On Thumper Talk in the TTR section one of the younger folks (gotta be younger cause most of us ol' feller's are beyond learning new trick :moon: ) ask for ideas of how to learn to ride a wheelie...
Of course, being the kind hearted person that you all know me as, I couldnt refuse an answer.. Here is a "copy/paste" of my article - that you all might enjoy my advice a little.. By the way, if you dont agree thats ok - dont try to change me now cause I am one of the ol' fellers and PROUD of it.....
In another thread someone mentioned that they wanted to learn to wheelie their TTR... Having pulled gravel from my knee-caps on more then one occasion, which I believe, has given me some insight into this nasty habit.. I have been intriqued but this subhuman act of showing off for many years.. Dating all the way back to Elementary School in the early 60's at Fruitport..
At that point in my life I was stuck on a Sears/Daimler Moped that was a two speeder with a very small 2 stroke engine.. Even the lowest of the two gears had no where near capacity to lift the front tire of the bike with my small body on it - no matter how hard I tried.. It wasnt until later in my young life that we aquired a Honda Minitrail that the real understanding of this art began..
I discovered that by holding down the shift lever on the little auto 3 speeder I could effectively produce a "clutching effect". The little Honda motor produced enough umppphhhh to get the front in up and dump me on my back - I will NEVER forget the feeling of going over backwards the first time!!! AWESOME!!!!
After a couple months of getting beat up but this little bike (it was not doing the bike any good either), I discovered by accident (I think the word is "sarindeputy") that by keeping my feet down I could ride with the front wheel up for a pretty good distance!!!
So thats how my wheelie days began and they have NEVER left me! I now ride high speed and low speed wheelies on my KX500 (oh yea, nothing like hitting 75 and shifting into 5th gear on the back wheel).. Of course, if you drag your feet at these speeds you go thru alot of shoes so I learned a long time ago how to keep my tootsies off the ground (I ride a lot of single track these days and that is also a REAL GOOD place to learn to always keep your feet on the pegs too - us single trackers dont call riders who drop their feet in the corners "trollers" for nothing!!!! )
Of course, like everyone else, I have always used my one wheel antics for the normal things like scaring girls who were riding on the back of my Harley LowRider, ditching my little brother off the back of my Honda 350 Motosport, showing my best friend Kieth Firman that a 73 Honda 250 Elsinore could flip easily in 5th gear or bringing Police Officers to my parents house at 1 a.m. to be notified that they (the coppers) didnt appreciate me riding on one wheel the length of mainstreet in G.H... Ohhhhhh the days of being a crazy kid with crazy ideas...
Little did I know that this TOOL (wheelieing) would become one of my very best friends!! With it I have found countless hours of personal enjoyment out play riding, I have won races, I have safed both my life and a persons life on the back of my bike and am glad that I aquired this skill from my little Honda many years ago...
Oh yea, you wanted to know how....
OK. To start off with, DONT USE TO BIG OF A BIKE!!! A small TTR125, XR80, XR100 or DR100 is PERFECT for most folks.. Stand with the bike running in first gear and your feet on the ground near the rear of the bike. Get good balance with the bike between your legs. Rev the bike a little and let the clutch out SLOWLY in one action. As the bike pulls forward lift up on the bars.. Keep "rocking" the bike back an forth like this until you KNOW/get a feel when the clutch is engaging and how much motor it takes to lift the front wheel. This session ONLY ends when you are able to bring the bike all the way up to a balance point (the point when the bike is going over backwards - ONLY noticable by haveing it actually go over backwards the first time - then you'll know what it feels like ) It is important to be able to THINK about where the bike is at just before the point of balance.. It is in this "zone" that you chop the throttle as the bike is approaching top of the balance point to drop the wheel to control a true wheelie..
