Video: Incredible Part Swapping Wheelie Skills with the London Bike Life Kids

Jul 6, 2020
by James Smurthwaite  

bigquotesThe Bikelife Circus - This project took around 4 weeks to complete. We wanted to push ourselves mentally and physically in this project as well as push the scene by introducing a whole new style of tricks.Born to Ride


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jamessmurthwaite avatar

Member since Nov 14, 2018
1,770 articles

61 Comments
  • 66 0
 Hi guys I'm a mechanic, give me a call and I can sort you out with some axles for those forks so your wheels don't keep coming off! Srsly awesome skills tho!
  • 21 0
 I was watching a bunch of similar stuff recently and decided i needed to learn hand drag wheelies to take to the trails.... nah, I'm about 3ft short of being able to reach the ground, too fat to have the right centre of mass and too old to be flexible enough.
  • 14 0
 That was amazing! So nice to see different aspects of biking, but love for biking overall! Good tune, good vibes, well done.
Now if I could only wheelie for longer than 3 pedal strokes...... Smile
  • 9 0
 I don't understand how the trick at 0:26 works with vertical fork dropouts. The wheel trajectory doesnt match their angle at all.
  • 3 1
 I'd guess the dropouts are modified to make them more of a V shape, used the brake to hold/pivot the wheel in place?
  • 9 0
 Same way Sam Pilgrim can put his tyres on, just on by just dropping the tyre on the wheel?
Magic!
  • 9 1
 Yes Boys !! Love some London tings innit !!
  • 25 21
 Very very cool though I have less than zero respect for the London Wheelie movement generally given the videos that have emerged of gangs on bikes attacking bikers, drivers and other residents, stealing and being both physically and verbally abusive. Any social movement that gets kids out of trouble and on to their bikes is great, but it's not achieving the main aim if they are just as antisocial and in gang related activity anyway.
  • 5 5
 You're misinformed. There are some key figures in this scene trying to prevent the gang culture that you're relating too.

www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/video/bikes-up-knives-down-using-cycling-to-fight-knife-crime
  • 13 18
flag twopoint6khz (Jul 6, 2020 at 3:34) (Below Threshold)
 "This mountain bike video is very impressive, but mountain bikers generally are anti social - they ride on footpaths, ruin the countryside, leave litter everywhere and cause trail erosion...."
  • 6 1
 Little Harry. Good at wheelies but also a total oik.
  • 4 7
 Sir I believe you are talking 'some next rubbish'. You're tainting something great with biased and unsubstantiated crap. London has youth crime like any other city, that's got nothing to do with this video.
  • 2 3
 @jdotr: I know that but unfortunately to date they aren't succeeding.
  • 5 1
 @twopoint6khz: This is not a mountain bike video...
  • 10 3
 @Steventux: Wrong, it's tainted by association. The wheelie movement in London is pretty massive and is known for the behaviour I have already stated. Couldn't care less if I get downvoted for telling the truth.
  • 6 1
 Unfortunately he's right, for how cool it looks they spend most days riding full pelt along pavements scaring people by doing late swerves at them. Fair enough if it's there mates but it's just members of the public.
  • 8 0
 Yep agreed.... the only good thing about the London Wheelie movement is that they are on bikes... pretty much everything else is about being an anti social git. Good to see less of that element in this video however. One day they might learn more than one trick, and progress to BMX.
  • 6 5
 Jesus Christ - can you not just enjoy it for what it is? That being a couple of guys who've put a lot of time into something that most of us will never have the skill or patience to pull off ourselves. Besides; it looks very much to be the case that they've made an effort to ensure that their practice and filming takes place at times and locations where they aren't bothering anyone at all.
  • 2 2
 @arna86: Im guessing you havent spent a lot of time recently in London. There are locations (such as the South Bank) where wheelie gangs ride full pelt at crowds of people. When they fall off because they have hit someone then they gang up on the individual and get aggressive. Some play chicken buses and cars. If people are trying to clean up the movement then Id support that but right now, there a bit of a journey to go on.
  • 3 2
 @landscapeben: You've conflated the style of riding in this video with your own prejudice and generalisations about a very large group of people.
Do you live in London? Can you see the variety of behaviour exhibited by a very economically diverse community?
Sure kids on bikes do bad things, kids in gangs do bad things, people in uniforms do bad things, motorists in high end cars do bad things, it's a very large city. Cherry pick your prejudice into any of it. Some people would attack Critical Mass with the same complaints you make.
At least substantiate what you are saying instead of just reiterating how right you are.
Also point out the crime occurring in this video, it's petty negativity to attribute the unconnected bad behaviour of others to a creative film like this.
As @twopoint6khz gently tried to illustrate earlier, no one's arse is totally clean in this world, so you know where to point your finger.
  • 3 1
 @bombdabass: But that doesn't happen in this video, this isn't a 'Wheelie Gang'
  • 5 1
 @Steventux: I work in London so I see enough of this in person as do others who have commented. I fully accept that this video is not specifically about wheelie gangs and does display some incredible talent, but as said before, they are tainted by association when they are clearly part of the same group. Look them up for crying out loud, takes all of 2 seconds to see that bikelife is linked with bikestormz and the whole movement.

