The basics, or can I wheelie my bike?

If your bike doesn't have a side car, or a trailer, it can probably be
wheelied. I've wheelied dirt bikes, street bikes, and a couple of standards.
I've seen Harleys, Goldwings, Katanas, and 125's all pawing at the sky. Yes,
your bike can wheelie. Wheelies are made up of three parts. The launch,
getting the front wheel off the ground. The balancing portion, riding the
wheelie as long as you safely can, clicking gears along the way. This is the
most difficult part of wheeling to master. And lastly, set down phase,
placing the front wheel back on the ground as safely as possible, trying to
place as little wear and tear as possible on your bike.

    1) The Launch

The launch isn't the most difficult part of doing a wheelie. But I'll spend
the most time on this section, because this is where there is the most
variation. The less power you have, the fewer your options are. I'm going to
divide the launch into three sections. Rolling it on, suspension help, and
clutch help.      
           
    2) Rolling it on

This is probably the safest way, to launch a wheelie, but it doesn't work on
an EX-500, or many older 600's. Simply put, just gradually increase your
throttle while in first gear, until you are wide open. If your bike has
enough power, your front wheel will just come up. I've found this to work
very easily on a Suzuki TL1000s, and a Yamaha R1. Didn't work on my 93
900rr, sometimes works on my Kawaski ZX-11. Never works on my pocket bike.
If you have a 600 that you want to do this with, just lower the gearing.
With race gearing on GSXR600's this technique also works. With the stock
gearing, no way in hell. So exactly how do you roll it on. Go to about 1/3
of your tach range in 1st gear, then in the amount of time it takes you to
say one-thousand-one, have the throttle at full.
           
    3) Using Suspensions to help

Ok, so your bike won't roll it on, but you don't want to abuse your clutch.
I'm going to talk here about things you can do, that basically assist the
roll-on wheelie. This may take practice to work well, but understanding the
concepts will apply to any bike. If your bike doesn't do a roll on wheelie,
find yourself a steep road, and see if you can wheelie uphill. Is it easier?
It should be. The reason why, is that your center of gravity, has already
been moved back, lightening your front end. Once you get the wheel off the
ground, it takes less power to get it higher.

Those first two inches are the hardest part. Before you ride your bike next
time, put both feet on the ground, and push as hard as you can on the front
end. Then let it come back up. Practice bouncing the front end up and down.
Push hard, and let it come back up. While riding your bike, you can get a
similar behavior, by using the throttle. If you whack the throttle open, the
front end will come up. At its peak, if you shut the throttle down, engine
braking, in combination with the weight of your front end will cause it to
go back down. When it's at the bottom of its stroke, if you whack the
throttle back open again, you can use the expansion of your front springs,
along with your acceleration, to help lift the front wheel. In fact, it
doesn't take much at all, to do this.

I'll use my GSXR with stock gearing as an example. I would get going in
first gear, so the tach was at about 8500 rpm. Then I would shut the
throttle down, then whack it back on. Tugging at the bars a little also
helps. This snapping of the throttle is a much quicker movement then rolling
your throttle on. Not as quick as you can do it, but I guess that the entire
movement should take about 1/2 or less of a second. Basically, go from
steady state, shut down, then full open. After some practice you will learn
how to time it with your suspension.
           
    4) Using the clutch

So you still can't get the front wheel to come up? I actually find that
clutching it up, gives me the most predictable wheelies than any other
method. Why? Its much easier to do exactly the same thing over, and over.
Basically get rolling in 2nd gear to an RPM of about 1/3 to 1/2 of your
maximum hp. This is what worked well on my GSXR-750, with stock gearing. I
would go to about 5000 rpm in 2nd gear. Pull in the clutch, rev the engine a
time or two, to time it so that the throttle would be wide open and the
clutch releasing as the tach swept 9-10k.

The next thing you know, your front wheel is way up in the air, and your
RPM's are at about 8,000 with the throttle full on. At this point, I would
have to roll off some, to find the balance point of the bike. As you learn
to do this on your own bike, start out conservatively on your clutch release
point, and gradually increase the RPM's each time you try it, until the
wheel comes up so high you have to roll off the throttle a tad. You may want
to cover your rear brake while you are learning this as well, in case you go
too high. Standing up fast, will also help put the front end back down if
you over do it. Remember these things!
           
    5) Shifting

Ok, so now you have the front wheel up. How do you keep it up? Shift! It's
actually much easier then it seems. When you can ride a long ways in first
gear without being full-throttle, you are more than ready to shift. My
favorite way to shift, is without the clutch. If you haven't done clutchless
shifts before, practice on two wheels first. To do a clutchless shift, apply
upward pressure to the shift lever, while you are full on the gas, then just
briefly snap the throttle, off an on again. This is the fastest way to
shift. When on one wheel, you have to get the front wheel really high, to
the point where you need to let off the gas from tipping over. At this
point, shift! Balance and practice are both important steps here. Practice
those clutchless shifts.
           
    6) Bringing it down

So now your front wheel is going down. Either because you got scared and let
off the gas, or you just don't have the power to keep it up. Make sure that
your front wheel is pointing straight ahead, and keep the throttle open
Wide! You want to set the front wheel down as easy as possible. If you chop
the throttle, your landing will be very hard, so stay on the gas! Or if you
need to come down, just briefly roll off the gas, then get right back on it
again, until the front wheel sets down. Expect a chirping noise, and
sometimes at higher speeds a bit of a wobble, but as long as the wheel is
straight, it's not a big deal.
           
    7) Body position

Where you place your body during where wheelie can have some interesting
effects. If you put all of your weight on your footpegs, and sorta stand up,
I've found it easiest to get really close to the balance point this way, but
it's more difficult to shift while in that position. My reasoning for why
balancing is easier standing, is that I've noticed you don't have to spend
so much effort holding your body in place, which is frequently done by your
hands pulling back on the handlebars.

Another reason, could be that your legs are better balance sensors than your
butt. In any event, it's definitely worth a try. Hanging off to the side,
was something I really started doing without noticing and I was always
veering off to one side.

You might do this, so that you can see where you are going. When your front
end gets way up in the air, you can't see over it very well. So you might
have a tendency to lean over one side to get a glimpse around. What I found
out, is that you can steer this way. To keep yourself, in the center of your
lane, just hang off, the same as you would if you were riding with no hands.
           
    8) Does this hurt my Bike?

When you are first learning you will probably do more damage to your bike
then during any other time. This is mainly because of missed shifts, or rear
brake stomping, or anything that slams your front end down. You may bust a
fork seal. You will probably wear out your steering stem bearings faster
than normal, and you will definitely need to tighten your steering head down
more frequently. You may also wear your rear tire slightly flat, as hard
wheelie acceleration wears out the centers more quickly than normal. You
will stretch your chain out, if you use the clutch method. Another detriment
to the clutch method, aren't clutch wear, but clutch basket wear. The sudden
force of the clutch plates against the ears of the basket can notch the
basket. This will prevent you from pulling in the clutch, any time there is
load on the engine. Of course, all sorts of fasteners may come loose a
little faster than normal, I've noticed mirrors and other front end body
fasteners in particular want to fall off. So check out em out frequently.
           
   9) If you can't get your bike to wheelie, try using more RPM!