Wheelies
 

Right now am a bit more used to riding this blooming KTM i am going to learn how to wheelie
I have found a nearby industrial estate that is closed to traffic out of hours & has a nice straight ish road
So i am loooking for hints on how to start

Should i be in second or first ? , clutch or not ?

I am thinking second gear and gas it should be a good place to stark , any help welcome :bouncy::D

Go with a mate in case things go wrong. Then he can help you.

I can tell you about doing it on mountian bikes!

The main problem is that you don't get the front wheel high enough. You need to find the balance point. If its too low you tend to use more throttle to try and keep it up, you then run out of revs.

Trouble is, the balance point for sustained wheelies is actually very high and it fells like you are going to go over the back.

Once its up and at that balance point you keep it there with throttle control and back brake. You'll need very little revs or you can change gear and just go faster.

Pick me up you mean :D

Ahhh... my kinda thread is this!

2nd ought to be fine on the ktm.
Roll along on a neutral throttle at a speed where you feel the bike is just trying to kick into some sort of powerband and then open it up. Without the clutch, it's vital to get the engine in that sweet spot before pulling one up.

There's a lot more to it than that, but without someone to teach you properly then you got to muck around. Took me a whole day to learn enough to find a balance point, and I still don't get it every time.

[Edited on 10-3-2006 by NBs996]

NBs996 , when you say open it up , you mean sharp twist or roll ?

:bouncy:

sharp twist, else it'll come up too slow and you'll run out of revs pretty quick.

But don't hold it open or you'll need a new Arai!!!

Its ok i got a new one at the bike show :o

Rubbish at them and not getting any better
 

No sure about your KTM but I've been to a couple of wheelie schools and 'hung out' with a few crazee guys on Gixxer 1000's and I still can't do them. My mind says yes but my hand says no. Somedays though I fare better than others but with no real consistency.

What I have learnt though is that power wheelies are much easier than clutch wheelies and it is best to start on power wheelies before you attempt to do the clutch versions.

Power wheelies (I've been told) should be done on steady revs just as then power kicks in where it makes a fair bit of torque. The first thing to learn is being able to keep the bike at a constant speed (neither accelerating nor braking) so that the bike is as steady as possible then snap the throttle shut and then wide open and up she'll come. Keep it open until you **** yourself and then it'll come back down. The trick to doing this is to rotate your throttle hand forward and round about an inch so that you get a quicker throttle action. It is also harder to keep a constant throttle as your hand need to get used to the position. When I did my wheelie schools, that is all we practised at first, being able to ride along, at a constant speed without looking at the speedo. Sounds boring but essential for beginners when pulling power wheelies.

I practised this on 1200 Bandits on an airfield in a Galaxy far, far away. I managed to 'get it up' but never in a consistent manner and you are right, power wheelies on a big bike accelerate pretty fast so not the type of trick you want to do down your local high street.

Once you have the first and second gear wheelies mastered then you can attempt the clutch method. I spent another day with 'Jimmy Fireblade' trying this technique but never really got to grips with it. The only bit of info I can pass on is that the bike comes up much quicker and agressively and so can catch you out but it does mean that you get it up to the balance point - the 'Holy Grail' of wheelies. When you've sussed the balance point, the world is your oyster. I have also heard that practising on a pushbike is good as it gives you the spatial awareness of how high you actually are and the feel needed for 'hoisting a top minger'.

One last thing is always wear a back protector. My mate was getting really high and good at them but I saw a few close calls so gave him mine just to put my mind at rest.

Be careful though and as always 'caveat emptor'.

simon

Simon, it sounds like you've been frequenting the same education establishments as me!

My mate is good at wheelies ... me I'm crap .... he says that just before you crack the throttle open try to compress the forks and as they bounce back crack the throttle open and pull on the bars.

Works for him everytime.

Totto, travel along at about 60-70 MPH in 3rd gear as you wind on the throttle flick the clutch with one finger ! she'll come up real smooth ! and then just ballance the bike with the revs!
when it feel's like it's gonna flip! just touch the back brake and down she'll come!;)

always cover the back brake ! it's your best friend when wheeling;):cool:

When you have mastered them then you can do stand up ones which are real easy:lol:

[Edited on 10-3-2006 by madmav]

Always up for learning something new but never found the roads or more importantly, the time to practice. I did the Andy Burnett and Jimmy Fireblade wheelie schools - at Andy's, I did the best wheelies but I thought it was a bit of a cheat to be honest. He offers a 'wheelie or your money back' guarantee which on a 1200 bandit would be pretty impossible not to do. I would have preferred to work on the technique on a smaller bike rather than relying on the power to get it up. Jimmy's school was great as it was him just working with two of us only - really nice guy and happy to teach any stunts you were interested in and gave us a 5 minute personal stunt show on my S4 at the end. :o I'd happily do another day with Jimmy - DSC wheelie school anybody?

A friend of mine passed his test and within 3 months he was doing 200m rolling burnouts, complete doughnuts, 2nd gear wheelies, and loads of other stuff. Just seemed to have the knack as well as no fear. He's (thankfully) sold his bike now as all he wanted to do on the road was to feck about on his bike and was getting really dangerous. He's the guy I gave my back protector to as was seriously worried he was going to flip it big time.

Myself, I really don't think my balls will ever be big enough. More or less everytime I've tried to do them, it never feels in control and feels pretty scary. I guess old age and self preservation instincts kick in a little too early in my head.

