In vehicle acrobatics, a wheelie is a vehicle maneuver in which the front wheel or wheels come off the ground due to extreme torque being applied to the rear wheel or wheels.[1] Wheelies are usually associated with bicycles and motorcycles, but can be done with other vehicles such as cars, especially in drag racing and tractor pulling. Performing such a maneuver is informally referred to as "popping a wheelie."
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History [link]
Wheelies appear in popular culture as early as 1943, as U.S Army motorized cavalry are pictured in Life magazine performing high speed wheelies.[2] Daredevil Evel Knievel performed motorcycle acrobatics including wheelies in his shows. Doug "The Wheelie King" Domokos has accomplished such feats as a 145-mile (233 km) wheelie.[3]
Types of wheelie [link]
Types of wheelies include:
- Clutch wheelies are performed by disengaging the clutch and opening the throttle to let the engine race and then engaging the clutch abruptly.
- Power wheelies are performed by simply opening the throttle. If the engine has sufficient power, it will be able to lift the front wheel.
- Bounce wheelies are performed by opening and closing the throttle in time with rocking the rider's weight back and forth, thus pre-loading the front suspension so that the throttle is opening at the same time as the front suspension is unloading.
Motorcycle [link]
A wheelie is also a common motorcycle stunt. The principle is the same as the bicycle wheelie, but the throttle and rear-brakes are used to control the wheelie while a rider uses body weight and the steering to control the direction the inertia of the spinning front wheel acting as a balance.[4]
The world's fastest motorcycle wheelie record is 307.86 km/h (191.30 mph) by Patrick Furstenhoff. April 18, 1999.[5] The world record for the fast wheelie over 1 km (0.6 mi) is 172.9 mph (278.3 km/h),[6] set in September 2006 by Terry Calcott at Elvington airfield in Yorkshire, England. This event takes place every year.[7]
In some countries, such as the United Kingdom and USA,[8] motorcyclists performing a wheelie on a public road may be prosecuted for dangerous driving,[9][10] an offense which can carry a large fine and a ban of a year or more.[11] In Pakistan, India, and some other countries its illegal to perform these kinds of stunts. If someone is caught performing these acts, they can have their motorcycle impounded and potentially face jail time. [12]
Automobiles [link]
Wheelies are common in auto- or motorcycle drag racing, where they represent torque wasted lifting the front end, rather than moving the vehicle forward.
Bicycles [link]
Wheelies are a common stunt in artistic cycling and freestyle BMX. A variation of the wheelie is the manual wheelie. This is similar to a wheelie but no pedalling is involved. The bike is balanced by the rider's weight and sometimes use of the rear brake. A style of bicycle, the wheelie bike, has a seating position, and thus center of mass, nearly over the rear wheel that facilitates performing wheelies.
Wheelie bars [link]
Wheelie bars help prevent a drag vehicle's front end from raising too high or flipping over on launch. Wham-O developed and sold an add-on wheelie bar for wheelie bikes.
See also [link]
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Notes [link]
- ^ Investigation of the influences of tyre–road friction and engine power on motorcycle racing performance by means of the optimal manoeuvre method. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering. Professional Engineering Publishing. Volume 224, Number 4 / 2010
- ^ Seate, Mike (February 2009). "History Of Stunting - The Streets". Super Streetbike magazine. ISSN 1934-4996. https://www.superstreetbike.com/streets/0703_sbkp_history_of_stunting/index.html.
