Ridin' wheelies!

Each week my friend Bjorn Fox comes over for a couple hours for bike repair lessons. He's 13 and if you've been out at Nor-Cal cx races you might have seen him racing the juniors, he has tons of hand-me-down uniforms and often races in an old Kelly team kit, and he's got red hair. We always have a pretty good time. We get his and his family's bikes dialed in and do other repairs that he wants to understand. He's got a pretty good grasp on a lot of basic and not-so-basic stuff and he can probably wrap handlebars better than you. So anyway, we got stuff mostly done the other day and went out to do a bit of test riding. I can't resist roosting a wheelie as a vital part of any test ride. So soon enough it turned into a step by step wheelie lesson! Bjorn really picked it up pretty quickly, he has the arm strength and coordination to get the basics pretty figured out. I got him on the right track for the important stuff- the rear brake is everything, don't try to do it out of the saddle, etc. It totally reminded me of being his age and whiling away the hours trying some new trick that I could almost, almost! do. He was able to get the front wheel up high enough to really feel the balance point, and figured out the most critical thing- if you just stab the rear brake the front wheel comes right down so you don't flip onto your back! I'm sure he'll end up on his back a few times anyway but that's part of the process. And he's 13 so he's still made of rubber. He was really excited that he could do it. My parting advice was to wait till he's got it totally mastered before he even tells anyone he can do it. On a bike, and in general, actions speak loudest!