wheelie Q

like several have said, HOW you wheelie is a personal preference, although theres some similarities and "standards" through all wheelies...

as mentioned...

theres a balance point, which is where your RPM's stop increasing.

theres what i call a "breakover point"... this is the point where its easier for your bike to overcome gravity... about 1/3 or half way up the "clock" to the balance point.

you can control both of these with your body position.

The further you lean foward, the higher the breakover point is, and the higher the balance point is.

The further you lean back, or sit back, the lower both of these points are.

Its a little different with a 12 bar, but not really.

Clutch it up, power it up, bounce it up, or use the rear brake to preload the suspension while you clutch or power it up... all does the same thing, it gets you in the air.

What you need to do, over and over and over, is practice one method of getting wheel in the air.... FORGET riding the wheelie out very far. Just practice the method you like to get the front up. OVER AND OVER AND OVER.

More importantly, do it at a constant speed.

So, you wheelie, say, at 10mph, and you set it down at 30... SLOW BACK DOWN TO 10mph, and try again. Use the rear brake to slow yourself down. This makes a mental link between speed and braking in your brain before you ever try to hit the brake in the middle of the wheelie.

Let me repeat that again. EVERY TIME YOU TRY A WHEELIE, SLOW BACK DOWN and try it again at the same speed. Don't keep speeding up. Then you learn nothing - you have no idea how hard to throttle / clutch it up at 10, and then you try at 30, and again at 50.... well, each speed is going to require a different amount of throttle or clutch, so keep doing it at the same speed. Once you master that, it will carry over to the other speeds more easily!

personally, i use EVERY method to launch a wheelie, but it depends on the bike, speed, and location.

For slow wheelies, that i want to consistently launch to the exact same height over and over and over, i use the clutch. On a light supermoto, you dont need much clutch or RPM's... just a little.

If i'm going around a corner and want to wheelie out of it, i romp on the gas.

on the highway in 4th gear, i'll stand on the rear brake to load the suspension, then clutch the SHEEET out of it and the combination of the three will get me up to balance point.

Heres an example of a 5mph wheelie at balance point.


and heres one a little past balance point... both of which i clutched up.
I actually pull my body closer the higher i get to scraping... its easier to steer, and gets weight of the back... i.e. it makes the balance point higher, or further back, so when i touch the 12 bar it hits softer....



anyway, after you master launching the front end in the air over and over to the exact same point, the "riding it out" part will come naturally.

If you dont master lifting the tire, then you'll continue to scare yourself by launching to high, or too low and then throttling it hard and nearly flipping yourself over.

the reason the balance point seems larger is you have a lighter bike, with a lot more engine braking.... on a sportbike, its heavy, and once you cross the "hump" you're probably on the gas so hard you'll fly right by the balance point, and you'll start sinking backwards... w/o heavy compression braking, then you HAVE to use the rear brake... so the balance point feels like its a narrow range.

Truth is, no wheelie is really ever 100% at the balance point... you're always rocking in and out of it in small amounts... the smaller amounts you rock before and after it, the more balanced you look and feel.

the actual balance POINT on any bike is essentially the same - just a single point at which your balanced... but the amount you can go in front of or behind that point and keep the bike stable, and up in the air, and manageable, varies on all bikes.

on a sportbike, unless you pick the bike directly up to the balance point, you have to give it a good bit of gas to bring the front end on up (get it over the hump)... this results in you approaching the balance point very rapidly... then you try to yank off the gas to keep from going over, but you yank off to much, so now you have to add more, oops, too much, better let off again... Its just a bad deal all over...

on a supermoto, if you over the "hump" and 80% up, shes so light and has so much power, you can just add a little gas at a time until you get close to balance.... no need to crack it wide open.

then as you approach the balance point, you let off a little, and slowly get to the balance point.

the better that you get, as you clutch it up, you'll go directly to the balance point and use the rear brake to stop the motor... you dont really ever let completely off the gas (and you keep your idle higher) and just ride the rear brake to smooth it out instead of jerking the throttle.

In those wheelie picture i posted... if it takes me more than 1 second to reach balance point, i usually set it down, come to a full stop, and start the wheelie over. No reason to fight it.


just remember THERE IS NO TROPHY FOR HOLDING OUT AND TRYING TO SAVE
A BAD WHEELIE.... just SET IT DOWN, and try again.

too many times i've seen someone dead set on "repairing" a bad wheelie and either holding it out too long in a parking lot and hitting the curb at the end, or simply trying to over correct and flipping the bike over.... I've done it. I've learned. Learn from my mistakes.