Project Wheelie Testing Guide WIKI – How to Wheelie, Controls

Project Wheelie Testing is one of those Roblox games where you can hop on a bike and start riding immediately, but actually getting good at it is another story. My first few wheelies were basically the same routine: front wheel comes up, I hold it for a second, lean way too far back, and the whole thing falls apart.

Once you understand the balance point, though, it starts feeling much more natural.

And that’s really what makes Project Wheelie fun right now. Even though it’s still a testing game, the bike physics already give you quite a bit to play around with. You can practice long wheelies, swerve while the front wheel is up, try stoppies and burnouts, mess around with rider animations, and even turn traffic on when an empty road starts feeling too easy.

If you’re just starting, this guide covers the stuff I’d learn first: how to wheelie in Project Wheelie, the PC and controller controls mentioned in the current testing build, how balancing works, useful settings, stoppies, burnouts, and a few tricks that make practicing much easier.

Don’t try to pull the bike up the instant you start moving.

Give yourself a little bit of speed first.

Once you’re moving at a comfortable pace, activate the wheelie control. The front of your bike will lift, and from that point the challenge isn’t starting the wheelie anymore—it’s keeping it there.

For PC, the testing setup shown uses Ctrl to toggle the wheelie.

For controller, use D-Pad Up.

The basic sequence is:

Build speed → activate wheelie → find the balance point → control your throttle

That last part is where most of the learning happens.

You don’t want the bike completely vertical, but you also don’t want the front wheel sitting so low that it immediately drops back onto the road. You’re looking for that middle position where the bike can stay up without constantly fighting you.

It takes a few attempts before you start recognizing it.

The controls may feel strange during your first couple of rides, especially because Project Wheelie gives you more than simple acceleration and steering.

Here are the important controls demonstrated in the testing build:

Since Project Wheelie is still being tested, controls and bindings could change as development continues. Controller players may also see the available testing controls displayed in-game.

The important thing is understanding that the wheelie control works like a toggle. You aren’t necessarily supposed to keep holding it the entire time.

Activate it to bring the front wheel up, then use it again when you want to bring the wheel back down.

This is probably the most important thing in the entire guide.

Starting a wheelie is easy.

Holding one is the skill.

Once the front wheel comes up, watch the angle of your bike and control your throttle rather than simply holding acceleration nonstop.

If you lean too far backward, you’ll lose useful forward momentum and can eventually fall.

If the front wheel gets too close to the ground, you’ll gain speed more easily, but you’re also closer to ending the wheelie.

There’s a sweet spot between those two positions.

Once you find it, try making tiny adjustments rather than huge corrections.

That’s something I found much easier than constantly overcorrecting. When you feel yourself falling backward, adjust. When the front wheel starts dropping too much, compensate again.

Eventually it stops feeling like you’re reacting to the bike and starts feeling like you’re controlling it.

There’s a neat little detail to the physics here.

If you’re riding extremely far back during your wheelie, you aren’t going to build speed as effectively.

To accelerate while maintaining the wheelie, bring your front wheel slightly closer to the road and apply throttle.

Don’t completely drop it.

You want to lower the front just enough that you can build forward momentum while still maintaining your wheelie.

So if you can hold wheelies but keep wondering why you’re moving painfully slowly, check your bike’s angle. You may simply be leaning too far backward.

You can experiment at low speeds, but learning is much easier when you’ve already built some momentum.

I’d recommend accelerating to a decent speed first and then activating the wheelie.

That gives you more room to concentrate on balance instead of simultaneously trying to get the bike moving.

Once you’ve become comfortable with that, you can start experimenting with slower wheelies and more difficult tricks.

For a beginner, though, speed first, wheelie second is much less frustrating.

This sounds obvious once you know it, but it’s useful if your bike keeps lifting when you don’t want it to.

Press your wheelie button again.

On the demonstrated PC controls, that’s Ctrl. Activating Ctrl starts the wheelie, while pressing it again brings the front wheel back down.

The same idea applies when using the corresponding wheelie control on another input method.

