Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
Wheelie Big Adventure (Video)
Wheelie fanatic Keenan DesPlanques took a trip to Arizona this winter, where he wheelied his way around the eastern half of the Fool’s Loop route. Watch the short and highly entertaining video he put together from the trip and read about his humbling experience dealing with rain and death mud here…
Words, photos, and video by Keenan DesPlanques
Hi, I’m Keenan, and I wish I could ride a unicycle. Just you and one wheel is a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, the laws of physics aren’t on my side, and I have no idea how to ride one. I spent over 10 years learning how to do wheelies, and I’m not ready to dedicate that kind of time to a unicycle. I’ll just pretend I have a unicycle while doing wheelies.
I was the kid out doing wheelies on a Gary Fisher MTB in the driveway. I remember getting the first full pedal stroke on one wheel and being so excited. I also had my fair share of loop-outs onto my back in the process. From 2018 to 2020, I didn’t have a car, and I commuted everywhere on my gravel bike. All of this time spent commuting turned out to be a great opportunity to learn wheelies. I slowly got more and more comfortable, and I have managed to do wheelies with bikepacking gear over the years.
In 2023, I got the Tailfin AeroPack, and when I did my first wheelie with that weight on the back of the bike, it felt so easy. I immediately had the idea to make a bikepacking video all on one wheel. I couldn’t just go straight into a wheelie-only video, so it took me a while to come up with a concept to set up the video.
In January of 2024, a snowstorm hit Vancouver, British Columbia, where I live. This was a pretty boring time of not riding my bike. I soon booked tickets to go down to Arizona for a few weeks to visit my dad and get in some warm weather on dry trails. By the time I got down to there, the rainy weather had swapped, and it rained almost every day in the desert with unusually warm weather in BC.
My dad was not supportive of me riding into the forecasted multi-day rainstorm, but I was stubborn and said it would be fine. I had rain gear and plenty of experience riding in the rain of BC. I set off from the suburbs of Scottsdale and got onto The Fool’s Loop bikepacking route. I obviously can’t wheelie for the entire route, as the video makes it seem like. While filming the wheelies, I struggled with the windy weather blowing me off balance. Some of the shots took me 10 tries to get a solid wheelie. Also, for continuity’s sake, I tried to stop my front wheel from spinning during the wheelies because a front wheel won’t spin for a whole bikepacking trip. It turns out the front wheel spinning really helps with balance for wheelies.
The first day was stormy, but I didn’t get rained on. I had cell service at my camp the first night and bragged to my dad how he was worrying for nothing, and the weather was perfect. I had moody weather with wind and rainbows but no mud or rain. The next day, I got some muddy humble pie within the first mile of riding. It was a really hard morning of riding, and I only got a few wheelie shots. I had a brief break in mud and rain, which lifted my spirits. I crossed over the sheep bridge, a beautiful bridge in the middle of nowhere, and I was in a good mood. Things quickly changed when I got hammered with rain, mud, wind, and snow for most of the afternoon. The wind was so strong that doing wheelies was impossible.
I found a scenic camp spot as the weather parted and had a good night’s sleep. I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and ate a PB&J sandwich for breakfast. I had a great morning of riding and filming on a long mud-free climb. I pedaled up into snow and got a lot of weird looks from people out on drives in the mountains. It wasn’t raining or snowing, and I was comfortable. I had a speedy descent out of the mountains and into the Agua Fria Valley.
I was going so fast with a tailwind until I hit some mud. I felt like a cyclocross rider as I rode through the mud, but it progressively worsened, and I had to walk. Every moving part on my bike started seizing, and I began worrying. I was moving at a snail’s pace, needing to stop every 100 feet to clear the clay mud from my wheels. The biggest problem was that dozens of people had driven their big ranching trucks on this road and tore it to shreds.
Going off of the road was much worse. I watched a tiny two-wheel-drive car get stuck 100 feet in front of me, and I helped them get turned around. Luckily, the mud was only two miles long, but it had wrecked my bike. I wanted to do the full Fool’s Loop but didn’t want to destroy my bike in the process, so I called my dad and got picked up in Cordes Lakes. He was pretty amused and had an opportunity to offer the classic “I told you so” that dads love to say.
Further Reading
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