Once you are comfortable with bringing the bike up to balance begin sitting on the back of the seat just as the front wheel is entering the balance zone. Leave you feet dragging on the ground beside the bike while you move forward on the scoot.. As the bike is rolling forward and you are now riding it with your feet dragging beside it, try chopping the throttle to to make the front end bounce up and down eith in the balance zone.. It take a little practice but this is the very foundation of riding a wheelie!! When I was a kid we called this "cat-walking" and I went thru MANY pair of Red Ball Jets learning this tactic.. You should be REAL good at cat walking (ride fiqure eights, ride between parked cars, ride to town for gas) BEFORE you proceed to the feet-up wheelie!!
Also, NEVER be afraid to step off the bike when it gets out of hand.. You should never be going do fast that you face plant (leave soil sampling to rookies) while practicing the start of this.. THis is a VERY slow show!!
Once you are ready to start placing your feet up it is OK to begin by putting one foot up at a time.. Sometimes leaving a foot dangleing is all that is necessary to keep your balance.. If thats what you need - DO IT!!!
Although I LOVE my 2-stroke bikes (both dirt and street) I would NEVER suggest learning the wheelie on one.. The "powerband" on most MX bikes seem to make it difficult for newbies to learn to balance on (even the little ones - I have seen full grown men break legs on the 60/80's )
If you use a small fourstroker and it goes all the way over and is up side down still running - get to the bike as fast as you can - shut it off - remove the oil-pump check screw from the side of the jug (found right above the spark plug on Hondas an on the right hand side rear of the jug on the Yammies (I believe). Pull this plug and kick the bike over a bunch and make sure you have good oil action BEFORE you begin running the bike again.. I have rebuilt a few hundred little fourstrokes over the years because of oil starvation probably caused from just such things....
Well, I hope this is enough info to get you folks who are thinking about learning to wheelie headed in the right direction.. I am sure there are LOTS of ways to learn but the stuff found above is what worked for me after falling and bouncing my head off the ground to many times... Please understand that I am in NO WAY guarenteeing good results nor am I SELLING this product - the LIABILITY of your hide is in YOUR hands - YOU CAN GET HURT REAL BAD DOING STUNTS!!!!!
Woodsy
Of course, being the kind hearted person that you all know me as, I couldnt refuse an answer.. Here is a "copy/paste" of my article - that you all might enjoy my advice a little.. By the way, if you dont agree thats ok - dont try to change me now cause I am one of the ol' fellers and PROUD of it.....
In another thread someone mentioned that they wanted to learn to wheelie their TTR... Having pulled gravel from my knee-caps on more then one occasion, which I believe, has given me some insight into this nasty habit.. I have been intriqued but this subhuman act of showing off for many years.. Dating all the way back to Elementary School in the early 60's at Fruitport..
At that point in my life I was stuck on a Sears/Daimler Moped that was a two speeder with a very small 2 stroke engine.. Even the lowest of the two gears had no where near capacity to lift the front tire of the bike with my small body on it - no matter how hard I tried.. It wasnt until later in my young life that we aquired a Honda Minitrail that the real understanding of this art began..
I discovered that by holding down the shift lever on the little auto 3 speeder I could effectively produce a "clutching effect". The little Honda motor produced enough umppphhhh to get the front in up and dump me on my back - I will NEVER forget the feeling of going over backwards the first time!!! AWESOME!!!!
After a couple months of getting beat up but this little bike (it was not doing the bike any good either), I discovered by accident (I think the word is "sarindeputy") that by keeping my feet down I could ride with the front wheel up for a pretty good distance!!!
