HOW TO DO WHEELIES

One of the best things about SuperMotos: their incredible ability to wheelie! This article is a collection of wheelie advice from some SMhooligans via our forum.

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1BADDRZ

I used to power up my wheelies but now I clutch all of my wheelies... it doesn't matter if its 1st or 5th.

90% of the time I start 'em in third gear. I bring it back and settle into the balance point, looking under the bars at the road ahead. I like to see how long it takes for the front wheel to stop spinning. Personally I like to keep a steady throttle position and use a combo of rear brake along with body positioning to control the height and therefore my speed as well.

Depending on how fast I need to be dictates which gear I'm in. Lean foreward a lil' to speed up and shift into 4th and 5th. Stretch further back to slow down or recover from dropping the front a lil bit. I turn the corners with only more body positioning. It takes a little more than just looking where you want to go.... I transfer weight by moving my upperbody. You really have to use alot if you're fighting a crosswind or an uneven road.

Of course I'd never do any of this holiganism on a public road. Its all done for me by some trained professional on a closed course.

m dubya

OK, here is my technique. Short shift into second gear. Dip the throttle and snap it open. If you are in the fat part of the torque curve (usually pretty low RPMs on a dirt/motard bike) the front will climb up nice and steady until it starts to scare the crap out of you. You can do 1 0f 2 things: 1. blip the throttle to hold the balance point without dropping the front or flipping over backwards. 2. blip the throttle and shift into the next gear (without the clutch).

It is easier to learn on a super torquey big bore like a KTM 625, which will let you get away with murder. Just be careful not to flip it. I find that four stroke singles have enough engine braking to bring the front back down if you close the throttle (to save a loop out).

It is also easy to learn wheelies by launching them off humps/bumps in the road. It is cheating, but it is fun. On my Duke, I can nail wheelies off little bumps in the road in 4th or 5th gear and just ride on. That bike is also capable of pulling up the front and riding over several humps in the road in succession (one of the reasons I love it-it's a beast).

FWIW, I am no wheelie king, but I can ride a pretty decent one on any of my bikes. The Duke made them easy and now I can just pull it off on any of my bikes.

LDJUK

M DUBYA article just made me remember a thing I did about wheelying of bumps in the road. About 4 months ago I was riding on a road I know quite well in the countryside. This road I was riding had hills that go up and down like a prostitutes knickers if you know what I mean. Absolutely load's of up's and downs with some quite steep peaks to them. Anyway, I went down this road and spotted a guy on a Ducati parked up about 3/4 of a mile up the road so I thought f*ck this I'm gonna go past him at full chatter while he's parked up. I was doing about 90mph As i got close to him but there was a peak in the road which, I shit you not launched my bike about 4 foot in the air with the front wheel vertically in the air. I landed after what felt like forever in a very very nearly going over the wrong way vertical position on my back wheel and coasted for what felt like what ever on my back wheel cus fear had frozen me enough to pull the clutch in. Trust me when you think your definately going to crash you grab at everything. Which includes the clutch.

The guy on the Ducati started clapping as though I had meant to do it.

I got about 5 miles further up the road and stopped to smoke about 5 cigarettes one after the other. I came so bloody close to literally shitting myself.

I would give anything to have had a video of this cus it would have looked awesome. The guy on the Ducati must still be telling his friends about it.

The moral of the story is if you hit the peaks at speed get the weight over the front of the bike.

All my wheely's now come off the throttle as they're much easier to control. I still get to lift a few of bumps in the road but I wouldn't recommend doing them at 90mph.

Made me giggle when I remembered this but f*ck me it made me go slow for about two week's after.

Lesson learnt I hope class. Your all now dismissed.

weak_link

I use the same technique as MDubya. Wind'er out in 2nd and if I get lucky I can click it into 3rd. I used to be able to wheelie my duc thru 5th but that was a few bikes ago and I've lost some skills.

M@

Somebody give me a motard, I'll do a bad ass write up...

Bucho

I use the "off the throttle than suddenly back on" method to wheelie. I can't quite manage to shift into the next gear, (but i promise to work on it). Usually only first gear for my bike though in higher gears i enjoy wheelies over bumps and hilltops what I call the "wheelie assist". I've always been leary of clutch wheelies cause I thought it damages the clutch and I'm too cheap to buy a new one before I have to.

shutupandride

Most definitely clutch.

KB1

I use the force Luke.

Dion (that's me!)

Okay, here's my little tidbit.

First Gear: Usually starting from 0 to 10 MPH. A bit hairy... cover the rear brake and be ready to modulate the throttle and feather the rear brake to balance the point between looping out and falling down.

Second Gear: Much easier than First Gear. Start off by going 25-35MPH and just lean back and give it some throttle. If you feel like you're about to bring it back down, just lean back, feed the throttle some more and cover the rear brake so you don't loop. The thing about First and Second Gear wheelies is that you shouldn't try to "speed up" during these wheelies.

Third Gear: You can probably do these going about 40MPH Max, since that's where the "grunt" is on a single. I just kinda learned these, so I'm still trying to perfect them. One finger the clutch and slip it while you give it gas, lean and pull back. Cover the rear brake so you don't loop and you should be able to coast these fairly well. Third gear takes some practice (that's what I'm doing), but I think once you nail the balance point you should be able to go all the way down to Mexico.