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"Can you wheelie?"

... Get the front wheel any amount off the ground and it's a wheelie for a street bike...
You raise some very good points. And you're right, a wheelie is when the front wheel leaves the ground, but that's how you learn anything. You eventually lead up to getting the front wheel higher, to the balance point and then to where you can carry it longer. And just so you know, I can do it, but I'm not necessarily that good at it.

And Geoff, no problem if you don't see the point. I'm sorta the same way about smokin. burnouts, I just see a waste of tire. But you know, to each their own...
 
I just see a waste of tire. But you know, to each their own...

This.

FWIW, all my best unintentional wheelies have had audiences.

Quick overtakes on my 1100 Hyper frequently involved passing the driver's door with the wheel in the air.

On one of the one-ways south of Market, I realized that while I was in the right lane that I needed to take the next left. When I goosed my Speed 4, the M3 next to me thought I wanted to race, so I grabbed a bigger handful, and it was like parting the Red Sea. All the cagers scattered in awe of my incompetence!

Best wheelie ever was with my ex on the back. We were chasing my friend Stuart back from dinner in Hawes in Yorkshire. Stuart is quick, and I had no idea how to get home from dinner, so I couldn't afford to lose sight of him. He passed a Volvo, and so I went to follow just as we were approaching a hump backed bridge. The front end got light, and so I covered the rear brake because I didn't want to roll off. The front end continued to climb, and just when I thought I would need to apply the brake, the tach needle swept around the dial. The rear wheel was probably never more than an inch off the ground, but it was very exciting for all concerned. :party
 
Dorsoduro had the ability through 3 gears just rolling hard on the throttle.
Hypermotard is similar.
Any other bike id have those oooops moments and the wheel has come up but not intentionally:ride
 
Here's a classic wheelie story from years ago that you might enjoy ...

I was at a red light on my blue and white 2006 Suzuki GSXR 1000. A guy pulls up on my left astride a green 2005 Kawasaki ZX10R (a particularly vicious and wild machine) and gives me the Let's Go nod. I suck at launches now, and I sucked at launches then, but sometimes a moron has to do what a moron has to do.

The light turns, I get off the line pretty good, the front comes up, and I'm having a fun time until, out of the corner of my eye, I notice an unusually tall shadow with a greenish hue looming over me from the left.

If I was screaming like a little girl in my helmet at the moment, I'm quite certain that ZX10R pilot was screaming a few octaves higher. The poor guy was vertical and making all sorts of herky jerky body movements that let me know real fast that this was definitely not part of his game plan.

From my rear view mirror, I saw him get his bike back down to Earth followed by an only slightly less terrifying tank slapper, but to his credit - or more like sheer blind luck - he didn't crash.

Anyway, I "won" - whatever that means - that one, and I'm pretty certain that was the end of that ZX10R pilot's light to light racing career.
 
I could wheelie indefinitely on my Sting Ray, back in the day.
I never learned to moto wheelie, though power wheelies are common. I loft the wheel regularly on my dirt bike.
That twelve o’clock thing? I can’t pay the price of admission. I sure don’t do stoppies. Er, no prob on a mtn bike.

Sorry, no cool stories.
 
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I am still putting in time trying to get better. It takes a lot of time to learn so if you cant wheelie it is just because you havent spent enough time. I have looped out like twice. I been trying mainly on my klx143. Just safer when I fall down


Getting comfortable to just go back with the bike takes some time by itself


Also they have wheelie schools if anyone is interested
 
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The truth be told ...

I can laugh about my classic wheelie story from years ago now, but that was the last time I ever engaged in any kind of red light racing with any vehicle. Hell, I'm so slow and cautious nowadays that I've even have a Safe Driver Discount on my insurance! This cracks my friends and family up knowing how much faster and less safe I used to be.

Yeah, my classic wheelie story was a dumb and fun event for a moment or two, but when I got home, I honestly thanked God that kid didn't hurt himself or others when he went vertical.

The 2004 - 2005 Kawasaki ZX10R that kid was on is referred to as a Widow Maker to this day.
 
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Usually only unintentional, but occasionally when needed to get over an obstacle.

I'm told by those who can that it's highly addictive.
 
And Geoff, no problem if you don't see the point.

I'm sorta the same way about smokin. burnouts, I just see a waste of tire.

But you know, to each their own...

Jon, I agree about burnouts as well.

Either one, if not handled properly, can end up in a "YouTube Moment"!
 
I could wheelie indefinitely on my Sting Ray, back in the day.

