I really want to learn, I'd love to be able to pull wheelies but I'm scared of dropping the bike and wrecking it/me. I've done a few small power wheelies under full acceleration, but I'd like to do proper clutch ones. Can you guys wheelie and how did you learn? What's the best way to do it on a blade?
I might be slow but the one trick I do have is a pretty good wheelie. And this is how I practice. On a dirty that doesn't matter when I cartwheel it down the road.
Only thing I can say from experience the bikes that are strapped down on a rolling road are no good to learn how to wheelie. Watched a young lad ( fearless sod ) learn to wheelie ( on private land,of course ) on his gixer 600 in 2 hours !!! 1st or 2nd gear rode steady @ 5000rpm, off the throttle to compress forks the pulled back and snapped throttle open and up she came, like I said within 2 hours he was up shifting with the wheel up..........amazed me. Felt sorry for his bike tho
Find a private bit of road or an empty industrial estate on a Sunday. 2nd gear, popping the clutch and slowly increasing the revs each time. Don't rush it! Always make sure you have the back break covered incase you come up to high. It's important to have a road that's nice and flat without a camber to practice. It takes time (if you don't want to f up you or the bike) but once you get the feel for it, easy.
And the rest potentially. If convicted of failing to maintain proper control and carless or dangerous riding, you can in some cases depending on the court and who is sitting on the bench, add another 2 or 3 years to it. Just saying.........
Wheelies are ridiculously easy. ....as long as you aren't worried about maintaining the wheelie or landing it
Looks good when I see bikes wheelie , summat I can't do and haven't tried.Mainly due to fear of going off the back of the thing lol
Have to say as above, other than power wheelies through the gears, 'poppin' wheelies doesn't really interested me on a sports bike. different thing on a supermoto or trailie though.
I had a test ride of a cagiva raptor years ago, gave a handful to pass a bus, went past on the back wheel, shat masel, never had the inclination to even try since Daz
Have to say as above, other than power wheelies through the gears, 'poppin' wheelies doesn't really interested me on a sports bike. different thing on a supermoto or trailie though.
This is quite interesting and I am keen to say what people say on this thread. I have no issue with the front coming up under power and staying on the power until it slowly drops down but popping the front up gives me the fear as it’s an unknown haha. It is something I would like to be able to do though but never understood fully the effect it has on the bike damage / wear and tear wise?
Never replaced a fork seal on a bike (or needed to) in my life.... don't do anywhere the miles I used to, but used to rack up around 8-10k a year for about 6 years solid (touring, track days, sunday blasts... don't commute as dont enjoy it) with the odd occasional front hoist (on private land i will add) and never had a problem....
It's not that hard with a little bit of practice and clutching it up gives you way more control that just hammering the throttle. Just doing power wheelies will get the wheel off the ground but you will end up running out of revs which causes the front to come down harshly, damaging fork seals and headstem bearings. Best way to start out is find a straight, flat (no camber) stretch of road preferably with a bit of an uphil run. Running second gear, the power comes on too strong in first, gently accelerate and at about 5500 revs roll off pull the clutch in and then let it out quickly whilst smoothly rolling the throttle back on. It actually takes a bit more than you would think to get really good height but just start of practicing getting the front wheel light and a feel for how much throttle it takes. Body position plays a big part too. You want to have your weight as far back as you can, hold on with your knees and be nice and light on the bars. It's really important to make sure you don't run the revs right out as you need to keep a little in reserve for a soft landing. When you want to bring the wheel back down you roll off slightly and just before the front touches down you roll the throttle back on to keep the landing light. Rear brake. Everyone says you need to cover the rear brake in case of emergency. In my experience there is enough engine braking to bring the front down real fast if you slam the throttle shut. If you mash the rear brake and shut the throttle off then your just going to bring the front down so hard it's going to compound any problems you were having. Rear brake will help you to hold the front up at balancing point though. I think that's about it.
