This Mini Bike Wheelies By Itself: Wheelie Fun Bike Review

The Wheelie Fun Bike V1 is the world's first self-wheelying mini bike — a 72V electric mini bike built by The Float Life around a dedicated self-balancing wheelie system that does exactly what the name promises. Press and hold the wheelie button, the front wheel lifts, and the bike's self-balancing technology holds you at a controlled angle indefinitely, with a smooth, gradual let-down when you release — no looping out, no sudden drops, no consequence for getting the balance point wrong. Claiming 30+ mph and 30+ miles of range (with real-world testing confirming 31 mph sustained uphill), the bike is legitimately capable as a mini e-bike on its own merits, but the headline is the riding experience: a flow-state, weight-shifting, hip-controlled skill that feels somewhere between an electric unicycle and a dirt bike wheelie, and that total beginners can meaningfully progress on within a single session. It's not the most practical thing we've ever tested — it's not trying to be — but as a pure experience machine that makes one of riding culture's most aspirational skills genuinely accessible, the Wheelie Fun Bike V1 is one of the most uniquely fun products to come through the Freshly Charged garage.

Video Review

Written Review

There are products you review because they're practical. There are products you review because the specs are impressive. And then there are products like the Wheelie Fun Bike V1 — a machine that exists for one reason and one reason only: because someone at The Float Life couldn't do a wheelie, had access to self-balancing technology, and promptly decided that was a problem worth solving. The result is the world's first self-wheelying mini bike, and after spending a session on it with Julian from The Float Life, the Freshly Charged team came away with sore legs, massive grins, and a genuine conviction that this thing is something special.

• Learn more about the Wheelie Fun Bike here: https://bit.ly/3XIEL97
• The helmet we are wearing in our review video: https://bit.ly/3MVvchn

What Is This Thing, Exactly?

The Wheelie Fun Bike V1 is a compact electric mini bike built around a 72V / 10Ah battery (nominal, on the production spec), dual suspension, and fat mini tires — think somewhere between a mini pit bike and an electric unicycle in terms of form factor. It's comfortable to sit on, reasonably quick, and claims 30+ mph top speed and 30+ miles of range depending on riding style. In real-world testing, Julian hit 31 mph uphill, which puts the claimed figures well within reach.

But none of that is the point. The point is the wheelie button.

The Wheelie Button

Here's the feature that makes this bike unlike anything else on the market: a dedicated press-and-hold button that initiates a controlled, self-balancing wheelie. Press it, the front wheel lifts, and the bike's self-balancing system holds you at a set angle for as long as you want — or until you release. There's no looping out. There's no sudden drop. When you let go of the button, the front wheel comes down slowly and controlled.

The system works in two modes. In dedicated wheelie button mode, the behavior is smooth and deliberate — a gradual rise, a held position, a gentle let-down. In throttle mode, if the front end lifts under hard acceleration, the self-balancing system kicks in automatically to prevent looping out, though the drop when it catches is slightly more abrupt. Julian noted that this behavior is tunable via the app, and he demonstrated adjusting the bike's nose angle in real time mid-session — dropping it a degree to give the front end slightly more forward pull for a rider who was fighting the balance point.

The app integration goes beyond angle tuning. The Wheelie Fun Bike connects to a companion app that handles a range of riding adjustments, making it a genuinely customizable platform rather than a one-size-fits-all experience.

What It's Like to Ride

The honest answer is: harder than it looks, easier than a real wheelie, and more fun than almost anything else we've tested.

Andrew and Jimmy both got on the bike cold, with zero wheelie experience between them. The learning curve is real — the instinct to use the handlebars for steering needs to be replaced by weight shifting, hip control, and learning to read where your balance point sits relative to the bike's geometry. It's more similar to riding an electric unicycle than a traditional bike in terms of body mechanics. Julian compared it directly: lean forward to go, lean back to slow, and let your hips do the steering once you're up in the wheelie.

What the self-balancing system removes from the equation is the fear. The single biggest barrier to learning a wheelie on a traditional bike or e-moto is the consequence of getting it wrong — loop out, and you're on the ground hard. The Wheelie Fun Bike physically cannot loop you out. The system catches the rear wheel before it can go past the balance point, which means the psychological barrier that stops most people from ever committing to a wheelie is simply gone. Once your brain accepts that, the learning accelerates fast.

Jimmy — self-described as conservative and historically reluctant to lift the front end on anything — was holding 40-foot wheelies within a single session. Andrew was stringing together clean runs shortly after. Julian, for reference, rode six miles of sustained wheelie through San Francisco while shooting promo content. The skill ceiling is genuinely high, but the entry point is accessible in a way no other wheelie platform has managed before.

The bike itself, as a regular mini e-bike, is comfortable and well-proportioned. The rear backrest — a small integrated extension — acts as a butt hugger that keeps you locked in when the front wheel is up, which turns out to be more important than it sounds. Without it, the sensation of sitting on a bike with the front end elevated would feel unstable. With it, you feel planted.

How It Fits Into the Broader Electric Riding Universe

Julian drew direct comparisons to both OneWheels and electric unicycles, and they're apt. The Wheelie Fun Bike offers a similar "flow state" experience — once the skill clicks, you stop thinking about the mechanics and just ride. It's meditative in the same way a OneWheel is meditative, except the novelty factor is arguably higher. As Julian pointed out, OneWheels were genuinely head-turning when they first appeared. That novelty has faded somewhat. A person cruising at 30 mph on a sustained wheelie is going to turn heads for a long time to come.

For riders who already wheelie — on dirt bikes, motorcycles, or otherwise — Julian's take is that the Wheelie Fun Bike is a useful training tool for learning side-to-side balance and weight distribution, even if it doesn't teach throttle and brake language the way traditional wheelie practice does. For riders who have never wheelied and want to learn, it's the most accessible entry point that exists.

A Few Notes on the Pre-Production Unit

It's worth being transparent that the unit the team rode is a pre-production prototype, and Julian was clear that some details will differ on the shipping production bike. Specifically, the test unit used an electronic rear brake, while the production bike will feature a physical front brake lever — a more conventional setup for an e-bike. The core wheelie system, battery spec, and performance figures are representative of the production unit.

Who Should Get the Wheelie Fun Bike?

If you've ever wanted to wheelie and couldn't — or were too nervous to try — this is the product that removes the barrier. It's not cheap thrills in the dismissive sense; it's a genuinely engineered piece of self-balancing technology applied to one of the most universally aspirational skills in riding culture. For experienced PEV riders looking for a new challenge, it offers a high skill ceiling and a riding experience that doesn't exist anywhere else. For total beginners, it's one of the most confidence-building electric riding experiences available.

The Float Life built this because Jeff couldn't wheelie. Somewhere out there, a lot of people are going to be very grateful that he couldn't.

• Learn more about the Wheelie Fun Bike here: https://bit.ly/3XIEL97
• The helmet we are wearing in our review video: https://bit.ly/3MVvchn