I have a confession....

[phpaul]

I'm not really a fan of wheelies just for the sake of wheelies.  Hard on the equipment if nothing else.
 
I turned TC off and grabbed a handful on the FJ just to see what would happen, did a wheelie, said "kewl" and turned TC back on.  I'm good.
 
Back in the early 80's I had a Honda XL500 that was a major wheelie monster and I DID love to loft the front wheel on that thing.
 
I was stationed in Pensacola,  lived aboard NAS and worked at Corry Station.  About a 5 mile ride back and forth to work via Navy Boulevard.  
 
The intersection with Lillian Highway was raised above Navy Blvd. just enough that a good handful of throttle would pick 'er up and carry it all the way across the intersection.  Got the stink-eye from the Escambia County Sheriff's Deputy more than once... 8D

[brewhaha]

This is probly a stupid question but I've never understood the pop the clutch thing. Do you simply pop the clutch in then out while applying the same amount of throttle? or are you changing gears?

[texscottyd]

No need to be ashamed I know some fast riders that can't or won't wheelie...

15+ years of road racing, with multiple sprint and endurance championships, plus another five years as a track day instructor, and my wheelie skills are still pathetic. I'm convinced that fundamentally it's an innate feeling that you either have or don't have... I was fairly fast once I got rolling, but my starts were consistently horrible, largely because of my deep-seeded wheelie aversion. My racing days were mostly in the pre-electronics era, and while I learned to tolerate power wheelies on liter bikes, I was never totally comfortable with it. Meanwhile, my teammates could rip off four gear stand-up wheelies without batting an eye... bunch of damn hooligans.  

[hlmiskelly]

..I have never wheelied a motorbike. There, I feel better now.   
Just about every review of our bike mentions the ease with which you can pop the front wheel up and I often read it in threads on here. But I always ride with TC on, and I'm too chicken, so the wheel stays where it was designed to be.
 
So to the questions. Do you have to be a demi-god in terms of "feel" for the bike to wheelie in a controlled manner? Isn't it pretty easy to make an arse of yourself when bringing the wheel back down again and lose control?
 
Browsing youtube brings up lots of videos of failure, as well as some very talented skinny girls holding wheelies for long stretches (but that's more a comment on my browsing history) so I'm guessing that it can't be too difficult, but costly if you get it wrong.
 
Power on wheelies seem to be the most difficult to control, clutch popping seems the preferred method. Or am I way off base here?
 
Where does a wheely virgin start or should I give it up as I'm just too sad, old and risk-averse?

Nor have I ever wheelied, always believing that bikes were designed with two wheels for a reason.

[docsimple]

I turn the TC off any time I am riding for fun not distance. The front end will consistently power the front end up in 1st, 2nd and sometimes third gear depending on how hard I am hitting it. That being said I have only once brought the front end far up. Usually just get some hangtime about 1-2 ft. I love that feeling, but I am terrified of the full balance point wheelie.
 
I like my bike to much and in my mind I just see the thing flipping over and crushing my chest everytime it gets anywhere near a full wheelie, definitely gets the heart pumping.

[carey]

This reminds me of a saying I heard years ago. There are bold riders, and there are old riders, but there are no old bold riders. I used to wheelie when I was younger, nothing special, but now I consider myself an old rider and don't want to risk an accident.

[docsimple]

it was years before i even got comfortable with the front tire lifting. the first time it comes up and your heading towards a curve and notice truning the wheel is doing nothing under high acceleration... then your having fun
 

[xlxr]

How easy it will be to learn how to wheelie is highly dependent on your present skill as a rider.  My guess would be that anyone who can do a big long wheelie, whether on street or dirt bike, has already had about a zillion crashes before they learn to wheelie consistently and safely.
 
Setting your bike up like a stunt bike, sliders on wheel axles, crash bars etc, and wearing full leather gear with armor for knees, elbows, gloves, boots helmet etc and large parking lot with no other traffic is first things to get. Smooth out the snatchy throttle with ECU reflash, G2 throttle tamer, adjusting the accelerator position sensor (I think that is what it is called) can also ease the learning curve, also Protect the handle bar controls with stronger bar end thingies. Start with forward body position, squeeze knees, put weight of feet/foot pegs.
 
