Don't sweat it. I use to video for TDM back when they were UV, and I would try to do wheelies with those guys, and I looked like a total tard (nothing against the mentally handicapped). I moved to Texas a year ago March, and I just didn't ride much. I started to get serious in the Fall of 2003. And I just started really feeling comfortable this past spring.

Just don't give up.

 

i look at teh tach as im doing teh vroom vroom vroom,(about 6k) but then when i let thh clutch out i seem to give it a little more,



God i love how it sounds "vroom vroom vroom vrRRRooooOOOOOMM!" and up i go! gonna go out in a bit, maybe get my vid cam from my friend, peace fellas :YEAH

 

Thanks. I will have to try it out within the next couple of days.

 

KungFu,

IMHO you gotta find a good place to practice and start practicing one thing at a time. I still have hell getting the clutching when I switch from doing 1st to 2nd and vice versa because they're so different. Same when I changed from both front pegs to one back and one up. Same when I first started clutching sitdown's (which I did before I tried standups off the clutch.)

Go find a good parking lot and do nothing but 1st gear clutchups standing with the left foot on the pass peg. Start slowly giving enough gas to make the front light. Once you get this part where you can do it instantly (bring the throttle open to where the front is really light) dip the clutch for just an instant. Hold the gas where it is. Start holding the clutch in for just a bit longer each time until it comes up good for you. I guarantee it will. It seems a little easier for me to get the gas set where I want it first and then clutch it but you want to do it quick before you get going too fast (which doesn't take long in first.)

Spend an hour or two doing nothing but that. Have a friend go with you and take breaks and BS. Don't bring an audience or you will feel pressure just a good buddy that you don't have to impress. Don't do anything else on the way there or the way home. You don't want to be trying a bunch of different things as it will screw you up. Do one thing only until you start to get it.

Once you start to get them up they will all come back down but all you want to accomplish the first day is to get to where it comes up predictably each time. It may take a few days of practice. I still can't get to where they come up just how I want each time.

Once you get that try to get one blip in when you roll off and it stops climbing. I mean don't let it all the way down, hit the gas a little and make it go back up again then down. Pretty soon it'll be a couple blips of the throttle then three then you'll just have to smooth the throttle out until it's more steady and you're riding them out.

Don't do anything else until you feel like you can ride a 1st gear standup out till redline. Then you can either work on bringing it up higher each time until you reach BP or move on to 2nd. If you learn 1st 2nd will be really easy once you get over the speed factor.

This is what I did except it was 2nd gear bounce ups standing. Did nothing else until I felt pretty comfortable riding them out. Then I started learning clutching. Do nothing else until I get this dialed in. 2nd is pretty good so now I'm gonna start working on 1st more. I like 1st because you can rip one up from a light or in a parking lot or wherever. Plus you can practice in lots

This is drastic action but we gotta get you up on one wheel before you give up in frustration. Unacceptable

 

RRmike,

I will give it a shot!

wish me luck

 

sup boys, good to see this thread is still up top. anyway, i almost had a nasty accident the other night. rode a stand up for about a 1/4 mile or so and when i set it down it went into a nasty tank slapper. i saved it(gave it gas and lightened the front end) but it scared the **** outta me. anyone else getting a lot of headshake when setting down standies? i know the bars were slightly crooked but i think i may have also set it down in a crack/pot hole in the road. eitherway, a damper will be ordered soon. a buddy of mine rode my bike and said he wont ride it again till i get a damper, the light front end on the 954 scares him.

 

I couldn't agree more snigg....it took only two close calls for me to say "Hello...I'd like to order one of your Scott's dampers please". Why wait til you drop it or highside at 60mph?? Best $400 I ever spent on the bike...954's are light and sloppy in the front end. Now when I turn my bars lock to lock it takes a little force...they don't just fall side to side.....slap slap slap. Keep it rubber side down. --bladerunner

 

RRmike,

Thanks for the re-cap advice yesterday, I went home and busted out the hottness and went for a spin, I kept telling myself to relax that plus your advice got my hoop up skyward without the scary part.

