Wheelie School

I know, I know, she never said the spic stuff.

She finds it difficult to talk with her mouth full.

 

Eh? You said you were making her a cup of tea earlier, not a full
English.

 

If you'd said it 'felt' like the bike was balancing then we could've
gone onto discuss what a choppy throttle feels like when the wheel's not
too high and how the brain makes things feel much higher than they
really are and how that's much better than the, thankfully rare
occasions, when someone is actually much higher than they think they
are.

But instead you have claimed twice that the wheelie was balanced. There
is no room for discussion there as, as far as you're concerned, you're
right and I'm wrong because you were there and I wasn't.

Where is the room for discussion there?

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
POST PRODUCTION http://www.iq18films.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

And I thought no-one read my posts

You need to get out more!

 

I hang on your every word.

Well I washed my bike today[1]. Does that help?


[1] This is a lie, I spent the afternoon trying to fit a bluetooth
carkit into my car and finding ther's **** all room to get the loom
thing behind the radio. Rather fucking galling in my behemoth of a car.
*sigh* this probably means that I need to think hard.

 

You need to chat to Champ, he fitted a car kit in his Saab and connected
it into the radio loom and it's just brilliant. Well impressed, I was.

 

Are you really that stupid?

The guy was fucking crashing - only luck meant he didn't smash himself
into the floor.

But keep telling yourself that you're right and I'm wrong...

Now, if I'd posted in a thread that I'd done a track day on a restricted
CBR600 and got within a couple of seconds of the lap record, what would
the reaction be?

That's right, single word replies such as bollocks. Or I'd be called a
liar or a fucking idiot.

You're claiming to have done balanced wheelies on a bike that's
specifically set-up to stop the bike getting too high. So, what replies
should you get? And then when someone who actually knows what he's
talking about says it's not possible and you say he's full of shit.

What does that say about you?

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
POST PRODUCTION http://www.iq18films.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

Veggie Dave says...

I think that you two have different ideas as to what constitutes the
balance point.

 

I'm not sure how to put this politely.

" "

 

There's only one balance point - oddly enough, it's when the bike's
balanced.

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
POST PRODUCTION http://www.iq18films.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

Veggie Dave says...

You've been there and stayed there, the only time I came close was when
I used to flip my KE175 when trying to learn how to wheelie. I find the
front goes very light and starts to come up a lot faster, almost like
the rear wheel is really trying to catch the front up, but I don't think
that's the balance point, that must be further up. I don't think I've
ever held a wheelie at anything higher than 45 deg, and even then not
for very long. My best ones were on the XR400R and the Gixer thou.

 

Ah. TOG, obviously.

--
platypus

"Merely corroborative detail, intended to
give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise
bald and unconvincing narrative."

 

Okay, that's caused by too much throttle that's not fed in quick enough.
That may sound a little odd, but what's happening is that you're feeding
the throttle in (with or without the clutch) just fast enough for the
front to lift, but you're then dialing in loads of throttle to gain
height to where you think the front wheel should be - except it takes
the carbs a second or so to catch up to the throttle position, but when
they do, it allows the bike to suddenly accelerate a lot quicker than
you want it to and that causes the front to suddenly rear up at you.

This is also true to FI bikes.

Now, this is the hard bit. What you need to do is feed the throttle in
quicker, but using a lot less of it. It's not how much throttle you use,
but how quickly it's fed in.

Your aim should be to lift the front wheel *smoothly*, to a height
that's just slightly lower than where you want to be. You then feed the
throttle in very, *very* smoothly until you reach your cruising height -
it doesn't matter if that's a couple of inches off the floor, or with
the bike completely vertical, the technique stays the same.

At no point do you blip or chop on the throttle. This is the most
important thing of all. Any blipping or chopping only leads, sooner or
later, to one thing - crashing. Nothing other than a perfectly smooth
throttle is acceptable ... ever.