Start by holding forward body position, foot on rear brake, and twist the throttle just enough to extend the forks, but don't lift the wheel off the ground. Release throttle early, practice that until you can do it comfortably and consistently. Practice hitting rear break to bring front end down. Trying in second gear will be easier, less sensitive than first gear. Traction control makes learning fairly easy. Without traction control, it becomes fairly easy to loop the bike over backwards.
 
There are 3 basic things to do to start a wheelie. Roll the throttle on faster than normal, pull up on the hand bars and lean back, or pop the clutch and hang on. Bikes with plenty of power will wheelie by just rolling on the throttle, bikes with less power may need pulling up on bars and popping the clutch. Popping the clutch is the same thing a during a burn out with a car, gets a lot of power to the rear wheel real fast.
 
As an old dirt biker, wheelie was a skill I had to learn. I never practice wheelie on street bikes. It really is not a useful skill for street riding. Instead, I try accelerate as hard as possible WITHOUT wheelie, and frequently out run guys who don't practice hard acceleration, especially when coming out of corners. 

[ASerio]

On 3/2/2017 at 11:18 PM, docsimple said:

I like my bike to much and in my mind I just see the thing flipping over and crushing my chest everytime it gets anywhere near a full wheelie, definitely gets the heart pumping.

yuuup!   thats basically it    xDDDD

 

[peteinpa]

I also think wheelie ability is innate. You either have it or don't. I don't, but I'm good with that.

In some states you won't just get the stink eye from LE, you will get arrested and bike impounded for it.

Huge squads of bikes holding up traffic doing wheelies makes us all look bad.  never mind the crashing and taking out 5 other bikes with you.

wheelies are needed off road to get the front over logs. That I can do.

[Ride365]

On 12/31/2020 at 9:27 AM, peteinpa said:

I also think wheelie ability is innate. You either have it or don't. I don't, but I'm good with that.

In some states you won't just get the stink eye from LE, you will get arrested and bike impounded for it.

Huge squads of bikes holding up traffic doing wheelies makes us all look bad.  never mind the crashing and taking out 5 other bikes with you.

wheelies are needed off road to get the front over logs. That I can do.

The wheelie riders are not that dangerous, what I put in bold is all the poker run HD riders and weekend pirates.

[roadrash83]

4 hours ago, Ride365 said:

The wheelie riders are not that dangerous, what I put in bold is all the poker run HD riders and weekend pirates.

After spending a month in the new hell that I'm living in called Florida, I'm happy to report that the Pirates aren't falling over in the T- SHIRT dealer parking lots that much anymore because they are all commanding Tricycles.

[Coop]

Dang, I was hoping someone else had mistakenly eaten some of the doggies Christmas cookies too. 

[PhotoAl]

I like to keep the front wheel on the ground I'm not good at wheelies.  My 2012 CBR600RR would walk the front wheel up in first, always tried to get way forward to keep it down but occasionally didn't get forward enough and it would walk up.  Got used to scooting and leaning forward whenever I wanted to launch hard.  Scoot bak a bit and up it comes.  My Z6R 636 would certainly loft the front wheel but kept TC on.  The Tracer GT certainly like to come up in first.  

Lots of racers cant wheelie but some are really good at it.  It's funny when some try to lift the front wheel for a cool photo but fail.  Was at one race where they had banned wheelies after the race - the winner pulled a big power wheelie coming onto the front straight just to make a cool photo despite the rule - they couldn't say anything as he had been lifting it a bit every lap.

[foxtrot722]

If this is something you really want to do, I suggest finding a dirt/trail bike to learn on, one with a slow first gear. In first gear only, find a little bump or hump to give the front wheel a little help getting up. Sit toward the rear of the seat, have you foot on the brake pedal, if you get over balance, tap the brake. This will take a while to learn, end product will be when you get a little over balance, you can pull in the clutch and let the bike coast past the balance point before tapping the brake. Do all of this in first gear only, learn to balance. It help to squeeze the seat with your legs so you don't have to hold on to the bars so tight with your arms to keep from sliding off the seat.  Anybody can power wheelie, but if they don't have the skills to control it, it ends badly. Once you learn to control be bike in first gear, you can shift on the fly to second, and oddly enough, second will be easy compared to first. I have a few trophies from wheelie contests and have looped out several times in fifth gear. In the top photo, did a lap around a Go Kart track in first gear. Love it, and good luck

Edited January 10, 2021 by foxtrot722