Yesterday and today My Kung Fu is strong. Thanks again

 

Keep it up. Same thing for a while. Don't start doing all kinds of other crap or you'll lose where you were. After you start to get that dialed in then it will come back easier once you start to try something else.

I went out today and did like 35-50 first gear standers off the clutch and was having intermittent sp? luck. I kept at it for like an hour and finally was getting fairly consistent. I was trying to work on back brake coverage so I would just focus on the brake both physically and mentally as I was doing each one. I started to get some pretty high ones without really paying total attention to the right hand but more to the right foot. After I left the practice area I started doing more 2nd gear standers and they were way smoother than they have been the last couple days. I'm sure it was the first gear twitchies that got the right hand all steadied out :YEAH

I learned to steer a little bit also which was way cool! Now if there's not a lot of crown on the road I can ride it where I want. I was amazed how far I have to hang off the side of the bike to get it to turn though. It feels awkward as hell and it's scary to try to not move your throttle hand as you're moving around but it worked out really well.

Keep practicing!

 

RRMike,

We are gonna see you in a vid soon!!!

That sounds soooooooo sick

 

Me and my boys are just a bunch of wannabe's but we have fun. There's this guy who made a poster for my buddy and it's the most pro-pimp looking thing I'd ever seen! It's a digital photo of him doing a nice 2nd gear sit down with his name across the bottom in huge block transformer looking letters and a pic of him laid over in a corner blended in to the left of him in the wheelie and it's got a big huge Honda logo like he's a factory rider or something The kid does all kinds of posters and stuff and has one of those big *** photo quality printers :YEAH

Anyone in the know would know instantly that it's just a average guy doing a wheelie but I'm telling you aside from him being in a t-shirt and jeans it's like something you would see on a WSBK poster or something. I ran into the guy the other day and he's all fired up to do one for me and my brother so at least I'll have a good avitar pic to post up. I don't even own a digital camera.

KungFu,

Is your KungFu strong again today. Are you out hitting the spot again? You better be. If you wanna get you better have some dedication to get out and practice. Again and again. I wheelie many times every single day that it's not raining. Can't be a slacker and expect to progress. I wanna be rockin freeway wheelies for miles by the end of summer so I know I gotta be out there every day working on the BP and steering.

 

Ok here's the only decent wheelie I got the other weekend when we went out and I was asking how to post a video:

You will need to right click and "save target as," then open the file with your media player of choice after you've downloaded it to get it to work. Otherwise it tries to open with internet explorer for some reason and doesn't work.

http://www.whitetrashcartel.com/mike.mpg

It's grainy as hell from being analog and converted to digital but it's ok.

 

wha sup guys. I finally made it thru the thread, great thread by the way. I have only had my 954 for a couple of months now. I totaled out my 03 600 rr by trying to plow thru a car, needless to say the car won that contest. Now back to the 954, gobs more torque and much easier to lift that the 600rr. However in my opinion it is much more unstable. My bike is stock and I will get a damper as soon as possible. I am just learning the art of wheelies and have had decent luck for a beginer. I have been riding some form of motorcycle for about 22 years now, every thing from motorcross to sportbikes. I started off by doing 1st gear power up sit downs. And can bring them up every time but i am very inconsistant on how long they stay up. I may ride one out all the way thru 1st gear (smoother throttle input) or I may get it up and raise and lower the front end a little by adding and removing throttle input, but never really get it in that comfortable position. I have been to inconsistant to even attempt to shift gears while up. Also I have been trying some 2nd gear standups (only a few) and they seem to come up very easy, I just havent the ***** to try and ride them out yet. I simply stand on the pegs get going around 30 to 35 mph bounce on the pegs and give a good little whack on the throttle, and up she comes. In my opinion the most important part of this is timing the bounce with the throttle. If done incorrect, which i have done more than once, you will look like a dick jumping up and down on the bike and just accellerating. I have found if i start on the throttle before i think the bike has bottomed out or right at the point my downward momentum has stopped from my bounce it comes up very easy. I think by doing this i am applying throttle about the point the shocks are starting to push the bike back up. I am by no means as good as some of the guys here but thought I would add my .

