In vehicle acrobatics, a wheelie is a vehicle maneuver in which the front wheel or wheels come off the ground due to extreme torque being applied to the rear wheel or wheels. Wheelies are usually associated with bicycles and motorcycles, but can be done with other vehicles such as cars.

Wheelies appear in popular culture as early as 1943, as U.S Army motorized Calvary are pictured in Life magazine performing high speed wheelies. Daredevil Evel Knievel performed motorcycle acrobatics including wheelies in his shows. Doug "The wheelie king" Domokos has accomplished such feats as a 145-mile (233 km) wheelie.

A wheelie is also a common motorcycle stunt. The principle is the same as the bicycle wheelie, but the throttle and rear-brakes are used to control the wheelie while a rider uses body mass and the steering to control the direction.

The world's fastest motorcycle wheelie record is 307.86 km/h (191.30 mph) by Patrick Furstenhoff. April 18, 1999. The world record for the fast wheelie over 1 km (0.6 mi) is 172.9 mph (278.3 km/h), set in September 2006 by Terry Calcott at Elvington airfield in Yorkshire, England. This event takes place every year and will be held this year on 21st & 22nd August 2010.

In some countries, such as the United Kingdom and USA, motorcyclists performing a wheelie on a public road may be prosecuted for dangerous driving, an offense which can carry a large fine and a ban of a year or more. In Pakistan, riders have had their motorcycles impounded for doing wheelies.

Clutch wheelies are performed by disengaging the clutch and opening the throttle to let the engine race and then engaging the clutch abruptly. Power wheelies are performed by simply opening the throttle. If the engine has sufficient power, it will be able to lift the front wheel. Bounce wheelies are performed by opening and closing the throttle in time with rocking the rider's weight back and forth, thus pre-loading the front suspension so that the throttle is opening at the same time as the front suspension is unloading.

Wheelies are common in auto- or motorcycle drag racing, where they represent torque wasted lifting the front end, rather than moving the vehicle forward.