Learning to wheelie.

[MotorsportTom]

Well after MTB's thread and so many people saying they have never tried pullinh a wheelie I thought this may be appropriate.

Now as we all know wheelies aren't big or clever, which is what those who can't wheelie say, because they definitely are.

My main reason is because I'd like to be able to wheelie properly so any advice welcome.

I can lift the front on both my CRM and the blade however haven't managed to grow the cahonies on the blade to clutch it yet.

My school of thought wss, "plenty of people (BN mainly) can wheelie and I bet they didn't pay for some rip off school" so how did you guys learn?

For me it's been getting confident pulling the bars over a crest then onto winding more and more power on in lower gears to finally just giving it a little clutch.

For now I can get it up but can't keep it up (aren't there pills for tha7t?) And I haven't had it up long enough to think about changing gear.

DISCLAIMER- Any advice given is up to you to choose to do it or not.

[MotorsportTom]

From my limited experience and what I have gathered from the internet clutching it up is easier/safer to control or something.

It certainly feels nicer clutching the CRM than pinning the throttle.

I do need to adjust the brake lever so I can get to it easier mind!

Also interested in how some of the time served guys learnt.

[MotorsportTom]

3DP said:

I learned it when younger on scooters and the sports bikes. I could always do a good long single gear wheelie, but didn't really perfect it until I got enduro bikes which you can wheelie forever and not worry about breaking them etc. As they lack power, but have torque, they pop up easily but you have to get them high. Then as they don't rev, you have to go through the box.

My advice - buy an enduro bike and find a quiet road... I mean bit of private land and practice. It's actually quite hard to loop the bike... until you do I've only looped it twice - one caught on camera caused by the rear spinning and hooking up early in the wheelie, looping me with a closed throttle.

What I've found is that big torque makes wheelies easy to pop, but once up, a soft and accurate throttle response and slick gearbox along with a good rev range are all key to carrying long wheelies.

Hence, my Ducati 1198 wheelies everywhere, but is not the easiest to do long long wheelies on. My Blade is less prone to wheelie, but once up feels like it could wheelie for ever.

Once you can carry a long wheelie, things get more interesting as you learn the art of steering around shallow bends whilst on the rear wheel and the art of very high speed wheelies where lots of other factors start to become...interesting.

Can't really post many of the antics for obvious reasons, but here are a few.

A choppy 10 second one on my KTM 525EXC on a farm track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyP-IKh4rrk

A 55mph - 125mph video in an indeterminate country - starts 44 seconds in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrFPo6ly56M

Looping my DRZ400S on a practice enduro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oobGZRPk7fU

A couple of gratuitous shots

High speed blade one on a circuit access road...


Waving to an oncoming motorcyclist

Cracking post and I'll watch all those when I can do them justice rather than on my phone.

I have the CRM 250 but it's a 2 stroke so no lugs of torque. I very nearly looped it on the thottle in first.

As for schools rip off was an off the cuff comment, more I thought they didn't have schools 30-40 years ago (did they?).

[MotorsportTom]

3DP said:

y2blade said:

Biker's Nemesis said:

y2blade said:

If it makes you feel better, yeah why not.

Yeah, right, you do wheelies as often as I do them ya little fibber.


BTW, "yo wheelis iz garbage".

Not me your honour.

I didn't know the Y2k blade had enough poke to hoist the front wheel? Are you using stunt gearing?