Wheelies or Catwalks ?

Some guy I know claims to have never heard of a catwalk before.
And he wants to know what's the difference ?
The way I explained it to him was that catwalks are long wheelies
and have been for decades.
I remember trying my damndest to catwalk my 3-speed CCM bicycle
(with banana seat, high-rise handlebars and a stick shifter) back around
1976, but could only manage to pull off a modest wheelie,
where I would get about 4 or 5 pedal revolutions in before it fell apart.
(my wheelie that is, not the bike)
The thing was, I kept accelerating and would quickly hit my rev limiter,
and couldn't pedal any faster so the front end would come crashing down.
A few times I tried to pull it way up to find the sweet spot, but went right
on over backwards, smucking my tailbone into the street.
My friend at the time who had a similar bike could catwalk his bike up
and down the street all day.
I just never got the balance point down I guess.
So I tell this guy I was talking to recently that the real difference is that
amost anyone can pop a wheelie on their 3-speed bicycle, but it takes
a special skill to catwalk all the way up the street.

What does this have to do with motorcycles do you say ?
Well I know on drag racers call them wheelie bars, and it sounds weird
to say you saw someone catwalking a motorcycle.
I can't emagine where the term catwalk came from, because as far
as I know, cats hate to walk on anything but all 4 paws. I've never seen
a cat walk on it's hind legs. Maby some cat owners can shed some light
on their experience with this phenomenon ?
Where the hell does this term come from ?
Does anyone, or has anyone ever referred to lengthy wheelies on their
motorcycles as catwalks ?
Proberably not.
Just wondering.

I thought "catwalk" was another term for a stoppie i.e. standing the bike up on it's front wheel.

We have two cats and I'll be damned if I've ever seen either of them do something like that though.

I used to be able to do lenghty wheelies on my Schwinn Continental 10 speed. I would shatter rear sprockets occasionally, about one a summer.

Ummm...that's how I walk. So do all of my sisters. Of course I can't wheelie my motorcycle. I can't even ride it by myself. I still can't reach the ground

I can't seem to figure out which part of the country you're in, but catwalk must be a local term. I've never heard the term anywhere in the west.

Even the Guinness Book of World Records calls it a wheelie regardless of how far it is:

I've always thought "catwalk" describes when I do a wheelie along the top rail of a split-rail fence. Who else does that?

He walks on his back legs when he's kicking ass of one of our 10lb dogs.But we also have a bitch of a female dog same size 10lb He don't mess with her. Funny when we're not around the BITCH comes walking into the room with bunch of hair around her mouth ??? same color as cat's.

It's not just me, and it's not just an east coast thing.
Google catwalk and some kind of bike word like bike, bicycle, or motorcycle,
and you'll see.
If you just google catwalk, you'll just get porn.
From a few pages I've read, it seems that catwalking may be when you
can take a short break from pedaling (or throttle for a motorcycle), and just coast,
balancing on the back wheel:
http://www.nsmb.com/trail_tales/askhoots_02_04.php
http://wiki.ehow.com/Do-a-Catwalk-on-a-Bicycle
http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/dictionary/C.htm
http://www.wsd1.org/GeneralWolfe/sciencefairprojects/Physics/AIRPRESSURE/air.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/J003263/tricks1.html
http://www.boardpass.com/bike/biketricks.asp

I haven't heard catwalk since leaving Canada, and then it always refered to a bicycle wheelie not a motorcycle.

Those are called Polish wheelies

Can't say I have ever seen my cats walk on their back legs except in the aforementioned case of kicking the crap out of some (much larger) dog and needing both front paws to scratch.

I can recall trying to wheelie long distances on my bicycle as a kid, and not being ATGATT at the time, winding up leaving bits of skin on the street :eek1. I too had a freind who could ride all day on the back wheel (little jerk!). Then there was the short period of time I owned a unicycle, never got the hang of that either. Now that I think about it, these may be the reasons why I tend not to do more than small wheelies on motorcycles. It hurt on my three speed bike at five miles per hour when I was eight years old, at forty five on a four hundred pound BMW I expect it would REALLY hurt.

Eric

Never heard of catwalking

I always liked watching Doug Domokos "The Wheelie King"

I always ended on my back

Never heard of a "Cat" walk.

BUT.

Every time a black guy (I'm not racist, this is just a cultural observation) asks me about my bike, usually out of his car window at a red light, he asks me if I can "Walk" it.

I assume this means riding a long standing wheelie.

I can pop a wheelie, but I can't "walk" it.

You must have lived on my street! All I could do was wheelie but my friend could catwalk the whole block, turn around in the cul-de-sac and come all the way back to my driveway! All on his back wheel. This was the same guy that could burp the whole alphabet and make it sound good, so maybe the balance thing is tied to your burp valve or something??? :huh Never could burp worth a d@mn.

Canadian as well, maybe it's mostly a canuck thing? Like touque???

Nah I think he means like Paul Sr. does on American Chopper, never see him ride a bike, he's always duck walking them around.

is a term we used when racing bmx and it meant riding on the rear wheel with some pedalling and some coasting
with no pedalling just coasting it is a manual
and with all pedaling it is just a wheelie
then the variation of sitting or standing
but I think that term feel out of favor as the kids dont say it anymore
I knew a kid who could manual around the block just coasting and wiggiling for forward momentum he was a little brat

Canadian here also... As a kid in the '70s, doing a wheelie was always called a 'Catwalk'... Never hear anyone say this anymore tho. It's always a wheelie nowadays.

Hey, I knew a guy who could do Catwalks 24/7 and burp the alphabet also... maybe same guy!

You sat tomato, I say canoodle.

The key to a long bicycle (or motorcycle) wheelie or catwalk or whatever is to use the back brake, I could wheelie my old 10 speed and even shift gears until I got tired of it. Balance thrust to brake, you can speed up, slow down until the cops show up.

Learn to ride a unicycle helps.

Rod

<---BMW K1200rs...to scared of spline shock loads to want to try it...I prefer the chic-fil-a strip check personally.

I thought catwalk could only be done on something you pedaled, because pedaling while doing a wheelie looked ridiculous, like a cat walking on two legs.