Also, when you're launching your wheelie, the only thing that should
move is your right wrist (and clutch fingers, if you're using it). Any
other arm movement at all is not acceptable because it's not safe.
Anyone watching you should see no movement at all - it should look like
the front wheel has lifted without any input from the rider.

Why? Because to the rider it will feel like they're being
ultra-aggressive with the throttle, but because their arm's also moving,
what happens is that the wrist can't open the throttle as quickly as
it's capable of. Arm movement always results, within a couple of wheelie
attempts, in excessive amounts of throttle being used.

Apart from the arm movement always resulting in the 'bars being pulled
slightly, the main problems with it are that not only does the rider
have little control over how much throttle's being used, but eventually
they'll feed the throttle in quick enough for the wheel to lift, but
they've taught themselves to immediately dial more throttle in straight
away during their previous attempts so they'll do it this time, too.
Except the front's already lifting when they give it another big fistful
of throttle - and that results in the double lift effect that you
describe above.

When you're practising, your goal is never height (until you're at the
stage where you're specifically looking for the balance point, anyway).
What you're after is smoothness. If you're smooth, then you're relaxed.
If you're relaxed then you're in control of the bike and, most
importantly of all, you're in the perfect position to stop/spot anything
going wrong.

Once you get to the point where every wheelie is perfectly smooth at a
nice low height, then you can start to slowly increase the length of
your wheelie. Going for length while always staying 100% smooth means
you attain height without trying. Go for height and what happens is you
go straight out of your comfort zone and that results in one thing -
choppy throttle.

What's happening is your self-preservation kicks in and that makes you
close the throttle whether you want to or not. But when you drop back
into your comfort zone you try and save the wheelie which causes it to
rise quickly ... straight back to where your self preservation kicked in
a second ago. So, what's going to happen? Yep, you'll close the throttle
again. And you'll stay in that loop until you either crash or run out of
revs.

Either way, you're not in control, you're a serious danger to anyone
around you and, as is fairly obvious, moving on to other variations will
not be possible as you're being flung around. Just imagine taking your
left hand off the 'bars, or standing up, for example, when the bike's
being ridden in that way...

If you feel yourself going to chop or blip the throttle, never mind
actually doing it, you should put the wheel down immediately. There's
only one mindset to the whole thing - if it's not right, put it down.
It's only a wheelie, and definitely not worth dying for.

The balance point is when the bike's sat on its rear wheel and not
accelerating - in fact, if you drag the rear brake slightly, the bike
will actually slow down. If you don't have to look directly upwards to
see your clocks, then you're no where near it. What you're describing is
the upward momentum being stronger than the amount of engine breaking
available. That can happen with the front wheel just 2 inches off the
floor.

Too violent a launch or chopping on the throttle causes it.

You hear lots of riders claiming to have hit the balance point because
'I closed the throttle and the bike just stayed there.' That's not the
balance point - that's the bike rising with more force than the engine
braking can initially overcome. In other words, cack-handed choppy
throttle.

If you're at the balance point, and got there smoothly and in control,
then the front will drop the second you shut off in exactly the same way
the wheel drops when it's 6" off the floor when you're smooth.

As I've already said, a 45 degree wheelie is still a damn good wheelie
and something to be proud of.

The problem with wheelies is that people seem to let their egos take
over, as though doing a wheelie is somehow special. The honest truth is
that they're fucking stupid, incredibly dangerous and people take them
too damn seriously. What's odd, though, is the more you let your ego
take over, and the more seriously you take defending that ego, the less
safe it makes you.

I see it all the time, but I suppose it's no different to people
thinking they're faster than they really are. You just have to hope they
learn their lesson before fate takes over their education.

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
POST PRODUCTION http://www.iq18films.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

Nice phrase.

Who did you plagiarise it from?

 

I woke with a start this morning realising you'd snuck that in and I'd
not spotted it.

Bugger.

 

Dunno, but it can't be me...

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
POST PRODUCTION http://www.iq18films.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me