A kid I grew up with had a Stingray with a set of four foot long forks that his dad welded up for him. He used to wheelie that thing all over the neighborhood. He also used to "work on" his bike all the time, taking stuff off and putting it back together.

One day he hoiked a wheelie in front of a bunch of us. He reached the balance point and his front wheel fell off. The look of horror on his face as he watched the wheel bounce away was priceless. When he ran out of steam, the front came down and broke the forks in half. :laughing
 
I also don’t get the point of burnouts, car or bike. But aren’t wheelies the first thing you wanted to do as a kid.
Seems not everyone. I’ve ridden with small groups with my hyper and wheelied it multiple times where other riders didn’t approve. Guess it’s a bit juvenile but thats how you ride a Hyper.

At least two different occasions when BSing with other riders the topic came up and they claimed their bike couldn’t wheelie for some odd, too much weight on the front, not enough torque… We get around to riding and switch bikes, I immediately wheelied their bike. One of those occasions dude is cool but other occasion dude gets kinda pissy and wants his bikes back, this is a dude I knew for quite a while.
Plus I’ve seen people in cars get pissed, giving me the finger. Once an old dude starts yelling at me at a traffic light cause I wheelied past him a ways back from the light, dude almost blew a gasket.

Anyhow at the risk of looking like a dork posting pics I’ve posted in the past (I don’t have many)

6LPopBbl.jpg
 
Anyhow at the risk of looking like a dork posting pics I’ve posted in the past (I don’t have many)

That is such an awesome shot. You can post that one as much as you want. :thumbup
 
I spent years focusing on form to keep weight over the front end to reduce power wheelie headshake, so I bought a CVT to avoid power wheelies.
 
From long long long ago...

[YOUTUBE]nSX8NlLREkI[/YOUTUBE]

The most fun wheelies I used to do were in the Becker F1 sidecar at Willow Springs up over the top of turn 6. Myself and a couple other drivers used to have an informal contest on who could spin up the rear over the top of 6 and lay the biggest burnout streak down the backside heading towards 7. I got in the habit of fanning the clutch when the rig got light over the top of 6 to break the rear tire loose.

I figured out if I timed just the right amount of clutch slip I could lift the front of the F1 off the ground without breaking the rear loose and carry it down the backside of 6 in power wheelie.

Stupid fun.
 
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Mostly just power wheelies. When I had a DRZ I could clutch up in second and ride it out through third sometimes, but never did make it up to the balance point. I own a 150cc supermoto so I have no excuse for not learning.
 
Can a dog fart?

Actually, though, it depends on what I'm riding. My Bonneville will only wheelie if I wind it up and fan the clutch, which is not particularly good for it.
The R1250RS will wheelie with the ATC off, and the KTM Duke, well ...keeping the front wheel on the ground all the time isn't that easy. I do kind of miss my VTR100F, a bike that rarely kept it's front wheel planted.

Sadly, as I age, (yes, I am getting geezeritis) I find that I take fewer risks and try to avoid any long hospitalizations. But I will admit to the occasional impulse to loft the front wheel. I think it goes back to my childhood experiences with bicyles, skateboards, skiing, surfing, boogie boards.

"Wheelies can be a wheel saver, too, unweighting the front can prevent a road hazard from causing damage, offficer."
 
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I learned to ride on the street and had always wanted to wheelie. My first bike, a 2000 SV650S never really felt like it wanted to do (let alone hold) a wheelie. My 2nd bike, however, an 03 R6, did. It felt like it WANTED to wheelie. Back then, I was basically the over-eager labrador puppy of my college riding group. Any cool thing the seasoned riders did, I wanted to do too.

Burnouts? Cool, I learned to do rolling burnouts. But I was broke and only did it when my current rear was toast and had already scored the next set of take-offs from my racer friends.
Dragging knee? Sign me up! I would try to get that low no matter what kind of turn, 10mph or 100 mph, it didn't matter. I couldn't afford to be a track junky customer so I got in as a corner worker for DP Safety school and got most of my fix for free
Wheelies? Oh. Hell Yea. I was all about it - I spent most of early rides, on the R6, just tryin to learn to bring the front end up on ANY straight we got to. I never got (really) good at clutch ups, most of my wheelies were bounce/power wheelies - dropping my weight on the pegs & bars to compress the suspension; as soon as it hit the lowest point, hit the gas while pulling up on the bars. Since my practice was almost always while we were hauling ass, I had to learn to do it at pace, so my strength was to start in low-2nd or mid-3rd gear, starting around 45-65mph, depending on the gear/pace. I never lowered my tire pressures, specifically for wheelies, so the <20mph parking lot stuff took forever to learn, especially with stock gearing.