Laters

simon

Agree, the money back thing is nothing more than an advertising ploy. But that didn't matter cos i could already get one up before attending, I just didn't have the balls to find that floaty point.

It wasn't Andy himself teaching me, I had one of his helpers. But after my third session he'd turned the anti-flip bar vertical and had me floating proper ones and changing gear!

Strangely, I'm a bit tentative with wheelieing the 996, and not very good at it... but could pull a large one on my old 'blade and go through the box without thinking about it. I'd've assumed the torque of the twin would make it easier, maybe it's just that I'm scared of destroying the red thing!

You want to see proper wheelies... have a look at Chillo standing them up over the mountain!

trying on my 600 monster, find get to about 25mph, hard shut off to load the forks then pin to the stop...comes up easy enough just gonna get the balls not to slam it back down now!! Good Luck!

I thought about buying one of those anti flip bars but as I recall, they weren't exactly cheap - £150 or so?? All it was was a plastic stick on a hinge!! Mind you, if it saves you from flipping it, then maybe it's a bargain??

Whatever, I didn't buy one and I'm still rubbish at 'em.

Laters

simon

Best thing I've found for wheelies is a TL1000S, mind you the Magnum 4 and the Husky WRX260 weren't bad

gsxr 1000 second gear 75 mph ping the clutch up she comes keep pressure on gear leaver when you hit 100mph roll off the throttle slightly and 3 drops stright in then settle yourself in for a nice 145mph wheelie as long as you like. when you cracked that do the same but click it in fourth same method presure on gear leaver no clutch roll off throttle but now you are doing over 150 this is where you have you next problem THE LANDING:rolleye: as you havent mentioned this you must be ok:sing:

my kinda guy!;)

bring it on!

And when it goes wrong,....it can go very wrong!
http://www.wackyvids.com/movies/2whe...87/sub_637.wmv

Well went out ( Sat ) with my bro to learn this wheelie stuff , tried second gear without much luck then started to wind throttle on then off & quickly on again and the wheel will come up but then i run out of road , so stareted again only using first and that worked a treat , the road is only about 100m long !
Roll along about 10/15mph & crack the throttle open and up she comes :D:o:bouncy:

Pics to follow , & remember never wheelied before in my life accept Cadwell last year ( once) & i soon put a stop to that ,so dont be to hard on the pics

Some pics up
Just stcuk em in with the trip over some local mountains a while back and are a bit fuzzy but it was the bros first time with his new camera

http://photobucket.com/albums/f341/t...e&i nterval=2

[Edited on 13-3-2006 by Totto]

Excellent!
Keep your back straight and look ahead rather than down at the bars and the bike will be less eager to drop back down. Then you can change gear.

Thanks for that ,its very helpfull

I think my problem is i am looking at the clocks to check my speed as i have not really got the feel for what speed the ktm is doing , as i am so used to the 998

Should the bike wheelie at any speed in first ?

If you've got time to be checking your speed while holding up a large one then you don't need to be asking advice on here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prob best not to look at your clocks at all - get that feel for the speed without having to check. Not ridden a ktm but I guess it's geared pretty low so 15 mph sounds about right. Sure it'll come up in first at any speed, but the lower the revs the better, for obvious reasons - you don't want to run out of them!

I can do stand up wheelies on my old 1978 348 Montesa Cota trials bike no problem at all - well, I can't at the moment 'cos it's in the shed with no wheels on it :)

I've also done quite a bit of off roading on motocrossers and again, no problem with the front wheel being in the air.

On a big road bike I don't like 'em much. Don't mind the front coming up over hump back bridges or over the mountain, but even over the mountain I stand on the pegs and get my considerable weight over the front end (Motocross style) to stop it coming up too far.

One of the things that I do have from off-road bikes is a good sense of how far the front is coming up, and I did my first proper wheelie on my ST (with the bike at about 45 degrees) purely by accident. I was following Marko and Fordie through Uppingham, just the three of us coming back from Cadwell, and we got to the crossroads in the middle of town. Marko was leading and I was at the back as we trundled up to the traffic lights in first gear. As Marko crossed the lights they went amber, Fordie went across, but I wasn't sure whether the lights were going to change so I shut the throttle off quick and went for the brake, but then thought sod it, I'll go through as well and whacked the throttle open again just as the lights changed.

I'd created the perfect wheelie conditions by rolling along steady, snapping the throttle shut then whacking it open again. Sure enough, up came the front, nice and steady and I did my first proper big bike wheelie at the same time as crashing the red light. The good folk of Uppingham were not impressed and I'd just like to say that it's people like me that give bikers a bad name :lol:

In general though, even though I've repeated the process a couple of times (except for the red light bit) and can now do wheelies ranging from the pathetic to the moderate I prefer to keep the front wheel where it can steer me and stop me.

[Edited on 13-3-2006 by Jools]

Jools, I went to school in Uppingham, I'd have been over the moon to have seen a few people popping large ones whilst on my way to double maths!!!:bouncy:h

I'm fairly good at them, normal and stand ups.
To be really good it will take ages there is no shortcut, start little and go for distance not height, height will follow.
I can recommend Paul Gowers wheelie school and tbh that's prob the best place to start.
Most people I know who are good at them including myself just started doing them and progressed. It is prob wise to learnt the basices from a pro tho especially as it's easier to arrnage that these days :)