perfecting the SLOW wheelies?!

I've seen countless videos of people doing circles and slow stuff on their X's.



I am currently running stock gearing and I can clutch up in second and hold them for a little while and normally shift to third and fourth. I am FAIRLY comfortable with balance point, but due to recently looping at over 30 mph I tend to have been staying just a little before balance point lately. Here is a video of me doing some the day I looped.....



Anyone got slow wheelies down? I want to play with balance point while staying under 10-20 mph. Any tips? what kind of gearing will help? sit downs? stand ups? what gear? ANY input would be great! if you have a video of yourself even better!

You're gonna need some BIG gearing. Take a look at the rear sprocket size most stunters use.

Got any video from when you looped it? 

You already wheelie better than I'd ever be able to. Never perfected holding it at the balance point, probably because I never really practiced that. Now I'm too old to try...

Where are your feet while doing this?

What is the double lever setup on the left? One red lever and a second clutch?

GusinCA wrote:

What is the double lever setup on the left? One red lever and a second clutch?

Clutch lever and rear handbrake lever.

wristpin wrote:

Where are your feet while doing this?  

Doing what? wheelies? normally on the pegs, sometimes passenger pegs.

Ahhhh, having a rear brake lever on the handlebars could come in handy when doing wheelies...

GhostShiftZ wrote:

GusinCA wrote:

What is the double lever setup on the left? One red lever and a second clutch?

Clutch lever and rear handbrake lever.

Do tell. Any pics? What kind?

CSAW wrote:

GhostShiftZ wrote:

GusinCA wrote:

What is the double lever setup on the left? One red lever and a second clutch?

Clutch lever and rear handbrake lever.

Do tell.  Any pics?  What kind?

The first video isnt me lol. But I think 50 stunt sells a setup for it.

 I never could perfect the wheelies. One time I accidentally popped one at a red light. I would still like to learn how. I have 13-52 gearing, it might suffice, but I am over 250lbs.

I asked the lady working at my gym, "Why do they call it working out?" Then pointing at my gut said, "When it obviously isn't working out!".

I can take off in second gear now, so I am pretty sure even with my weight I could most likely pop a wheelie. Isn't that hard on your clutch though. I never really tried it that much. Maybe I should try Youtube. I'm sure this is some kind of instructional video.

Can anybody help with the wheelie, other than keep taking your fat arse to the gym?  

There's some bikes that it's just SO easy on. Some quads, too. Maybe it's not designed to wheelie?

You know I did a search on youtube and I did find some useful information that I am going to try out. The WR, with the gearing I have, should be very easy to pop a wheelie. Here is a link if anybody is interested. Different kind of moto, but same concept I am sure.

Bicycles can be wheeled, it's coordination.

First though, wear your helmet, some armored elbow and knee protection, and start on grass. You are going to fall down.

There are two ways (for me) to get the front wheel up. One is to power it up using the clutch and you can do this sitting or standing. With 13-52 gears, you should have no problem. Hold in the clutch, rev the engine a few thousand rpm, and how fast you let the clutch out will dictate how high the front wheel goes.

The second way to get the front wheel up is more YOU, just like on a bicycle. While standing, give a little jump on the pegs and as it's bottoming give it some throttle. Use your KNEES to shift your belly button (your CG) aft and the front will come up IF you got the coordination right. Watch this video, because Ryan Young is THE master and teacher and wheelies are a basic part of trials riding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUFVlKF0XXY
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duIk3avS6j0

Once the front comes up, it's a matter of throttle versus balance. If you just use throttle, you'll accelerate until things start getting too fast, you run out of torque, and the front will come down. Not what you want. Just as you can see in the video, once the wheel comes up, you are on a unicycle and it's your balance.

Once you've got it down, here are a couple of other ideas:
Bunny hops: https://youtu.be/Ie4_3eRlSkg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp_qpl835GM
Wheelie turns:

Checkswrecks wrote:

Bicycles can be wheeled, it's coordination.

First though, wear your helmet, some armored elbow and knee protection, and start on grass. You are going to fall down.

There are two ways (for me) to get the front wheel up. One is to power it up using the clutch and you can do this sitting or standing. With 13-52 gears, you should have no problem. Hold in the clutch, rev the engine a few thousand rpm, and how fast you let the clutch out will dictate how high the front wheel goes.  

