Float Life, offering a wide variety of onewheel upgrades and accessories. Why not use the same logic in a two-wheeler to turn it into a self-stabilizing one-wheeler?
The Wheelie Fun Bike is available for pre-order with a $299 deposit. You can also pay the full $2,995 now to receive the limited Founders Edition and get yours before everyone else. That's about the same as a used Honda Grom, Kawasaki Z125, or similar. The website does not say whether or not it will be street legal. That's a big gray area for electric bikes anyway. But if all you're doing is hooning around in a driveway or parking lot (please not on the street, or in a glass museum unless you're this guy), as some Grom riders do, who cares? This could be even better, especially if you have no wheelie skills like me.
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