krazed0451
Well-Known Member
This is aimed at a complete beginner... Please read the whole thing before you run out and try it 
OK, my mate in the US just asked me to write him up a guide on how to wheelie. This is basically my first draft so don't jump up and down and tell me I'm wrong. I'm happy to accept all the advice you guys can throw at me. Bear in mind this was written as a guide for a DRZ650! You'll likely have to substitute first gear for second, and second gear for third... I'd tell you, but I haven't spent enough time on the mini to know (I've only just run the engine in)
You're going to have to adjust wheel heights too, I just don't know what to make them yet!
On with the guide...
You'll find the power delivery a lot different between first and second gear. In first, the wheel is going to come up a lot more easily but due to the short gear will be harder to control around balance point. In second, it may be harder to get the wheel to lift initially, but once up will leave you with a broader rev range to control the wheelie.
First things first, I'd recommend starting out on grass or a nice soft dirt that still offers decent traction. If you are losing traction too much trying this, you'll just crash and get nowhere... A slight uphill will help.
I'm going to break this down into 3 basic stages. Once you are comfortable with one, progress to the next, easy peasy!
Stage one, first gear, low wheelies, no clutch, sitting:
~ Get in the "attack" position*
~ Lean back slightly (won't need to be much, you can adjust as you go)**
~ roll of the line nice and slowly and keep a steady slow pace.
~ Without letting off the throttle (or maybe a tiny let off), bump the front end down to compress the forks.
~ As the forks rebound throttle on fairly hard. This'll take a bit of getting used to, you don't usually need to nail it. DON'T REEF ON THE BARS, you'll straighten your arms and it won't help.
~ Let the front wheel come up about 30cm and try to get the hang of running out first keeping the wheel only that high. If it comes up higher, shut the throttle.
~ practice until you can do this fairly consistently.
______________________________________________________________________
Stage 1b (cheating I know), low, standing, no clutch:
~ As above but standing up. Now you can let the front wheel come up a lot higher (50-60cm) and pull yourself upright (ie, chest closer to the bars) to counter it (You'll only need to move forward a bit). Once again, ride the wheelies out.
~ Practice, practice, practice!
______________________________________________________________________
Stage two, second gear, mid wheelies, clutch:
~ Get rolling in 2nd gear.
~ Pull clutch in and release until you can feel it grab but not really do anything (you should be able to rev against it fairly freely).***
~ No suspension punch this time (that was just to get the feeling of how the bike reacts on the back wheel and get you comfortable).
~ This time you'll need to be fairly aggressive and let the bike come up to 60cm. As you'll be closer to balance point in a higher gear you'll be able to ride the wheelie out further.
~ Practice until comfortable.
______________________________________________________________________
Stage three, "going for it!":
~ As with stage two, initiate a wheelie.
~ Get a little more aggressive with the revs/clutch to bring the bike up gradually higher and higher.
~ Once you start getting higher wheelies you'll find that just completely shutting off the throttle is a bad way to end them. Try to back it off a little to start the wheel heading back down but accelerate enough to make it smooth.
~ The first time you hit balance point you might be inclined to panic a little and mash the rear brake: don't. Smashing on the rear brake is likely to cause a crash, or at least provide a bit of very wobbly entertainment for anyone watching.
~ Close off the throttle a little or if you are controlled enough, apply a small amount of rear brake. This is all feel, don't expect it to be easy to ride balance point wheelies and try to gradually work up to them.
~ If you really panic, close the throttle off, this is usually plenty to bring the wheel to the ground, but as always cover the rear brake.
~ Once you are comfortably riding out some second gear wheelies and occasionally getting into balance point you can either drop back to first, use the clutch and work on slow, controlled wheelies or (my favorite (controlled wheelies are too hard)) you can learn to change up through the gears on the back wheel... I'll cover that in "Jimbo's super advanced wheelie technique for wicked rad dudes". Other subjects include "The rear wheel weave: Cornering on one wheel" and "Speedbumps were never so much fun: Hitting jumps on the rear", coming soon!
______________________________________________________________________
* Attack position: Sit forward on the seat, raise your elbows (like you see the mx riders do), slight spread on your legs OR grip the tank (depends on how much you like to move about). In this position you should be able to comfortably turn the bars lock to lock.
** I mean this... Only a little! If you lean back too far you'll find it difficult to maneuver the bike as your arms will straighten.
*** I like to raise the revs riding the clutch and fairly aggressively release. Another thing to try, rather than the manual suspension pump is to blip the clutch out to lift the front a little... It'll then dive and you can be a little more sensitive on the clutch up while still getting the advantage of a suspension push.
______________________________________________________________________
Notes and tips:
~ Go out with mates who can wheelie and watch them. Look for body position, listen to their bike etc! -Contributed by Roost666
~ Watch video's for the same reason just mentioned.
~ Practice, practice, practice!
~ Always cover the rear brake (no exception, even if you aren't using it)!
~ Practice, practice, practice!
~ Never take your feet off the pegs, even if you believe you are going to go over backwards, with your feet off you are hanging on the bars, most notably, the accelerator!
~ Practice, practice, practice!
~ I know I don't need to tell you this but, ATGATT!
~ Did I mention practice?
That's the best I can do at 1am off the top of my head I'm afraid... I'll answer any questions you have as best I can and try to refine my guide as we go
Try not to crash, don't worry if you do... It's a dirt bike (mostly), you won't bend/break too much
Have fun with it dudes, let me know how you get on... w00t!
