Wheelie
The wheelie is a speed boost technique in Mario Kart Wii. It is exclusive to bikes.
Overview
Wheelies can be started by pressing D-pad up while on the ground, and canceled on the ground or in the air by pressing D-pad down (or flicking up and down respectively when using Wii Wheel or Nunchuk). These inputs are shared with up and down tricks, meaning that getting airtime off of trickable collision shortly after starting a wheelie will instead grant an up trick, thereby canceling your wheelie. Wheelies can also be canceled at any time by beginning a hop or drift.
Wheelies increase maximum speed by 15%, but do not scale current IV. Because IV is not affected, the bike has to slowly accelerate up to wheelie max speed using its acceleration stats. Bikes with a 0.9 T3 acceleration stat, such as Spear and Sneakster, have stronger acceleration at the start of a wheelie, due to the shape of their acceleration curve. If a boost is active, the wheelie speed bonus stacks additively.
Wheelies also greatly increase pitch rotation. As such, they are very useful when setting up a wallclip to gain more height.
Finally, bikes cannot gain EV by leaning while in the wheelie state.
Wheelies last for up to 181 frames, after which they end automatically. If the bike's IV is less than 30% of its max base speed, or if it's driving on a slope over 30° in pitch, wheelies can be started but drop automatically after 15 frames. There is also a 20-frame wheelie cooldown that begins after starting or canceling a wheelie with the D-pad; a wheelie cannot be canceled with D-pad down until 20 frames after it starts, and a new wheelie cannot be restarted until 20 frames after it is canceled. This cooldown does not apply when a wheelie ends after its full duration, and does not prevent wheelies from being canceled with a hop or drift.
Techniques
Chain wheelie
Wheelie drops occur automatically after 181 frames, after which another wheelie can be started immediately; this is known as a chain wheelie.
While the bike is not in a wheelie, maximum speed decreases by 3 u/f each frame. The minimum speed loss is 3 u/f, with a frame-perfect wheelie input; more delay causes more speed loss, which is suboptimal. Chaining 1 frame late is known as a half chain.
Optimal wheelie turning
On manual drift, turning in a wheelie (on the ground) causes a harsh loss in IV. In most situations, it is best to get a good line in the boost, or prior to starting the wheelie, to avoid any speed loss. However, sometimes it is necessary to slightly adjust rotation during a wheelie. Optimal wheelie turning is the sequence of inputs which maximizes inputs, without causing a loss in IV over time. Harsher turning is generally never worth it due to the deceleration.
The inputs for optimal wheelie turning are different for each bike. The wheelie turn speed loss is a function of statistics like turning speed, (late-stage / A3) acceleration, handling intensity, and top speed. Optimal wheelie turning inputs can be derived mathematically, for any combination of statistics, using this spreadsheet.
On automatic drift, turning in a wheelie does not cause any IV loss. This makes auto wheelie turning much stronger for all bikes, as it's possible to simply alternate ±7 and ±5 inputs.
Twist chain
Turning in a wheelie (on manual) decreases IV, while a chain wheelie decreases maximum speed. Therefore, harsh turning right before a chain allows for realignments on straightways, without any long-term speed loss (as long as IV decreases by less than 3 u/f). Twist chains do lose a small amount of time, so they only be used if necessary.
Any leaning input (i.e. ±2 or more) the frame before the chain input causes rotation to change after chaining, without losing as much time as a full twist chain.
On automatic, turning causes no speed loss, so twist chains can be done any time while wheelie turning.
Slipchain
Canceling a wheelie by drifting in midair does not set the wheelie cooldown. This makes it possible to drift for one frame on the last frame of airtime, to cancel the wheelie, then immediately wheelie again on the first frame on the ground. This technique is exclusive to manual drift.
Slipchains are useful for realignments on a straightway. They also reset the wheelie timer, which can delay or completely remove chain wheelies. However, slipchains cause a 3 u/f speed loss, much like regular chains, so they are only occasionally useful. The speed loss can be minimized if the bike has a boost, or completely removed if decelerating from a boost or offroad, due to deceleration stacking.
Rotation conversion
Bikes have significant pitch rotation while wheelieing. When they drive on a slope change, they always rotate to be oriented perpendicular to the ground, possibly gaining roll rotation. The change in roll rotation, coupled with non-zero pitch rotation, causes yaw rotation to also change, due to rotation conversion. On sections with sloped terrain like curbs, rotation conversion is useful to turn sharply in a wheelie without speed loss.
Rotation conversion with wheelies is particularly useful on certain tracks. On GCN Mario Circuit, the large curbs on the sides of the track can be used to hold a wheelie for the entire straight after the grass shortcut, removing realignments. On DS Yoshi Falls, sticking on the uphill before the bridge naturally gives a good line for the bridge. On Luigi Circuit and Mario Circuit, performing a spindrift from the curb allows for much tighter cornering than otherwise possible.
Broken wheelie rotation
When holding a wheelie in the air, the pitch rotation change from taildiving is added to the wheelie pitch rotation, allowing the bike to point almost fully upwards. If the bike has roll rotation as well as extreme pitch rotation, rotation conversion causes the bike to spin in the air while roll rotation is non-zero, because the pitch rotation limit is never reached.
Using this extreme pitch rotation, landing on the ground and immediately hopping may cause the bike to hop backwards. This happens if the bike is rotated more than 90° relative to the ground. This can be achieved either with sloped ground, such as on Grumble Volcano UR flap, or with barrel roll collision, such as on Mushroom Gorge UR 3lap.
Automatic drift techniques
- Main article: Automatic drift
Automatic drift has a few wheelie techniques which are exclusive to it. Artificial chain wheelies are the equivalent of slipchains for manual drift, involving canceling the wheelie without triggering the wheelie cooldown, by holding ±6/±7 for 16 frames. Rewheelies allow for tighter turning while accelerating in a wheelie, by repeatedly performing artificial chain wheelies, because of wheelie drops affecting maximum speed instead of IV.