Wheelies

[futant]

I'm not a fan of the balance point, however, I feel this has a lot to do with learning to wheelie without the rear brake. I will hover around the balance point doing stand up wheelies, have carried a few a couple miles on my 750 before. My yz400f will power up in 1-4 gear and roll a stand up no problem in 5th. All that said I love riding them. It takes practice, respect for the bike, and don't focus on crashing\wrecking. If you're biggest fear is eating pavement you might as well learn in the dirt and try to transfer over to street. I've got a buddy who can wheelie a dirtbike or 4 wheeler pretty fair, but would always make excuses why he couldn't get his 929 up. The bike was fine, it's clutch or power wheelie no problem, he was always afraid of looping it.

not trying to be a dick , but this is generally what will get you hurt.
I mean seriously , not using the rear brake ? you will loop it.
if you haven't looped it, then you haven't done enough wheelies that way yet.
the day will come where it pops up harder than you think. your rear brake must be hit or you loop out. it's that simple.

This is exactly why you learn the right way.
ive done ones without rear brakes before , like seat standers and stuff.
Believe me though the risk is much much higher without a handbrake to control the rear brake.

[lowthreeohz]

buy a fiddy and learn what balance point is/feels like and how important back brake control is. some folks don't think it transfers over but i assure you it does. the most dangerous wheelies are power wheelies (non-clutched, acceleration based) as the wheel rises very slow until the front gets light then you are way to hard on the gas. you can't be afraid to clutch it hard and get it straight up to balance point, and the only way to not be afraid is to know you can rely on the back brake (and rely on yourself to use it).

Yup. Dont be a poon, and if it gets too far pull the clutch in or give it brake. mousetrapping > looping out.

[lowthreeohz]

I'm not a fan of the balance point, however, I feel this has a lot to do with learning to wheelie without the rear brake. I will hover around the balance point doing stand up wheelies, have carried a few a couple miles on my 750 before. My yz400f will power up in 1-4 gear and roll a stand up no problem in 5th. All that said I love riding them. It takes practice, respect for the bike, and don't focus on crashing\wrecking. If you're biggest fear is eating pavement you might as well learn in the dirt and try to transfer over to street. I've got a buddy who can wheelie a dirtbike or 4 wheeler pretty fair, but would always make excuses why he couldn't get his 929 up. The bike was fine, it's clutch or power wheelie no problem, he was always afraid of looping it.

quick 2nd gear standup on my 98 gsxr750

not a fan of BP? WHY? your engine would appreciate it.. chasing BP is weak.

[Stunter Bob]

I love behind bp...banging rev limiter

[Swamp Donkey]

Buy a 954rr and it does all the work

Sweetest balance point of all bikes I've owned, by far.

[JasonRR]

Just clutch that 919 in second gear. Start with low rpms, like 6k, and get used to the feel of the clutch engaging, the bike lurching and the front wheel coming up. Increase rpms slowly as you get more comfortable and start bringing it back further and further. COVER THE REAR BRAKE. For fuck's sake, why would you not? It's a balance between inputting more throttle and getting confidence in the rear brake. If you've ridden balance point wheelies on bicycles, you should get it pretty quick.

[Binky]

If you are afarid of crashing your bike, you don't want to learn on your bike.

Your rear brake is your get out of jail free card.

[Rough Customer]

What is a good 50cc bike to look for? I want to play.

[Hobie]

If you are asking on the internet how to wheelie I wouldn't attempt them anymore.

Nothing wrong with asking the internet, but THIS site is not the place to ask. The whole clutch vs bounce thing was settled a decade+ ago, but there are still plenty of "flat-earthers" here.

Yup. Dont be a poon, and if it gets too far pull the clutch in or give it brake. mousetrapping > looping out.

I love behind bp...banging rev limiter

Just clutch that 919 in second gear. Start with low rpms, like 6k, and get used to the feel of the clutch engaging, the bike lurching and the front wheel coming up. Increase rpms slowly as you get more comfortable and start bringing it back further and further. COVER THE REAR BRAKE. For fuck's sake, why would you not? It's a balance between inputting more throttle and getting confidence in the rear brake. If you've ridden balance point wheelies on bicycles, you should get it pretty quick.

These three people know, ask them.

You don't want to "chase out" a wheelie, but that's how most of us try to learn. You get it up a little on the initial clutch and you decide to throttle it the rest of the way because hey, the wheel is up! Seems right in your head, but it's not. Work on clutching it up higher and higher from the get go, start small of course, cover the brake, and if it's not high enough on the initial clutch-up just set the bike down and try it again. Don't go chasing the bp with a hand full of throttle. You're setting yourself up for disaster.