(Any mod who wishes to add a "riding techniques" section to the tutorials page, pleas do and add this)
OK, my mate in the US just asked me to write him up a guide on how to wheelie. This is basically my first draft so don't jump up and down and tell me I'm wrong. I'm happy to accept all the advice you guys can throw at me. Bear in mind this was written as a guide for a DRZ650! You'll likely have to substitute first gear for second, and second gear for third... I'd tell you, but I haven't spent enough time on the mini to know (I've only just run the engine in)
You're going to have to adjust wheel heights too, I just don't know what to make them yet!
On with the guide...
You'll find the power delivery a lot different between first and second gear. In first, the wheel is going to come up a lot more easily but due to the short gear will be harder to control around balance point. In second, it may be harder to get the wheel to lift initially, but once up will leave you with a broader rev range to control the wheelie.
First things first, I'd recommend starting out on grass or a nice soft dirt that still offers decent traction. If you are losing traction too much trying this, you'll just crash and get nowhere... A slight uphill will help.
I'm going to break this down into 3 basic stages. Once you are comfortable with one, progress to the next, easy peasy!
Stage one, first gear, low wheelies, no clutch, sitting:
~ Get in the "attack" position*
~ Lean back slightly (won't need to be much, you can adjust as you go)**
~ roll of the line nice and slowly and keep a steady slow pace.
~ Without letting off the throttle (or maybe a tiny let off), bump the front end down to compress the forks.
~ As the forks rebound throttle on fairly hard. This'll take a bit of getting used to, you don't usually need to nail it. DON'T REEF ON THE BARS, you'll straighten your arms and it won't help.
~ Let the front wheel come up about 30cm and try to get the hang of running out first keeping the wheel only that high. If it comes up higher, shut the throttle.
~ practice until you can do this fairly consistently.
______________________________________________________________________
Stage 1b (cheating I know
), low, standing, no clutch:~ As above but standing up. Now you can let the front wheel come up a lot higher (50-60cm) and pull yourself upright (ie, chest closer to the bars) to counter it (You'll only need to move forward a bit). Once again, ride the wheelies out.
~ Practice, practice, practice!
______________________________________________________________________
Stage two, second gear, mid wheelies, clutch:
~ Get rolling in 2nd gear.
~ Pull clutch in and release until you can feel it grab but not really do anything (you should be able to rev against it fairly freely).***
~ No suspension punch this time (that was just to get the feeling of how the bike reacts on the back wheel and get you comfortable).
~ This time you'll need to be fairly aggressive and let the bike come up to 60cm. As you'll be closer to balance point in a higher gear you'll be able to ride the wheelie out further.
~ Practice until comfortable.
______________________________________________________________________
Stage three, "going for it!":
~ As with stage two, initiate a wheelie.
~ Get a little more aggressive with the revs/clutch to bring the bike up gradually higher and higher.
~ Once you start getting higher wheelies you'll find that just completely shutting off the throttle is a bad way to end them. Try to back it off a little to start the wheel heading back down but accelerate enough to make it smooth.
~ The first time you hit balance point you might be inclined to panic a little and mash the rear brake: don't. Smashing on the rear brake is likely to cause a crash, or at least provide a bit of very wobbly entertainment for anyone watching.
~ Close off the throttle a little or if you are controlled enough, apply a small amount of rear brake. This is all feel, don't expect it to be easy to ride balance point wheelies and try to gradually work up to them.
~ If you really panic, close the throttle off, this is usually plenty to bring the wheel to the ground, but as always cover the rear brake.
~ Once you are comfortably riding out some second gear wheelies and occasionally getting into balance point you can either drop back to first, use the clutch and work on slow, controlled wheelies or (my favorite (controlled wheelies are too hard
)) you can learn to change up through the gears on the back wheel... I'll cover that in "Jimbo's super advanced wheelie technique for wicked rad dudes". Other subjects include "The rear wheel weave: Cornering on one wheel" and "Speedbumps were never so much fun: Hitting jumps on the rear", coming soon! ______________________________________________________________________
* Attack position: Sit forward on the seat, raise your elbows (like you see the mx riders do), slight spread on your legs OR grip the tank (depends on how much you like to move about). In this position you should be able to comfortably turn the bars lock to lock.
** I mean this... Only a little! If you lean back too far you'll find it difficult to maneuver the bike as your arms will straighten.
*** I like to raise the revs riding the clutch and fairly aggressively release. Another thing to try, rather than the manual suspension pump is to blip the clutch out to lift the front a little... It'll then dive and you can be a little more sensitive on the clutch up while still getting the advantage of a suspension push.
______________________________________________________________________
Notes and tips:
~ Go out with mates who can wheelie and watch them. Look for body position, listen to their bike etc! -Contributed by Roost666
~ Watch video's for the same reason just mentioned.
~ Practice, practice, practice!
~ Always cover the rear brake (no exception, even if you aren't using it)!
~ Practice, practice, practice!
~ Never take your feet off the pegs, even if you believe you are going to go over backwards, with your feet off you are hanging on the bars, most notably, the accelerator!
~ Practice, practice, practice!
~ I know I don't need to tell you this but, ATGATT!
~ Did I mention practice?
That's the best I can do at 1am off the top of my head I'm afraid... I'll answer any questions you have as best I can and try to refine my guide as we go
Try not to crash, don't worry if you do... It's a dirt bike (mostly), you won't bend/break too much
Have fun with it dudes, let me know how you get on... w00t!
(Any mod who wishes to add a "riding techniques" section to the tutorials page, pleas do and add this)
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