Raise and hold a wheelie
To pop a wheelie, accelerate forward with W, then hold Shift and W together while moving. Your motorcycle lifts its front tire and balances on the rear wheel. In the gameplay recordings we examined, holding these keys keeps the motorcycle upright and balanced without flipping backward.
When you want to return both wheels to the asphalt, press Shift again. If your motorcycle fails to move before you can lift the wheel, review our checklist on Start your bike to confirm your key is equipped and the kickstand is raised.
Crashing does not end your run. If you hit an obstacle or lose control while on one wheel, your rider falls to the ground, but the bike remains intact. You can walk over to the motorcycle, pick it up, mount again, and continue riding without repair costs or penalties.
How the wheelie timer pays
The cash feed, cropped for phone reading: +$3 Near miss 1 close call above +$11 Wheelie 5.1s. That is about $2.16 a second, which is the same rate as the longer 18.5 second wheelie that paid $39 in the same recording. Frame at 0:46.
When you pop the front wheel up, a stunt timer appears on your screen and begins counting the duration of your balance. Once your front tire touches the ground or you bring the bike to a stop, the game converts that duration into an immediate cash payout.
In the run we watched, an 18.5-second continuous wheelie awarded $39. That works out to roughly $2.10 per second of sustained balance. Because longer balance runs scale the payout smoothly, practicing on wide, unobstructed streets like the main boulevard or the road near the bike club generates better earnings than quick pops. However, grinding 7,000 cash for a new vehicle purely on rear-wheel stunts would require nearly an hour of nonstop balance. For a faster route to vehicle purchases, consult How to get money fast.
Near misses and close calls
Near misses provide an automatic bonus of $3 each time your motorcycle passes close to a moving or oncoming civilian car without colliding. The game detects close proximity and displays a cash confirmation on your HUD.
While $3 per pass is modest, riding through active city traffic lets you collect multiple near misses within a few blocks. You can combine straight-line wheelies with traffic passes to earn stunt timer cash and near miss bonuses simultaneously. Keep enough clearance around vehicle corners, because clipping a car resets your wheelie timer before you can land cleanly.
Stunts during a pursuit
You can perform wheelies and trigger near misses even while being pursued by police. Running red lights or speeding past patrol cars triggers a chase, but wanted stars do not disable your stunt timer or traffic proximity bonuses.
Even so, performing stunts during an active chase introduces serious financial danger. Balancing on one wheel reduces your steering agility, making it easier for police cruisers to ram you from behind or trap you against road barriers. If the police catch you, the resulting fine takes money out of your account, easily wiping out all the stunt cash you collected. To understand when to pull away and when to avoid trouble, read our guide on Police chases and fines.