 

Glad to have another 954 boy in the thread! I used to bring 2nd up just like you do. It worked out decent but too many times at that vital moment (passing a carload of honeys for instance) I wouldn't time it right and it would fail me

After reading a bunch on this site I've learned the clutch. Now everything comes up off the clutch. 1st and 2nd gear. I was having some hit and miss issues but it's pretty much golden now I tried maybe 8 or 10 wheelies yesterday and every single one came right up and I could ride them out pretty decent.

Took about 4 or 5 days of pretty serious practice to learn the clutch but I now think it's definitely worth it.

 

Damn RRmike That vid is the shiat!!!

Seriously Dope!!!! ya, I'm at it again today. Still working on the first gear, not very high but getting better, I actually feel some progress now. Sometimes I guess you need a day off, I was out this morning, keeping nice and loose, geiving it more and more rpms with each attempt. I'm getting there.
Did you get comfortable with sitdowns first? I forgot.

blkcbr,

Nice to have another post in here. Welcome. By the way don't shift on a wheelie without the clutch!!!! Trust me, I've been working with another guy in stuntlife because he has to replace some gears in his tranny from doing that, I've already had to do it once. The next time I pull the engine in mine is gonna be for upgrade not repair, be careful.

 

<--------------------rrmike

 

KungFu,

I had learned sitting but no really high wheelies. I never got them high enough to not be able to see a little bit where I was going. I decided after the first time I bounced a 2nd gear stander and actually kept it up for more than 1/2 second that was what I wanted to learn. So I did nothing but until I could do them pretty consistently. I think that's a big key to learning this stuff. Do one thing until you get used to it and get some muscle memory and can come back to it after trying something new for a while. Seems when you bounce all over doing a 100 different things none of them comes together well.

 

good advise, i went out yesterday and i think i went backwards as far as progress goes. I think i need to work on throttle control, as most all of my decent wheelies seem to come from a steadier throttle hand.

 

i went out the otehr day, and on my way home, down some back road i slowed to liek 5mph, went up, and what felt the greatest was i felt it going down and gave it more and back up she came. 2nd gear stanupd interest me VERY little, just cause its more of your everyday wheelie, i so wanan master the sub 25mph 1st gear wheelies. i am just starting out within teh past month, and am getting teh swing of things fats, but 1st gear seems hella easier than does 2nd.

now for gearing...... any of you guys changed your sprockets yet?
i was thinking somehting minor like -1 +5. BUT i believe stock front and +10 is the equivalent. i dont wanna lose crazy top end but dont mind losing some.

im here bored reading stunt life cause my friend looped an endo on my bike, leaky front master cylinder, waiting on parts from ebay

ANYWAYS, once i get em, ill be back at it :YEAH


edit: mike, i just watched that video, nice wheelie man but that crap would scare me LOL!!! you had to be doing liek 70 or so...

 

What's up El nino,

I totally agree, 1st gear does seem easier to me as well, but I also understand how second would be a lot smoother. I have a -1 +2 set up on mine I didn't loose hardly any top end I can still do 170 which is fine for me especially when you consider the amount of accelaration I gained. Substantial enough to feel the differance. The nice part about the gearing change is that ya, it is a noticable differance. the bad part is it makes the bike a little more twitchy, so better to launch them with but not sure about holding them up there. I love my gearing and the speedo did change but it's simple enough any speed over 40 and my speedo reads +10 so 40 reads 50. Actually it helps keep me out of some trouble.
You are right about the -1 up front is pretty close to +5 in the rear.

Hope this helps, props on the progress.

RRmike,

thanks for getting back to me on my question.


I just ripped a sweet 1st gear sit down in the parking lot, felt gooooood!!

have a good weekend all