The second way to get the front wheel up is more YOU, just like on a bicycle. While standing, give a little jump on the pegs and as it's bottoming give it some throttle. Use your KNEES to shift your belly button (your CG) aft and the front will come up IF you got the coordination right. Watch this video, because Ryan Young is THE master and teacher and wheelies are a basic part of trials riding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUFVlKF0XXY
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duIk3avS6j0

Once the front comes up, it's a matter of throttle versus balance. If you just use throttle, you'll accelerate until things start getting too fast, you run out of torque, and the front will come down. Not what you want. Just as you can see in the video, once the wheel comes up, you are on a unicycle and it's your balance.

Once you've got it down, here are a couple of other ideas:
Bunny hops:  https://youtu.be/Ie4_3eRlSkg  and  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp_qpl835GM
Wheelie turns:  

Thanks a lot, I can see how these videos apply to a WR more than the other videos I posted. Gotta be easier on the clutch using this technique. Will give it a try with this new info. Thanks again.

Yeah, I used to be able to wheelie a quad in my youth all day, at slow balanced speed. It had a 400cc motor and a ton of torque and not much weight over the front (a 2wd sport machine) so it was easy. This bike just doesn't seem to have the low end ummph and also seems hard to balance without feeling like you'll tip over...

I think I have seen that running a really low rear tire pressure helps with slow wheelies.

I use tireballs, and the tires are pretty soft feeling (I have each ball inflated to 15psi).

GusinCA wrote:

I use tireballs, and the tires are pretty soft feeling (I have each ball inflated to 15psi).

Gusin, still loving those tireballs aren't you?

Ohhhhh yeaaaahhhhh. I luv my balls.

They suck on road (I mean, not really awful, but since the tires are Michelin AC10 knobbies which are not so great on the street anyway and the tireballs are soft) but they are PERFECT off road. And I beat the living heck out of them, in some of the nastiest conditions and they just never pop, and the softness gives more grip than I can deal with sometimes (like when I want the rear end to slide out, and it won't).

Of course the feeling that I won't ever have to deal with a flat is the reason I plunked down the cash. I installed them in my Rhino too for the same reason.

OK so I made alot of process on the slow wheelies. started doing first gear standups with a stunt peg I rigged along with just popping the clutch from a near standstill and was doing pretty well getting balance point. here is a video i made recently, not really very SLOW wheelies here but still decently controlled.



Then the other night while coming down from a >10 mph wheelie i landed wrong and got thrown to the ground and ironically got hurt worse than when i looped 30+. Broken elbow and now I need a rod, and i had a jacket with elbow pads in it. So be careful out there guys!! even with slow stuff...

Man i'm not surprised about the fall and broken bones after watching your style in that video....
By this i mean that at your listed experience level you seemed to be a few too many steps ahead of the "required" basic's for learning to "pop a mono".

Anyway i hope that you heal fast & well, and maybe stay up-right on two wheels for now hey mate.

  

GT-250 wrote:

Man i'm not surprised about the fall and broken bones after watching your style in that video....
By this i mean that at your listed experience level you seemed to be a few too many steps ahead of the "required" basic's for learning to "pop a mono".

Anyway i hope that you heal fast & well, and maybe stay up-right on two wheels for now hey mate.

  

OK? I have been riding since I was 8 and doing wheelies since I was 12. I have years of doing this stuff, never perfected the SLOW wheelies, thus the reason for this post. Thanks anyways man....

Always fun when someone starts critiquing your riding from a video.    I've seen some real nice flame wars over that.

Looks like you were getting the hang of it. Hope you heal well. Personally, I prefer carving curves and jumping mudholes to popping wheelies, and think engine sounds make a much better soundtrack than hip-hop, but , hey, it's all good!

mollycbr123 wrote:

Always fun when someone starts critiquing your riding from a video.    I've seen some real nice flame wars over that.

Looks like you were getting the hang of it.  Hope you heal well.  Personally, I prefer carving curves and jumping mudholes to popping wheelies, and think engine sounds make a much better soundtrack than hip-hop, but , hey, it's all good!  

Thanks! I enjoy it alllllllll. Nothing gives me the same feeling as having my front wheel floating tho  . And yea haters gunna hate, just find it funny how people make an opinion off experience and skill without knowing much of anything other than a 2 minute clip. Ill be back out messing around when im in better shape!