- ^ American Motorcyclist Association, "Doug Domokos", AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, https://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/hofbiopage.asp?id=161, retrieved 2009-12-17
- ^ Motorcycle Design and Technology Handbook (Motorbooks Workshop) by Gaetano Cocco (Paperback - Aug 1, 2004)
- ^ Young, Mark C.; Footman, Tim (2001), Guinness World Records 2001 -, Bantam Books, p. 226, ISBN 0-553-58375-1
- ^ Rayner, Tom (9 May 2007). "Wheelie record holder dies". Motorcycle News. https://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/mcn/2007/May/may7tomay14/may0907wheelierecordholderdies/?&R=EPI-91105. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ "Wheelie title is retained". Bury Free Press. 21 August 2009. https://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/mildenhall/Wheelie-title--is-retained.5573849.jp. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ Weir, Richard (5 May 2008). "Spins the wheelie after flipping off cops". NY Daily News. https://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/05/06/2008-05-06_spins_the_wheelie_after_flipping_off_cop-2.html. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ Vinter, Phil (14 May 2007). "Biker did wheelie at 61mph". Oxford Mail. https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/1397867.0/?act=complaint&cid=283631. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
- ^ "Biker with one leg did a wheelie". Swindon Advertiser. 20 November 2004. https://archive.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/2004/11/20/100885.html. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
- ^ "Wheelie Bad". White Dalton. https://www.whitedalton.co.uk/Magazine-Articles/fast-bike-articles/wheelie-bad.html. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
- ^ "368 motorcyclists fined over wheelies". Visordown. 6 May 2008. https://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news--general-news/368-motorcyclists-fined-over-wheelies/4622.html. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
https://wn.com/Wheelie
Wheelie (Transformers)
Wheelie is the name of fictional characters in the Transformers series.
Generation 1
The first Wheelie is a young Autobot who turns into a car. He has a distinctive style of speech, in which he rhymes his sentences while speaking in a high pitched voice, making him sound like a child. A young Autobot, Wheelie's function is listed as "survivalist". He despises the Quintessons and their Sharkticon minions, but only fights when he has no alternative.
Reception
Wheelie was chosen as the "Annoying character of the day" column by IGN.
Wheelie was voted one of the top robot characters that does not look like his toy by Topless Robots.
He was also picked as the 9th worst Transformer by X-Entertainment.
Animated series
Wheelie first appeared in the 1986 film The Transformers: The Movie.
Marvel Comics
Wheelie's existence was acknowledged only by the UK Transformers Marvel Comics community, where adventures were inserted in-between the stories sourced in the US. He aids Wreck-Gar in escaping from the Quintessons, whose homeworld was dying due to a rift in space-time. The two then transmit the Quintessons' plan for colonization throughout the galaxy, making the Quintessons' targets aware of their plans. Wheelie retains his distinctive style of speech in his comic appearance.
Chorlton and the Wheelies
Chorlton and the Wheelies is an animated children's television series that ran from September 1976 until June 1979 on the British television channel ITV. It followed the adventures of Chorlton, a fictional happiness dragon, in Wheelie World.
Chorlton and the Wheelies was created by Cosgrove Hall for the ITV station Thames Television, and the eponymous lead character gets his name from the suburb of Manchester in which the Cosgrove Hall studio was based: the legend "Made in Chorlton-cum-Hardy" is found written on the inside of the egg from which he hatches in the very first episode of the series.
Synopsis
The series takes place in "Wheelie World", which is inhabited principally by the "wheelies", a race of anthropomorphic creatures who locomote by means of wheels. They have three wheels each: two large ones at the front, and a smaller centred one at the back. The wheels are replaceable, and suitable wheels grow on vegetation found in Wheelie World.
The wheelie society is in conflict with Fenella the Kettle Witch, who lives in Wheelie World but separately from the wheelies, in Spout Hall, an oversized kettle. She has magical capabilities, including a form of teleportation which is her main mode of transport, and enchanted assistants including a magic book (called 'Claptrap Von Spilldebeans') and O'Reilly the Telescope, which advise her on magic spells. Minions include spikers (sinister looking objects like conker shells with baleful eyes, which roll everywhere) and toadies (pointed toadstools with similar eyes, which travel by bobbing through the ground as though it were water and who speak with a Chinese accent). Fenella hates happiness, and uses her powers primarily to make the wheelies unhappy. She also has a very strong Welsh accent.