Stand up when you're learning too. Easier to control the bike and it raises the center of gravity. The higher it is the easier the bike is to wheelie and the lower the effective balance point.

[Hobie]

Practice using the brake too - clutch it, step on the brake, get used to using it.

[futant]

Nothing wrong with asking the internet, but THIS site is not the place to ask. The whole clutch vs bounce thing was settled a decade+ ago, but there are still plenty of "flat-earthers" here.

Hey now he asked the easiest way to learn.
Clutching may be 'better' way to wheelie , but it is far from the easiest way to learn how to ride wheelies.
The easiest way is by far bounce up wheelies to balance point.
Once you learn balance point, I think it's easier to progress to clutch ups.

[Chas_svo]

Buy a 2012 ZX14R....194 rwhp....I bet that'll do it.

Derail-this is sad, as it has 17 more rwhp than my SVO did when stock. Damn...

[shumpertdavid]

not trying to be a dick , but this is generally what will get you hurt.
I mean seriously , not using the rear brake ? you will loop it.
if you haven't looped it, then you haven't done enough wheelies that way yet.
the day will come where it pops up harder than you think. your rear brake must be hit or you loop out. it's that simple.

This is exactly why you learn the right way.
ive done ones without rear brakes before , like seat standers and stuff.
Believe me though the risk is much much higher without a handbrake to control the rear brake.

I've looped a few out on the dirt, been fortunate so far on the street. I've been wheelieing on the street for @ 12 years or so on a handful of different bikes from a Cagiva Allazurra, 96 98 & 01 Gsxr 750, 01 929, Zx-12, F4I, and several others I can think of.

I'm not saying my way is best, it just works for me. Like I said I am partial to stand ups once I got the hang of them 8 or 9 years ago. I'm self taught mostly, didn't have youtube or google or anything like that when I started messing with them.

I've contemplated working on using the rear brake on some sitdowns with my dirtbike, but haven't had much dirt time the last 2 or 3 years. The idea of dragging the rear brake on the balance point on the street at 70 plus just never seemed to appealing to me. To me it's all in what you're used to I guess.

I give props to all the BP guys, the slow wheelie guys and such.

Living in the sticks there are not a lot of big open protected areas to practice so it's the highway for me.

[lowthreeohz]

You won't have to drag the brake much at all once you find bp..

[futant]

The idea of dragging the rear brake on the balance point on the street at 70 plus just never seemed to appealing to me. To me it's all in what you're used to I guess.

Well , to be fair @ like 70mph there is normally enough wind resistance that dragging the rear brake wouldn't be necessary!

ive never been a parking lot guy or slow BP guy either, to me though the rear brake is your last hope.

practice stand ups , sit downs , all of it. Just cover the rear brake!
dragging the brake only works well on certain bikes and certain amounts.
kind of gotta figure that out yourself.

the best way to practice:

second gear, already rolling .
throttle bike up towards your 'torque peak' in that gear
you can feel this by going on / off the throttle
you want to start practicing below the torque peak, and progress into the middle 'sweet spot' of the torque's rpm point.

go on / off throttle , standing up
feel the front forks compressing a little
now go off throttle , bend legs and push down hard
give max throttle right before you bouncing up (from pressing down hard)
you do this before the suspension pops up because all bike motors respond with a little delay before the power kicks in.

timed right you will start to feel how to hop the front forks up alittle this way.
cover the rear brake now every time you try.
progress more bounce , more throttle and more of the torque curve to practice bouncing up the front wheel higher and higher.
At first this will feel hard on your forks and it is. until you can reach BP and maintain it though, it's tough to learn some technique to chopping the throttle and setting the front end down real soft like.
however until you learn how to set it down softer, you'll just have to endure this.
Whatever the hell you do , DO NOT SET THE BIKE DOWN WITH THE BARS EVEN A LITTLE CROSS. Tank slapper and serious injury may follow.

try leaning back more and more as well. Especially right before the tire would touch back down. That helps soften the hit of the forks. This all comes naturally as you learn the body english required to keep the bike tracking straight, etc

basically that's it.
learn to bounce it up until you feel like you'll fall of the back fo the bike. Stab rear brake, gas a little to maintain the balance point, drag brake , gas , drag, gas ,drag, gas , drag
that repitition will keep the front wheel floating around balance point, so you can ride wheelies like a champ down the street for your awesome utube video.
bam you just rode a wheelie a mile
ok obviously you need to insert a lot of practice.

every bike is different, my husky is a total pita to wheelie if you ask me.
it revs too effing hard
it's either all go , or all slow . so it's really hard to ride smoothly (i.e. safely!)in a wheelie
plus it's really really light. so the wind is twice as bad, and very twitchy side to side on the balance.
im guess i just like relaxing wheelies !