The same finger can be pointed at you, prejudice is often a word used to justify bad behaviour by making out that the critic is taking a morally indefensible position. Can you see the variety of behaviour exhibited by a very economically diverse community? Antisocial behaviour is antisocial behaviour, regardless of background and if a movement has a disproportionately large amount of it then it should be recognised and not swept under a rug.
  • 1 4
 @landscapeben:
I've lived in Hackney for 25 years, there's good and there's bad anywhere you want to look for it. There's trail sabotage and attacks on landowners going on in the Surrey Hills for example.
The behaviour in this video isn't antisocial. The association has been made by you and remains totally unsubstantiated and in my opinion smacks of snobbery. All it does is adds a negative connotation to a great video.
You head back to the home counties and judge though.
  • 2 0
 @Steventux: Clearly you didn't bother looking them up then, as a very short google search is all you need for substantiation. I'm done debating with someone who can't see that there is equal importance in highlighting the bad as in celebrating the good. Snobbery lol good one.
  • 1 3
 @landscapeben: Where in this video is the bad though? That's really all I am asking you.
  • 3 0
 @Steventux: I've already said several times there's nothing bad in the video, the video is excellent and they have awesome skills! But I felt it necessary to give a measured response and that means mentioning what they are affiliated with, it ain't all sunshine and roses and most of the wheelie boys round london that I've seen are mixing these skills with antisocial behaviour on a grand scale. The link is not tenuous, they are part of the same movement and all of it's problems. Something worth noting, not ignoring!
  • 1 4
 @landscapeben: So substantiate what you are saying with actual evidence. Otherwise it sounds like sour grapes from someone who can't wheelie XD

PS. I can't wheelie for shit neither.
  • 1 0
 @Steventux: I think I have substantiated it. But moving one you're on the money with the wheelie thing, I had a local teenager offer to teach me the other day when he saw how bad I was lol
  • 2 1
 That video is brilliant, serious mad skills there. Lots of damage to the dropouts but who cares, get a scrapper and get on it. I thought I could wheelie till the sun comes up but I've got nowt on these guys.

Makes me just want to get a £50 shed off gumtree and start firing the front wheel out and chasing it down Big Grin
  • 10 6
 Bikelife isn't cool at all- it's full of little shits swerving around traffic!
  • 3 2
 Sounds class
  • 4 0
 very well done. Great edit, music worked will with the edits. Creative use of the space.
  • 2 1
 Wheelies are the coolest thing ever.
But someone’s always gotta take It too far and make it totally irrelevant.
Like those Chinese girls that can wheelie better than anyone.
And these guys.
What good is a bicycle that your front wheel falls off of?
  • 4 0
 Some serious skill and creativity here - Loved it!
  • 4 0
 Erm, same group that helped promote 'swerve the car'? I truly hope not.
  • 1 0
 Not bad at all; keep looking up, lower your seat a touch and find a flat open space to practice, you'll be a wheelie expert in no time.
  • 2 0
 Dont forget to remove your front wheel, flat and smooth grass might be a bit of a problem. Super skills guys.
  • 3 0
 That's one way to do barspins. Takes care of the cable problem.
  • 4 1
 that was wheelie awesome!
  • 2 0
 If these guys can nail their tricks 100% of the time, go for the BGT or AGT!
  • 3 0
 Very cool!
  • 3 0
 awesome skill
  • 1 0
 Welp, looks like I need another bike where I don't use the front wheel very often...
  • 2 0
 Yes, but can they fix a front puncture without stopping?
  • 2 0
 So much better than their last video "Two riders, one brake-bleed cup"
  • 2 0
 Truly inventive riding style.
  • 1 1
 Class lads! Making good from a bad situation (bare London streets & stations). Birmingham would be cool lots of new urban features there @jake100
  • 2 0
 those poor fork dropouts
  • 1 0
 Wow! All that only using their front brake... amazing
  • 2 0
 Magical!
  • 1 0
 And now try this with a discbrake/disc mounted!
  • 1 0
 Zeee Fuq, how many parts did you guys destroy? However super nice Video !
  • 1 0
 Poor forks,poor wheels... poor bollocks !!
  • 2 0
 Man I love this shit.
  • 1 0
 Ill skills fo sho
  • 3 2
 Video of the Year!
  • 2 2
 BRUV! Get a helmet already...
  • 1 0
 (deleted)
  • 1 2
 Comment removed.... Why..?
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