| Author | Message | ||
     Johnboy777 |
I've done two wheelies, both by accident, but I thought it might be a good idea to learn to do a proper wheelie. Plus my son is coming home next week and I wanted to show off in front of him and his new bride. Any advice, RPM, MPH, technique, etc. Thanks . | ||
| Rwven |
This could be interesting... | ||
| Ratbuell |
Gear up and get a little fiddy to practice technique on, in the yard. Grass hurts less than pavement, lol. | ||
| Petereid |
"I've done two wheelies, both by accident, but I thought it might be a good idea to learn to do a proper wheelie." I did my first "accidental wheelie" yesterday. The trick to looking cool doing it is not yelling HOLY SH*T while your doing it. Also not having your wife slapping the crap out of your helmet for the next few miles helps with the image thing. | ||
| Maximum |
There are two types of wheelies; power and clutch. The power wheelies are more predictable. In first gear, rapidly roll the engine up to 5,000 rpms, then rapidly roll off the throttle (which compresses the front shocks providing a little spring action), then immediately and rapidly roll on full throttle! As the wheel comes up in the air reduce throttle as necessary to maintain the wheel at the desired height above the ground. If you higher than you expect, just roll off the throttle. You can also cover the rear brake for a panic situation. I like powering a wheelie up and seeing how long I can hold it 1-2 feet off the ground. If you get it high enough to find the balance point, then you can ride it there forever (I don't pull wheelies that high, too scared).  | ||
| Miamiuly |
Uhm, besides the get a 50 advice, all I'm going to say is- cover the rear brake, experiment with using the rear brake when trying to wheelie so that when you NEED the rear brake, it is natural. Uly will wheelie from a stand still easily, if you get overzealous, it would be easy to loop it. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Truth is, when my son called to wish me happy birthday, he made a lot of "you're getting old now, pop" cracks (I turned 54, BFD)... so, the plan is that when he comes home I say, "hey, watch this kids", and do a wheelie. They applaud, I flash that big, 'see, I ain't that f**king old yet, squirt' smile of mine, and all's well in daddy land. Naturally, I don't want him or his new bride to witness anything bad while I'm doing this, that would defeat the whole purpose. Plus, I already have a titanium plate screwed in my neck. Okay, so its not one of my better ideas - but the die has be cast. . | ||
| Seanp |
Yeah, I've had a couple of little inadvertent one foot wheelies from a stop sign, but I've never gotten up the gumption to go all out. I think I'll avoid it on the street with a 500 pound bike... | ||
| Johnboy777 |
""There are two types of wheelies; power and clutch. The power wheelies are more predictable. In first gear, rapidly roll the engine up to 5,000 rpms, then rapidly roll off the throttle (which compresses the front shocks providing a little spring action), then immediately and rapidly roll on full throttle! As the wheel comes up in the air reduce throttle as necessary to maintain the wheel at the desired height above the ground. If you higher than you expect, just roll off the throttle. You can also cover the rear brake for a panic situation. I like powering a wheelie up and seeing how long I can hold it 1-2 feet off the ground. If you get it high enough to find the balance point, then you can ride it there forever (I don't pull wheelies that high, too scared). "" Got it, thank you Max. About how fast are you going when you do this? Thanks | ||
| Uly1080 |
A variant to the power wheelie method that Max outlined above is this: From a stop, accelerate smoothly in 1st gear to 3K RPMs, and hang there for just a second. From 3K whack the throttle hard and you'll lift off. The Uly has so much torque that it doesn't really need the spring action of loading the shocks. Just take it slow, cover the rear brake, wear all the gear, and have fun. Too much "practice" may be a little hard on your front engine isolator. (Message edited by Uly1080 on June 18, 2008) | ||
| Miamiuly |
Almost nothing good ever comes from, "hey watch this..." Damned Murphy and his laws. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
""Almost nothing good ever comes from, "hey watch this..." Damned Murphy and his laws."" Shhhh ... lets not go there. 1st ... I have plenty of time to practice. 2nd ... I plan to pray " God, please don't let anything bad happen to me while I am showing off in front of my son" 3rd ... I really do think I might have a natural talent for this kind of thing. . | ||
| Maximum |
Johnboy: I think that I am normally around 30 mph (+ or -) when the wheel comes up, but I am starting (like Uly1080 said) from either a stop or slow roll. There are a couple variables: 1. I am at 5500 feet in elevation, so it takes a little more work here. 2. I have the Race Pipe which the sweet spot is at a little higher rpm. I was able to do wheelies at 3,000 with the stock pipe, so that might be a good place to start. | ||
| Froggy |
Easy, get in second gear, about 40mph, squeeze the clutch, rev the engine, let go. The higher you rev, the faster and higher it will go, so be careful  | ||
| Nevrenuf |
and i for one am here to tell you first hand that froggy had this down pretty good. mr. mild manner techno guy is hell on two wheels for a young guy. | ||
| Rwven |
Left a stop sign on a back road (no traffic at the time) coming in to work this morning. I got on it a bit hard, not wacking it to WOT but a steady roll on the throttle. At about 4500-5000rpm to front wheel gently came up perhaps 3' off the ground I eased off the throttle and it gently came down. I bumped the rev. limiter, banged off second gear and up she came again...Great fun! | ||
| Mike_dinger |
