Damn, I'm soo envious.

So here's my crappy luck. I went out on Wednesday and barely started to get the front up standing up, which I am getting comfortable with (the standing part). So I get to the track I did one quarter mile run everything was fine ran at 11.5(useually I progress) I get up to the line for my 2nd run and she went down to 3 cylinders. So I had to be "that guy" pushing his ride off the starting line. the fuggin spark plug came out of the number 1 cylinder, just my luck. I feel good though because we thought it was the valve at first. Spent the rest of the night wrenching again instead of practicing. however I did get her up and running. Just had a new front tire put on Bridgestone BTO14,,,Jesus, talk about feedback!!! this thing will actually wisper in your ear what the front end is doing!! I thought my damper was broken for a few. I have to work on my new house this weekend so I doubt I'll get much riding time in.
However, next week is supposed to be awesome weather all week long so I'll be back at it then. Plus I always make big progress when I take a day or two off. We'll see, I already came to terms that if I don't get this wheelie thing down before the end of the season I'll either go to that stupid wheelie school or I'll buy a second bike and ride it into the ground.

RRmike
Props Props Props as I said before I am envious. Serously sweet ****!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I got some new vid. I'll get it posted on the site by Mon hopefully and post a link. It's not great becaus ethe deserted back road we went to has a lot of crown and I was fighting a lot of them to try and keep them straight. Seems whenever I start trying to steer really hard I start to let them down sub-consciously.

I met this gal a while back that has a roommate that's into filming import racing and streetbikes but there's no stunters around here so she thinks he'd love to take his in car stuff and some camera's out on the freeway :YEAH Hopefully he has some good equipment and I can get some good video that's not all grainy like ours always ends up like when we digitize it.

Dax,
Thanks I was thinking 25 to start and 20 if that didn't fix it.

KungFu,
Once you get comfortable riding around standing the wheelies won't feel so awkward and you'll get used to it.

 

sup fellas, ive stil been wheelieing but not that last 2 days!!! i bought icon hooligans and the glove wont let me pull the cluth in with my pointer!!!!! had to sell em to some guy i work with and i ordered today teh super duties which look softer lets hope.


as far as my wheelies, they are up BUT im gonna go 12+ cause these wheelies are WAY WAY too fast for my taste, i wanna be sub 30 mph, and im geting it up in first fine and when i put it down its at 55mph!!!!! **** taht man, i dont really think much wne im doing them that fastcause its too scary. geairng teh bike will slow em down hopefully, and when im slower i can think better, and do teh back and forth rocking thing. im just trying do do as slow as posisble stand ups mostly lately.

stand ups felt akward first day, but at teh end they feel liek you have more control

 

I started out with the IIcon Burners, and the area between the thumb and the index finger was too tight so I switched to the Super Duty, and I love them.

 

I don't think you're gonna accomplish what you think with the low gearing. If you're not riding these wheelies at BP then it's gonna just accelerate faster with the lower gearing and you'll be out of rpm faster and have less time to think about what you're doing while in the wheelie.

Slow wheelies are about riding at/behind BP to slow them down. The gearing gives you compression/engine braking at these low speeds when a stock geared bike would be at too low of RPM to have much engine braking.

If you're getting the gearing to have better compression braking at low speed then good but it sounds like you're just trying to limit your top speed in 1st gear. You can do that with your right hand.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm hating cause I'm not. I've heard geared bikes are a lot of fun to ride and I've never had the opportunity. Maybe it'll work out the way you want but I think you're just going to have a twitchier 1st gear and it's gonna rev out in like 1 second because you're not high enough.

I hope I'm wrong but let us know what you think of it.

 

good to hear about the gloves , i sold teh hooligans for $40 to a buddy and bought super duties for $47 so i came out $7 out of my pocket no biggie


as far as the gear thing, im not doing it RIGHT away. im still gonna practice, i know your not hating. and im not at BP yet but man, once this bike comes up it speeds off so fast. eventually imma gear it tho, i guess i just gotta get higher RIGHT away and then let go. i kinda did make it sound like i was depending on all gear.

SOMETIMES when i get em up really high, it takes a second to take off forward. oh well, practice makes perfect. perhaps turning up the idle would help maybe? and just ride the brake. dunno, liek i said imma just keep practicing. i gotat get better vids cause i got some teh otehr day and my buddy was the worst camera man ever. i dont know what wheelies were what ones, and what i thought was high wasnt. gotta do liek 3-4 then watch it to see what they really look like :YEAH

 

Any tips for getting it up in second gear sitting? If I go around 60 and slip it hard it'll come up but I wanna slow it down.