This also gives you much more control when practicing. Instead of waiting until you lose balance, deliberately end the wheelie when things start going wrong and try again.

Once you’ve figured out the basic balance point, head toward the highway.

The highway gives you more space to maintain longer wheelies and, importantly, practice turning and swerving instead of only traveling in a straight line.

There aren’t necessarily huge perfectly straight stretches everywhere, so you’ll still have to deal with bends in the road. I actually think that becomes useful once you’re comfortable with the basics because it forces you to learn steering while maintaining your balance.

Start without worrying about traffic.

Get comfortable with:

Maintaining the balance point, changing your speed, lowering and raising the front wheel slightly, steering through bends, and deliberately ending the wheelie.

Once all of that feels comfortable, you can make things more interesting.

Project Wheelie Testing lets you enable traffic while riding.

Once enabled, vehicles will appear on the roads, giving you moving obstacles to deal with.

This is where practicing on the highway gets much more entertaining.

Instead of holding one long wheelie down an empty lane, you can start trying to weave between traffic while keeping the front wheel up.

I wouldn’t turn traffic on immediately if you’re still falling every few seconds. Learn the balance mechanics first. Otherwise, you’re trying to learn wheelie control, steering, speed management, and obstacle avoidance all at once.

Once basic wheelies become easy, traffic is a nice next challenge.

Open the settings and you’ll find Wheelie Counter Lean.

This setting changes how your rider behaves while turning during a wheelie.

With Wheelie Counter Lean enabled, your character leans against the direction of the turn while you’re wheelieing. It changes the look and feel of swerving and can make those side-to-side movements feel much more dynamic.

Turn it off and your character won’t perform that same counter-leaning motion.

Neither option is necessarily something every player has to use. It’s partly personal preference.

Personally, I’d try it enabled first. The counter-lean animation suits the way the bike moves when you’re swerving, and it makes wheelies look much better once you start chaining turns together.

If it feels awkward, switch it off and compare.

There are also some smaller visual settings worth playing with.

Hand Animations control the visible movement of your rider’s hands. For example, you’ll see the character’s hand react while revving the bike.

Head Movement makes your character’s head move in relation to your camera movement.

Neither setting is as important to actually learning wheelies as Counter Lean, but they contribute to the more realistic riding feel Project Wheelie is going for.

I’d leave them on initially and only disable something if you personally dislike the effect.

Once you can hold a normal wheelie without immediately falling, you can start messing around with tricks.

While performing a wheelie, press C to trigger the one-handed wheelie animation on the demonstrated testing controls.

Your character will take one hand away while continuing the wheelie.

The important bit is that you should already have your bike relatively stable before triggering it. Trying to learn balance and perform tricks at the same time makes everything unnecessarily messy.

Get the wheelie stable first.

Then show off.

Another trick available during a wheelie is the Knock-Knock.

While your front wheel is up, press X on the demonstrated controls.

Your rider will move their leg outward while maintaining the wheelie.

Again, these tricks become much easier once maintaining the actual wheelie has turned into muscle memory.

There’s no point looking stylish for half a second if you’re immediately flying off the bike afterward.

Wheelies aren’t the only balancing trick you can practice.

You can also attempt a stoppie, where the rear of the bike lifts while the front wheel stays on the road.

First, build up a good amount of speed.

You’ll then need to use your braking/bike control and get the balance right so the rear wheel comes off the ground without completely losing control.

The concept is basically the opposite of a wheelie: instead of balancing on your rear wheel with the front lifted, you’re shifting the bike forward and balancing around the front.

This one may take a few tries.

If you’re struggling, concentrate on getting your speed and timing consistent before worrying about holding the stoppie for a long time.

Burnouts are much simpler.

Use reverse and accelerate together.

Doing this correctly causes the bike to spin the tire while remaining mostly in place, creating the burnout effect.

It’s not really something you need for learning the game, obviously, but once you’ve spent enough time practicing wheelies, it’s another fun mechanic to mess around with.