Some of what I'm about to say will draw ire or disbelief, but I have no reason to lie - I loved wheelying as much as I loved dragging knee around the track. Many an internet forum have called me a bold faced liar for some of these claims... which I can't exactly prove anymore since I can't physically re-create them in my old, 1-armed state (thanks to a wheelie, no less).

In my prime, I could start a wheelie on my mostly-stock R6 in ANY gear. 1st-3rd? No one bats an eye at a 600 being able to do that. But where I made some money, after running into random people during ride breaks or at the track, was in telling them I could START a wheelie in 6th gear on a 600. They'd bet as much as $50 that I was full of shit. So, if they were serious, we'd eventually go out to the desolate back roads, like Hwy 58 between SLO and Bakersfield, and I'd show them. On the 2+ mile straights, I'd get up to ~95-100mph, stand up, put one foot on the passenger peg, drop like a rock to compress the suspension, lean back while weighting the rear peg and whack open the throttle while yanking up on the bars. It wasn't consistent, about 2-3/5 times I could get the front end up, about a foot or 2 off the ground, and after a few attempts, would hit the balance point at around 110-125mph. At that speed, the BP is pretty low, given that I was standing up, catching the wind like a spinnaker sail. Having the weight mostly on the rear peg, behind the rear axle, was the real key to doing it. Of all the footage we took back then, I wish I'd recorded those the most, just to be able to validate the claim.

I didn't do those crazy-high speed wheelies very often.... my go-to, as I mentioned, was 45-80mph in 2nd-3rd gear.

Now that I've reminisced about those glory days, old man me has to kick in... don't wheelie at high speeds, especially on public/crowded roads, kids. I was good. Very good. I had more miles on 1-wheel than the average rider has on 2. Still, shit happens. Losing my arm, and briefly dying of blood loss, on my last hurrah of road riding, before planning to give up the street to focus on racing, was a not-so-gentle reminder of the risk that reckless riding poses. The only reason I survived was thanks to my race suit and back protector. I was 1+ mile into my otherwise-routine-for-me wheelie when I brought it down at ~100mph, midway through a moderate turn on the cuesta grade. The front tire, my first "brand new" (ie, not a take off) wasn't properly scrubbed in AND I happened to bring it down on some gravel that had gotten kicked on the fast lane. The tire slipped a little before catching tractions and went into a tankslapper. The bke quickly bucked me off at 100mph and I ended up sliding into the guard rail, impacting ar roughly 50-60mph (according to my friends who were pacing me) after sliding 50+ yards, across all 4 lanes of the (otherwise empty) highway.

As a result of poor youthful decision making skills, I've had the pleasure of a lot of pain and suffering since. It took about 8 years to get back on 2 motorized wheels. My 2nd post-injury bike was a 701 sumo and I often STILL failed to maintain self control to keep both wheels on the road. But, in the moment, the excitement and adrenaline overrode my rationality. The one thing I was able to avoid, however, was hitting/holding the balance point. It was (is) a hard rule for me at this point - if I can't have the self control to NOT wheelie, then at least reduce the risk of things going to shit by bringing it back down as soon as it starts floating. The dirtbike geometry/characteristics of the 701 provide a far less sketchy level of control when the front is pointing towards the heavens.... but it's still a risk. Honestly, it's irrational to risk any wheelie on public roads.... After I sold that bike for my Duke 890R I all-but-stopped doing ANY wheelies. Occasionally I'll lift it under hard acceleration but I don't really TRY to do them anymore. Do I miss them? Duh, I'm an idiot. But the short wheelbase, brutish torque, and the twitchy handling characteristics make wheelies on it feel sketchy, especially for my gimpy ass.

....kinda makes me want to get a real dirtbike, just to do 15-30mph balance point wheelies out in the dirt, when it hurts less to go down and there aren't cars/infrastructure to love tap with my face at speed. But, as we get older, priorities shift and physical consequences of poor decisions hurt more heal slower, and have a higher financial risk.

Thank you for listening to my TED talk, I wheelie appreciate it
 
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Way back when I was about 17yo, I thought I was pretty cool when I had this document to show all my friends, which the detective wrote for me (he was in an umarked car, which is why I didn't notice him, even after stuck the light up top to run me down for the next mile or so through the neighborhoods) which documented my "60 foot wheelie through the intersection" :laughing

I thought I was cool. That is, until I had to got to court and see the judge about my misdemeanor and pay the fine. Ouch. :wtf
Wheelies can be very pricey.

cg_ops, you're a nut. I like it.
 
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