C'mon, admit it--every one of you who picks up this magazine wants more than anything to be able to crank blocks-long wheelies (if you can't already). The simple fact is, nothing says, "I'm da man (or woman)," like a long, high, perfectly poised wheelie, and nothing says, "I'm a big fat chicken," like a bunch of lame excuses surrounding why you can't get it up. Which is, in a few words, how I recently found myself signing a waiver to participate in Keith Code's aptly named On One Wheel school in an effort to correct this pathetic situation.
According to Code--well known to corner carvers everywhere as the founder of the California Superbike School, one of the first (and finest) advanced riding schools in the nation--the reason he created a wheelie school is simple. "People requested it--and also, I couldn't do wheelies myself!" he says, laughing. "So I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by starting a wheelie school. I talked to guys who run other schools and they all said the same thing. I mean, you've got a world champion roadracer running the school, showing you how to go around the corners like a champion, and all the students want to know is, 'When are you gonna teach us how to wheelie?' Aaaaugh!"
Code, the inventor of the Lean Bike, Slide Bike and No BS (body steering) Bike, is known for devising high-tech teaching tools, and naturally, when it came time to create a bike to teach people to wheelie, he put his engineering cap on. He began by tinkering with a Kawasaki ZX-6R that was soon fitted with an on-board computer, gravity indicators and solid-state gyros to stabilize it on one wheel, but after months of unsatisfactory results Code wound up deengineering his system down to an embarrassingly simple microswitch-activated rev limiter mounted to a bar extending off the back of the bike (a Triumph Speed Triple). The bar is adjustable to regular intervals that gradually permit the student to raise the front wheel higher and higher without fear of looping. For maximum safety, Code also devised a rear brake activator permanently set just beyond the balance point to save your bacon as a last resort.
The fruit of Code's labor is the On One Wheel school (www.ononewheel.com), now in its second year of operation as a professionally instructed and supervised nine-hour opportunity to aggressively explore new levels of two-wheel verticality. The added confidence factor of knowing you are riding a virtually loop-proof Speed Triple (with a mere $500 deductible should you manage to wreck) on a closed track with EMTs just a few yards away is huge and lets you try things you would never think possible. The day consisted of classroom-type instruction plus 10 on-bike sessions, each session allowing you about eight passes apiece. The instructors were great and gave each student personalized goals to focus on prior to each session. If they noticed something that could be improved in your technique, they would occasionally wave you in for a quick tip, which was usually spot-on.
Sixteen riders attended the school on the day I was there, spanning from 20-60 years old, 135 pounds to 230 pounds (that would be me) and 5 foot 5 to 6 foot 5. There was even a 45-year-old mother of two taking the Speed Triple damn near 12 o'clock! The students came to the school with a variety of skill levels, but every one of us improved by leaps and bounds by the end of the day. The guy who spent most of the day wrestling with his tendency to snap his wrist down as soon as the front end lifted was getting the nose up off the ground consistently at the end of the day, and two advanced types were working on stand-ups and shifting through multiple gears. Some fat old journo-type was even holding it high and proud.There was one wipeout, and of course it happened to the guy who showed up in technical jeans. Put a nice hole in them and skinned his knee up pretty good, too, but to his credit he sucked it up and climbed back on. The instructors claimed this was the first student to eat it in more than six months. The bottom line is that at a cost of $495 for the day, everyone left feeling they had gotten their money's worth. I asked many of my fellow students just to be sure, but I really didn't have to. Even spending a whole day in nasty, cold and drizzling weather wasn't enough to wipe the shit-eating grins off their faces.