Wheelies, what gear, clutch or not ?

Seein how the bike is still new, I havent done (too) many wheelies. Ive always found 2ndgear+clutch on pretty much any bike the best way to go to get the front skyward for a decent distance. Once that feels comfortable, do the same in 3rd while compressing the forks then pulling back a bit to bring it up to balance point.
After that.. stand up while in 4th gear... ...Ive spent too much time on my dirtbikes...


My inner hooligan wishes you well.

Wier, [My inner hooligan wishes you well.] It should be "Wier's inner hooligan wishes you well". this way we have more members to post in here.....

joe is with chuck on this from a previous thread on wheelies, the purchase of a dirtbike is well in order if you want to master wheeies,

to get the feel of the SD under power perched in the aire is a risk to start with, if you are doing it on public streets and highways is doubly risky,

I enjoy the cross up style myself, this is true hooliganisum along with tyre smoking corners and especially backing it in and then there

is coolberg!! Tyre smoking maniac for a stoppie great time.

I tend to clutch up in 2nd. I find it's a bit tricky to get the front up in 2nd under power unless fuel level is fairly low.

Mind you with the roads in the current wet and cold state, The rear just wants to spin rather than lift the front.

Never got cold, but yeah i've ended the day

Wheelies were very very inconsistent, but improving all the time when i got the technique going

I crumbled under the pressure outside Crusts work and did 3 Rubbish ones, but i thought the 4th was good... them despatch lads are a tough audience.

HAd some around 2' at a guesstimate but was only 1 out of about 7 ... and a few terrible ones in there too.

I'm happy though. the SD just gets more and more fun... it's hysterical on ALL roads.

Hey,

Thanx for the nice comments on the stunts

Regarding the technique:

For starters I do suggest to do power wheelies in the 2nd gear - for SD that is the smoothest gear thus the best feeling to catch and to safely get the feel in the right wrist for the throttle. SD has one of the most sensitive throttles, which is good, but have to be careful before you get the feeling.

my suggestion is to try to lift it up in 2nd more and more. For SD it is easy start riding, get it to 70km/h roll off quickly from the throttle at the same time position the body far to the back of the seat, when the forks have compressed and ready to move up - put the full throttle and help the bike to lift it up by pulling the handlebars towards yourself - by this way you will get it up higher in the beggining and thus you will have more rpm to have a longer smoother wheely.

Ask someone to film you from the side on a videotape when pulling a wheely - that way by watching it you fill clearly understand how far away you are from tipping over, because it is natural that you have a feeling that couple more centemeters and you will tip it over, but in reality that is far far away from that. With the video tape you will get more confidence in yourself

Regarding the wheelies using clutch - when you do that correctly it does no harm to the clutch - I do it daily already for a year and there is no sign of any clutch problem issues. The best to learn using the clutch is to do it in the 2nd gear at 40 - 50km/h when the engine has enough torque to pull it up. Stay on the bike as you usually do, the clutch should be operated with 1 or 2 fingers, others keeping on the handle - never make a mistake not keeping hands tight enough on the bars. The clutch should be released simultaneously with the throttle applied - actualy you have to apply quite a lot of throttle.

For safety always put your right foot on the rear brake paddle. For better feeling use normal sports shoes, because with motorcycle boots it is hard to get the feeling in your foot applying the brake. If you get the wrong feeling you can always apply the rear brake. Actualy I use that to stabilize the balance point and smooth out the sensitive throttle movements, you just with a good feeling apply the rear brake and use the throttle, if it is going to tip too far, just put more brakes and you get clother to the balance point and if needed you can brake more immediately to get it safely down.

Using the clutch method you have ot be ready that the chain gets the most abuse- thus I always buy the most quality products - you streatch it a lot with the cluthch wheelies and have to adjust it quite freaquently. Well with my weight 100kg and 2 meter (6"7') height it gets more abuse

Actualy when I did wheelies on my Honda CB1000 I had to change the chains 2 times per year and also 1 clutch - it is heavy machinery with 280kg and + my weight.

It was very easy to learn the power wheelies on Honda CB1000 - it was heavy and with lots of torque - very hard to tip it over, thus much better feeling of smooth power wheelies.

If you have any other issues, will be glad to comment - but it is very individual, very hard to explain as it is a feeling issue rather than technique, like Joe said.

With the Japaniese fours it is easier to learn smooth power wheelies as there is more rpm range to play with rather on SD V-twin

hey weeksy,,, joe is hot to see these snaky side to side wheelies, I have put up a link in here some whare, i talk about nuts and pretzels in my rambling,

joe will try to search it out and post in here, it is all craxy lower speed stand up stunt wheelies, hope i can search it out.

http://www.extremefunnypictures.com/funnypic1777.htm here it is....

Practice, thats the only way you'll get good at it. Go to your favorite place where you feel most comfortable, by yourself so you don't feel any pressure from your buds. Remember to breathe and relax,focus and give it a go. Watch your rpms so you can get repeatable results. Body position is also important, getting yourself back a bit from the tank and having a lower fuel level will help. Try to get out for 10 minutes a day of just doing wheelies in a place that you feel save and don't get down on yourself,relax it's supposed to be fun. Just remember to do it for you not to show off.Eventually you'll be doing smooth wheelies and you will feel safe doing them. Al

Nice to hear about your progression! Good going

One thing you have to take into account is that when you first start to wheely, your body naturaly is very tight - you get tired very fast and all the muscles hurt - mostly hands, sholders and the back. This is because you are tense, nervous and do not feel yourself natural. To do a good wheely you actually have to be relaxed and easy - this only comes with the time.

What i wanted to say is that be carefull not practicing too long in the beggining as your hands and wrists tend to get tired very fast, thus your grip becomes weak - as a result you may encounter a situation that you are pulling the bike up for a wheely and the hand slips off the handlebar and then it might get very ugly ( I am talking from my personal experiance )

Also a very important part is to keep the bike tight between your legs when doing a wheely - brings you more control in the beggining.

I have seen that for the guys whom I have instructed to start wheelies it is much easier to wheely doing wheelies by standing up - puting one left leg on the back footrest and the right on the rear brake and doing a wheely standing up. Many feel much better control this way. For me it was the opposite - it was easy to do wheelies sitting rather than standing up, only after I learned the stand up wheelies - but this is mainly an issue of how tall you are.

It is actually easier for shorter guys to do the stand up wheelies than sitting. I am 1.99m or 6'7" thus It is very easy to sit down and control the bike with long arms.

That is my experiance