 

El Nino,

Glad you didn't take my post the wrong way bro I just wanted for you to understand that the speed thing is because you're chasing the front and it'll only speed up faster with lower gears and rev out quicker. It might stay at a lower speed but you will have like 2 second wheelies

I know that's not what you want. Just do like you said and work on getting the front higher. The higher you get it the slower it will accelerate and one day you'll hear it just stop revving and sit at the same RPM and you'll be like :YEAH If you want to see what it's like without having the front really high go ride a wheelie up a hill. The torque you are putting to the rear tire (to hold the front tire up) is taken up climbing the hill instead of accelerating so you can BP at a much lower angle if the hill is steep. I've done it just to get the feeling and keep myself working toward the goal of doing it on level ground.

Keep wearing your gear and stay in your comfort zone as far as how high you get the wheelies and you'll be ok.

 

Do the same thing you do at 60 but at a lower speed. It should come up more briskly at lower speed. Be careful with the first few and just keep adding to the gas you are giving it and the amount of time you have the clutch in and it'll come up. Just take it slow. You're on a literbike now

I do standers from about 25 to 35 usually. I can do them at 70 or 10 but 70 I don't have much time to get it balanced before I'm outta RPM and 10 it jumps up hard sometimes

Sit's take a little more oomph to get up so don't be afraid to get agressive with it if you have to but start slowly and work up slowly.

 

It actually takes a hell of a lot to get it up in second, I was slipping the clutch with full throttle. I think what I'm gonna try now is just revving it freely then dropping the clutch cause I can get more revs than just slipping it really quick.

 

Ummmm, I don't mean to totally question you, but if you were at full throttle with the clutch in on the 954, and then slip the clutch out, you would loop in a huge way.

I'm no expert on clutching up the 954, but I can clutch it up in 2nd at 6k rpm's, no problem.

 

hey guys, havent checked this post in awhile. anyway since my last post bout how my wheelies were going left, ive fixed the problem. mostly body position but i also lowered my pressure to 25-28psi and im rocking them. 1 milers or so, mostly in bp but im not as smooth as id like to be. i went to the university library and they loan out digital vid cams so i signed one out. ive been out filming and have some awesome footage, let me get it edited and **** and ill post up a nice vid. anyway, put ur pressure around 28psi and try those standies. ive also been working on tank wheelies/spreaders and im getting them down. pics/vid to come

 

It's the altitude I have a lot less power than you, I don't mean to sound like a broken record but it's true. I still haven't gotten a 2nd gear sit down past a foot and a half. I can do bounce / clutch easy though in 2nd. I don't really care about sit downs anyway.

 

FFS, 1 or 2 less hp (if it's even that much) is not doing that.

 

I can understand the altitude to a certain degree, but if you have the throttle all the way open and you slip the clutch into 2nd gear, you WILL loop a 954, unless you hit the rear brake in time. The altitude plays more with the "power wheelie", clutching it is less affected.

Anyways, I thought you got the 954 to "cruise around town" on. And I believe you stated in another post that you "would not stunt the 954".

 

I'm not using it to cruise around town, I don't have a car so I ride it a lot when I have to go somewhere. I'm not going to do any more stunts than just basic high speed wheelies.

I could take some videos and show you, it's weird, it feels like it should come up easy with all the power it has in second gear but it doesn't happen. I haven't even tried to wheelie it in first other than it coming up at 7k under full acceleration.

 

one more time FHL, its not the bike...its you!! you suck at wheelies man. first your gixxer didnt have enough power, so you got a liter bike and now that doesnt have enough power to wheelie. give me a break, so no one in CO can wheelie cuz of altitude. hook up with a local stunter and let him school you on how to wheelie. hike up your skirt, grab your ***** and ****in wack the throttle. ill bet money you're pussing out when it comes time to open the throttle.

 

Ok buddy

 

So anyways.

How was everybodies weekend practice sessions?

It rained here all day on Saturday, but I went out Sunday and Monday. Unfortunately I am holding steady, I'm not improving, but I'm not digressing either.

 

Would have been better with less traffic and less . I was riding around trying to find spots that are usually vacant and seeing alot of unmarked cars...you know the ones with the two guys in suits on a Sunday with the government plates Those bastards had me paranoid to pick the front end up as much as I usually do. Now that the Holiday weekend is over things should be back to normal. Seems like the police were out in full force around here all weekend. Anyway...I'm still rocking 2nd gear sitdowns. I haven't really tried to practice my standups yet...wanna feel the BP in a sit down first. I had it up so high the other day I could see the road down through my fork tubes...and I was still accelerating just a little. I only float in and out. As soon as I can balance it out on every sit down...I'll move to standups. Later--bladerunner