Not so long ago a new observation about rolling motion was described: for a rolling wheel, there is a set of points with instantaneous velocities directed at or away from the centre of the wheel; these points form a circle whose diameter connects the centre of the wheel to the wheel's point of contact with the ground (Sharma 1996 "Eur. J. Phys." 17 353-6). We provide a detailed experimental verification of this observation, collecting 3D data from a rolling wheel with a commercially available optical tracking system. We also extend the observation to a generalized form: for a rolling wheel, there is a set of points with instantaneous velocities directed at or away from "any" point P; these points form a circle whose diameter connects the point P to the wheel's point of contact with the ground. This generalization is also verified experimentally. (Contains 6 figures.)