How to Hold a Longer Wheelie in Wheelie Bike

Wheelie Bike gives you one button and one job: keep the front wheel of a BMX in the air. It looks like a game of luck the first few times the rider flips over onto his helmet. It is really a game of rhythm, and once you understand what the press does, the distance numbers climb quickly.

What the button actually does

When you hold the mouse button, the stickman pedals and pulls the handlebars up. The front wheel rises and the bike rotates backwards around the rear wheel. As long as you keep holding, it keeps rotating. When you let go, the pull stops and gravity brings the front wheel back down.

So there are two ways to lose. Hold too long and the bike goes past the balance point and loops over backwards. Let go too long and the front wheel lands on the road. In both cases a pink banner slides in with your distance and the words GAME OVER. The trick is to spend the whole run between those two mistakes.

The rhythm: pulse, pause, pulse

The most common beginner run is one long hold: the front wheel shoots up, the rider keeps pulling, and he is on his back before the counter reaches 150. The fix is to stop holding and start pulsing. Short presses of around a third of a second, with gaps about as long, lift the wheel a little at a time. Between presses it sinks a little. Keep that up and the front wheel hovers.

You will not find the perfect rhythm straight away, and the right one changes as the bike tilts. Treat it like keeping a ball in the air: small corrections, often.

Read the angle

Do not look at the counter while you ride. Look at the bike. If the front wheel is climbing above the level of the rider's hands, let go now, even mid-pulse. If it is sinking toward the red road, press now. Reacting to the angle, not to a count in your head, is what separates a 50 from a 500.

Catch the fall early

A front wheel that has only just started to drop needs one short press. A front wheel that is already halfway down needs a longer one, and a longer press is exactly what sends the bike over backwards a second later. Catch it early and keep the corrections small.

The first pull matters

The rider rolls up to the blue dashed line where the words press to wheelie appear. Your first press sets up the whole run. A long first pull throws the nose high and you spend the next few seconds fighting it. A short first pull gets the wheel up gently and you can settle into the pulses from there.

Use the lines on the road

After the first run the road carries two markers. The red dashed line is where your last wheelie ended. The yellow dashed line, labelled best, is your record, and the trophy in the corner shows the same number. Aim for the red line first; once you pass it regularly, go after the yellow one. The skull in the other corner counts every crash, and it will be a big number — that is normal.

Mouse, trackpad or touch

Short, even presses are easier with a real mouse button than with a trackpad click. On a phone or tablet a finger works very well, because tapping in rhythm is natural. Whatever you use, click inside the game once so it has focus, and keep your hand relaxed — a tense hand holds too long.

Ready? Play Wheelie Bike, or read how it runs and saves on a school Chromebook.