So thats how my wheelie days began and they have NEVER left me! I now ride high speed and low speed wheelies on my KX500 (oh yea, nothing like hitting 75 and shifting into 5th gear on the back wheel).. Of course, if you drag your feet at these speeds you go thru alot of shoes so I learned a long time ago how to keep my tootsies off the ground (I ride a lot of single track these days and that is also a REAL GOOD place to learn to always keep your feet on the pegs too - us single trackers dont call riders who drop their feet in the corners "trollers" for nothing!!!! )
Of course, like everyone else, I have always used my one wheel antics for the normal things like scaring girls who were riding on the back of my Harley LowRider, ditching my little brother off the back of my Honda 350 Motosport, showing my best friend Kieth Firman that a 73 Honda 250 Elsinore could flip easily in 5th gear or bringing Police Officers to my parents house at 1 a.m. to be notified that they (the coppers) didnt appreciate me riding on one wheel the length of mainstreet in G.H... Ohhhhhh the days of being a crazy kid with crazy ideas...
Little did I know that this TOOL (wheelieing) would become one of my very best friends!! With it I have found countless hours of personal enjoyment out play riding, I have won races, I have safed both my life and a persons life on the back of my bike and am glad that I aquired this skill from my little Honda many years ago...
Oh yea, you wanted to know how....
OK. To start off with, DONT USE TO BIG OF A BIKE!!! A small TTR125, XR80, XR100 or DR100 is PERFECT for most folks.. Stand with the bike running in first gear and your feet on the ground near the rear of the bike. Get good balance with the bike between your legs. Rev the bike a little and let the clutch out SLOWLY in one action. As the bike pulls forward lift up on the bars.. Keep "rocking" the bike back an forth like this until you KNOW/get a feel when the clutch is engaging and how much motor it takes to lift the front wheel. This session ONLY ends when you are able to bring the bike all the way up to a balance point (the point when the bike is going over backwards - ONLY noticable by haveing it actually go over backwards the first time - then you'll know what it feels like ) It is important to be able to THINK about where the bike is at just before the point of balance.. It is in this "zone" that you chop the throttle as the bike is approaching top of the balance point to drop the wheel to control a true wheelie..
Once you are comfortable with bringing the bike up to balance begin sitting on the back of the seat just as the front wheel is entering the balance zone. Leave you feet dragging on the ground beside the bike while you move forward on the scoot.. As the bike is rolling forward and you are now riding it with your feet dragging beside it, try chopping the throttle to to make the front end bounce up and down eith in the balance zone.. It take a little practice but this is the very foundation of riding a wheelie!! When I was a kid we called this "cat-walking" and I went thru MANY pair of Red Ball Jets learning this tactic.. You should be REAL good at cat walking (ride fiqure eights, ride between parked cars, ride to town for gas) BEFORE you proceed to the feet-up wheelie!!
Also, NEVER be afraid to step off the bike when it gets out of hand.. You should never be going do fast that you face plant (leave soil sampling to rookies) while practicing the start of this.. THis is a VERY slow show!!
Once you are ready to start placing your feet up it is OK to begin by putting one foot up at a time.. Sometimes leaving a foot dangleing is all that is necessary to keep your balance.. If thats what you need - DO IT!!!
Although I LOVE my 2-stroke bikes (both dirt and street) I would NEVER suggest learning the wheelie on one.. The "powerband" on most MX bikes seem to make it difficult for newbies to learn to balance on (even the little ones - I have seen full grown men break legs on the 60/80's )
If you use a small fourstroker and it goes all the way over and is up side down still running - get to the bike as fast as you can - shut it off - remove the oil-pump check screw from the side of the jug (found right above the spark plug on Hondas an on the right hand side rear of the jug on the Yammies (I believe). Pull this plug and kick the bike over a bunch and make sure you have good oil action BEFORE you begin running the bike again.. I have rebuilt a few hundred little fourstrokes over the years because of oil starvation probably caused from just such things....
Well, I hope this is enough info to get you folks who are thinking about learning to wheelie headed in the right direction.. I am sure there are LOTS of ways to learn but the stuff found above is what worked for me after falling and bouncing my head off the ground to many times... Please understand that I am in NO WAY guarenteeing good results nor am I SELLING this product - the LIABILITY of your hide is in YOUR hands - YOU CAN GET HURT REAL BAD DOING STUNTS!!!!!
Woodsy
