A closet wheelie nut.

[Wag]

I was riding down the street with my wife the other day (she has a GS500F). We split traffic up to the light and as the light changed, we both headed on down the street. She had been in front going through the intersection and as we cleared the cagers, she moved over to the right side of the lane so I could move up next to her.

I was still in first gear and I don't recall the rpms but I hit the throttle pretty hard, juuuuuuust as I came up alongside her. As I hit it, the front of my 'Busa came up to about chest high and scared the pi$$ outta me which, of course made me roll right off the throttle and set it back down again, pretty hard, actually.

That wheelie came up before I even knew it and I didn't have the rear brake covered which was all the more reason to be terrified of the bike even more!

I don't necessarily ride like an old man or anything and I have had the front rise a inch or two off the ground from time to time but I've always been too chicken to try to wheelie this bike.

In retrospect, though, that felt damn good! The scary thing now is, am I going to go all stupid and start TRYING to do wheelies?

I tremble at the thought.

--Wag--

 

[DAB]

There are plenty of experienced wheelie'ers on this board, if you want to do it properly I'd ask for their advice or read their posts.

Please do it safely though, not down main street in traffic....

 

[jwcfbd]

That's what I did a few times. When I tried to rise the front wheel I couldn't do it. When I'm not trying to is when it would happen.

 

[MoosesBusa]

That's what I did a few times.  When I tried to rise the front wheel I couldn't do it.  When I'm not trying to is when it would happen.

Ditto. Even tried the second gear to 5K hit it get out romp it method. nothing. Looks like I need to sign up for the "how to wheelie safely" course. Is that offered by the MSF? I'll cruise to Daytona for that class!!!

 

[Tufbusa]

Your first wheelie does give you a little pucker factor. I remember my first one like it was yesterday! My heart was racing for the next twenty miles.

You were a long ways from being in trouble. You were more likely to crash by slamming it down rather than going over backwards. When you are in low gear, IMO you are wasting your time trying to cover the brake. You have so much compression on that busa, as you learned the hard way, all you have to do is completely close the throttle and she will come crashing to the ground. I hear lots of guys on here using that old familiar phrase "Be sure to cover your brake"! When in reality, if you loop your scooter, you will never have time to think about the brake, much less use it. You will be on your backside before you realize what happened. All I can say to the "Be sure to cover your brake" guys is "Good Luck"!

Your busa will wheelie fine in low gear but if you have stock gearing, you'll have to work at getting it up in second. The busa is really a pussy cat to ride although you can do wheelies on it, it's by far easier to learn on a liter bike like the GSXR1000 (My particular favorite), R1, ZX10 etc.

I can't imagine anyone owning a sport bike and not wanting to learn how to wheelie that puppy. It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys and is only intimidating in the beginning. With a little instruction on basics in the beginning and a summer of practicing, you'll be riding the rear tire all the way to the grocery store for a gallon of milk for the missus!

Now that you know the busa will do it in low gear, take her out on the backroads on a smooth surface and practice running her up to about 4K rpm's, dump the throttle and snap it open a short distance. Do this over and over again until you learn just how much throttle you need to bring the tire up a foot or so. Once you get comfy at bringing her up a foot off the deck, then practice on holding it there with the throttle and see how far you can carry carry the front tire before you run out of throttle. It's really fun and all it takes is practice. Doing a good wheelie is all in throttle control!

Have fun and remember, you don't have to crash to learn to wheelie. Practice, practice and more practice is the key and learning in little baby steps is the answer to doing it safely! I usually tell guys they need to practice at least an hour a day, four days a week to get good at it. More if possible. I can remember when I got really serious about wheelies, I would come home from work and even if it was dark, I'd take my bike out and practice. Sometimes I wouldn't get home until midnight and run a tank of gas out, rarely getting out of low gear!

Oh yes, drop your rear tire pressure down a bit for wheelies and you'll find it much easier. Maybe not so much on the foot high wheelies but as you learn to bring it up high, a tight tire with 40 lbs of air is very hard to balance. I would recomend dropping down around 35 lbs. in the beginning and as you get her up high, maybe go down as low a 30 lbs.

 

[shenoyp]

The first big wheelie is always a scary experience

Well, I watched this video clip onnce about how to do wheelies... and it says that, Instead of just cutting the throtle and slamming the front down, If you cut the throtel and then slightly rise it again... You will have a smoother landing. Never tried it... but just thought I'll share it with you

 

[Sgt Busa]

I was riding down the street with my wife the other day (she has a GS500F).  We split traffic up to the light and as the light changed, we both headed on down the street.  She had been in front going through the intersection and as we cleared the cagers, she moved over to the right side of the lane so I could move up next to her.

I was still in first gear and I don't recall the rpms but I hit the throttle pretty hard, juuuuuuust as I came up alongside her.  As I hit it, the front of my 'Busa came up to about chest high and scared the pi$$ outta me which, of course made me roll right off the throttle and set it back down again, pretty hard, actually.

That wheelie came up before I even knew it and I didn't have the rear brake covered which was all the more reason to be terrified of the bike even more!

I don't necessarily ride like an old man or anything and I have had the front rise a inch or two off the ground from time to time but I've always been too chicken to try to wheelie this bike.

In retrospect, though, that felt damn good!  The scary thing now is, am I going to go all stupid and start TRYING to do wheelies?

I tremble at the thought.

--Wag--

That is how I did my first wheelie.

Do not have the Busa broken in yet so I am not even thinking about doing wheelies with it yet.

 

[Pipefighter248]

Your first wheelie does give you a little pucker factor. I remember my first one like it was yesterday! My heart was racing for the next twenty miles.