Getting it up is the easy part. Setting her back down smoothly is the tough part. Wait, what're we talking about again? If you practice the 1st gear wheelies too much, you might blow a fork seal, or the aforementioned engine isolator. Froggy's 2nd gear method might be less intrusive on the bike, but you will be traveling at a greater rate of speed so be careful! My advice: Never show off for anyone, because you might be showing off your bruises and roadrash before you know it. Surely ATGATT! | ||
| Uly1080 |
Hang on there JB...What's this?!!  Doing a wheelie is silly and pointless - and of course dangerous both to the rider and others that share our roads. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35 2598 | ||
| Etennuly |
DON'T DO IT!! Be a mature adult and let it go! Back away from the bike and say "Don't let me do stupid stuff".  Having said that the "safest", "easiest", "least likely to dump me", type of a wheelie, is to roll the bike to 3000 rpm in first gear, keep your right foot over the brake(but not on it), and whack the throttle to wide open fast. If it comes up too high or fast that rear brake will save you, just give it a little poke an it will come back down. The higher up it is the harder it will slam if you brake. Be balanced in the center of the bike and keep even grip pressure. Do little ones first then grow with it as you feel better. If you have the bags on it would be best to empty them when your show for the younger crowd happens. It is bad enough to wreck showing off,  but picking up spillage would add a certain sadness to the embarrassment. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
""Hang on there JB...What's this?!! Doing a wheelie is silly and pointless - and of course dangerous both to the rider and others that share our roads. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35 2598"" Just tryin' to be a smart-a$$ ... sometimes its funny, sometime not. Just imagine a smiley face after it, if it helps. ""I use humor to obscure my inner pain""...Fatty B. At any rate, it got me to thinking how funny it would be to show off in front of the kids, with a proper wheelie. Probably a bad idea, but sometimes good things come from bad ideas ...right? . | ||
| Cyclonedon |
"Having said that the "safest", "easiest", "least likely to dump me", type of a wheelie, is to roll the bike to 3000 rpm in first gear, keep your right foot over the brake(but not on it), and whack the throttle to wide open fast." I agree with everything Entennuly said except the part about whack the throttle wide open! maybe try 3/4 throttle at least until you get the hang of it. You don't want to loop it! Practice makes perfect! I was doing a wheelie about two months ago where I had my front end up about 12 - 18" when I hit second gear and I damn near flipped it! The front end was so high I couldn't see the road, only the air box cover was in my face and I had to hit the rear brake to bring the front end back down! Scared the crap out of me! The Ulysses is an easy bike to wheelie but be careful. I certainly wouldn't try doing one by dropping the clutch or with the rear tour pack loaded on the bike and certainly not with a passenger either! | ||
| Johnboy777 |
""the "safest", "easiest", "least likely to dump me", type of a wheelie, is to roll the bike to 3000 rpm in first gear, keep your right foot over the brake(but not on it), and whack the throttle to wide open fast. "" Thanks, Vern. I think that's what I'll start with tonight. . | ||
| Stevem123 |
Well all I can say is power wheelies are much better than clutching it up as it's much more predictable and controllable. The Uly is a great bike to learn on if you don't have a trash bike to play with. The top box can actually save you from looping it. Ask me how I know that one.....  Start with small ones and try to learn to throttle control it back down so you don't slam it down hard. That's one I still have a hard time with for some reason but no damage so far. Good luck and be careful! BC Steve | ||
| Maximum |
Of course you can always load about 20-25 lbs in the top luggage case, that makes pulling a wheelie even easier. Last year at homecoming (during the spirited group rides), with my son on the back, top case loaded and at sea level (close to), I had to work extremely hard to keep the front wheel down! That was fun. | ||
| Miamiuly |
Shhhh ... lets not go there. Yeah, sorry, that could have gotten ugly. I almost looped mine once just letting the clutch out from a stop with a little too much RPM -in part because my other bike has a tall 1st gear and is an inline 4, Vtwin was still pretty new to me. I swear I left that light from a standstill at about an 11o'clock wheelie, may have been closer to a 12 o'clock. I was planning to ride a little wheelie from a stop as I had just told my friend next to me how easy it was to loft the wheel a couple of inches from a stand still. I showed him  thankfully I had rolled off the throttle and got some rear brake. Have fun, oh and happy belated b-day. (Message edited by miamiuly on June 18, 2008) | ||
| Erase |
Make sure someone is there filming your stunt. We all would like to see it. | ||
| Conchop |
Scary stuff, like smokin the first joint out of your new bag LOL. Just keep cracking her around 4 to 5 k. She'll come up. Cresting little knolls in 2nd with her up on the pipe is cool, too. Long surfer style wheelies down the other side. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Thanks for all of the input ... I'm getting pretty excited about it, actually. I'm heading out after work tonight. . | ||
| Adamd |
Not condoning this sorta thing, But I like clutching up 2nd gear(this is also how I broke my belt at 7000 miles) start when bike is going at 3k rpm... 60mph wheelies are fun. | ||
| Froggy |
Adamd, I have a theory that the more you abuse the bike, the less stuff breaks. Obviously you didn't wheelie it enough, as I had 17k on mine with no belt issues. |