You were a long ways from being in trouble. You were more likely to crash by slamming it down rather than going over backwards. When you are in low gear, IMO you are wasting your time trying to cover the brake. You have so much compression on that busa, as you learned the hard way, all you have to do is completely close the throttle and she will come crashing to the ground. I hear lots of guys on here using that old familiar phrase "Be sure to cover your brake"! When in reality, if you loop your scooter, you will never have time to think about the brake, much less use it. You will be on your backside before you realize what happened. All I can say to the "Be sure to cover your brake" guys is "Good Luck"!

Your busa will wheelie fine in low gear but if you have stock gearing, you'll have to work at getting it up in second. The busa is really a pussy cat to ride although you can do wheelies on it, it's by far easier to learn on a liter bike like the GSXR1000 (My particular favorite), R1, ZX10 etc.

I can't imagine anyone owning a sport bike and not wanting to learn how to wheelie that puppy. It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys and is only intimidating in the beginning. With a little instruction on basics in the beginning and a summer of practicing, you'll be riding the rear tire all the way to the grocery store for a gallon of milk for the missus!

Now that you know the busa will do it in low gear, take her out on the backroads on a smooth surface and practice running her up to about 4K rpm's, dump the throttle and snap it open a short distance. Do this over and over again until you learn just how much throttle you need to bring the tire up a foot or so. Once you get comfy at bringing her up a foot off the deck, then practice on holding it there with the throttle and see how far you can carry carry the front tire before you run out of throttle. It's really fun and all it takes is practice. Doing a good wheelie is all in throttle control!

Have fun and remember, you don't have to crash to learn to wheelie. Practice, practice and more practice is the key and learning in little baby steps is the answer to doing it safely! I usually tell guys they need to practice at least an hour a day, four days a week to get good at it. More if possible. I can remember when I got really serious about wheelies, I would come home from work and even if it was dark, I'd take my bike out and practice. Sometimes I wouldn't get home until midnight and run a tank of gas out, rarely getting out of low gear!

Oh yes, drop your rear tire pressure down a bit for wheelies and you'll find it much easier. Maybe not so much on the foot high wheelies but as you learn to bring it up high, a tight tire with 40 lbs of air is very hard to balance. I would recomend dropping down around 35 lbs. in the beginning and as you get her up high, maybe go down as low a 30 lbs.

Very well said.

 

[stkr00]

I personally like BOTH wheels on the ground. I used to ride wheelies on my Honda Hawk 400 leaving high school everyday, but that was 20 years ago.

I did what Tufbusa said, and went out on some backroads with the Busa and practiced. I wanted to know what it took, and how it felt when the Busa came up. It does take a bit of work to get it to come up with only using the throttle. When people say to bring it up to 5K then snap the throttle, that means to SNAP the throttle full open and hang on. It takes a second or two to come up, but then you just ease off the throttle a bit to control the height. I've never had it surprise me too much, but each time is different for me.

The problem (fear or respect) that I have, is that when you come up to 5K in first gear you're already doing around 40-50 mph, and in second you're around 70 mph. That's pretty damn fast to be on one wheel IMHO. The bikes I use to wheelie would only be going around 20-30 mph at about 45 degrees.

Practice so you now how it feels and what it takes, but no matter what, please be carefull. Don't ride any faster, or higher, than your gaurdian angel can fly.

 

[Wag]

Now y'all are just teasing me here!

Okay. If I decide to actually do it smart, I'll let you know. Otherwise, I won't bet doin' it at all.

And believe you me, I have NO desire to go try practicing wheelies on the city streets. That one was purely accidental.

I should note, however, that at least once a day, sitting at some traffic light, some cager is always begging me to do a wheelie off the light!

Imagine.........!

--Wag--

 

[Tufbusa]

If you really want to have some fun, make yourself up a black shirt with white letters accross the back "Will Wheelie for Boobs" and wear it down the freeway! You will get flashed by more women than you can shake a stick at. Most of which are between about fifteen and twenty five! It's a gas! But if you can't wheelie and don't produce, many will end up giving you the one finger salute :-)

Wheelies are fun as safe if you make them safe. I have probably done 25,000 wheelies over my lifetime and "Knock on wood" have never crashed doing a wheelie. I have crashed, but never doing a wheelie.

For those of you who fear speed on the rear tire?

?

Speed is really your friend when first learning. A wheelie at 40 mph on a tight tire is not very stable if you are up very high. Your scooter will be all wobbly and it's hard to maintain. However, once you get up to say 80 mph, your machine becomes much more stable. I do my very best wheelies at around 90 mph. I bring it up in low gear as that is easiest on the bike, as it comes up through about 10:30 I quickly shift to second then bring it on up almost to the balance point (At this time I'm doing about 50) I let the rpm gradually increase up to about 9K rpm then shift into third. At this point the bike is pushing 90 and with about 2mm of throttle bobing you can hold the rpm between 7 & 8 thousand turns and just ride as long as you like. This is easy on the bike as the engine is at midrange in freeload rather than near the top of the rpm range with no load.

If you want to do slow wheelies, it's almost impossible for one to learn on a fully inflatted rear tire. It's like trying to balance a skate board on a marble, it can be done but it's a tough chore!

 

[Lucky34]

There's two kinds of wheelies. The ones that come real high and you try to ride them out, or the Oh $hit! wheelies, where you DON'T want it to come up (don't mind if they do, though) but you're just accelerating too damn fast

 

[IL_BusaBoy]

I've brought the front wheel up a couple of times before, purely accidental. Don't know if I really want to do it intentionally on this beast.