Wheelies have been a recent obsession of mine and i'm finally getting good enough to feel comfortable keeping it right in the sweet spot for a mile or so. The balance point on my TE449 is much further back than on my KTM which leads me to see how far back you can actually go before you go over backwards. To reach full 12 o' clock and stay there is my goal. Can anyone here do this? It seems that once you get to about 11 o clock any throttle at all sends you to far back and you have to hit the brake in a panic. Dragging the rear brake so you don't need much more brake input to bring the bike back down when you need to seems to be the key.
dude more power to ya, I hit the panic button when my wheel is no more than a few feet off the ground.
My 310 doesn't have the low end grunt to pull low speed wheelies like a bigger bore would. Probably because I am biggish (230) but it will crank the wheel up in first/second at higher revs. It makes it harder for me to keep the front wheel up and balance at that speed. It's a work in progress with this bike. Not sure how the Rekluse I just installed will affect the wheelies but I am hopeful. It's always nice to have the ability to loft the front wheel at will to traverse various obstacles.
That kind of 'can' action is enough to scare many of us well before that 11 oclock move ... Can that be fixed? Bikes all muddy so at least you were not on the hardtop? -- The wheelie is high on the list of essential trail\dirt bike moves .. Probably not 11 Oclockers though ... Looking at that pic, you might try moving your body closer to the bike and or even move just head forward if you want more ... Seat bounce it ... But be careful the first time ... If you want speed, pump the throttle at some point and pop that bike into the next gear ... You'll either drop the front wheel or your wheelie-ship has arrived ... And there is the coolest of all trail bike wheelies .... The stand-up on the pegs wheelie ... Just bounce on the front forks if needed ... I gotta bring back the stand-up wheelie ... It feels safe also ... -- OOPS -- Just read you have a rekluse ... I'm just learning to use mine and you can be a even bigger wheelie monster but the seat bounce might still be needed ... Not sure how it might work with your size ... You can be a low-spd wheelie monster with that device.
If its absolutely a goal to learn 12 o clock wheelies, turning up your idle is a huge help. I dont do this and 12 o clocks never really made me giggle. But all the parking lot stunt guys crank up the idle on their bikes and use handbrakes for the rear brake...except for some old school guys like Gary Rothwell-who was sick! For "fun factor" I prefer to do wheelies coming out of corners when the bike is sideways (supermoto or sportbike). Or clutching a wheelie up to the perfect spot in a matter of seconds and then just sitting back and going thru a couple gears.
When I am DSing my TE511 and see a long uphill I like to rip long 5th gear stand up wheelies. Can carry them a long time. Thats about the extent of it for me. My Te511 is a wheelie machine.
Its great so far, the power increase is exactly what I was looking for to make this bike super fun! I really like the throttle response and the power while very powerful is not to abrupt and is controllable. Still have not had a chance to ride it as much as I would like. Only at 182 miles so far
Watched Shane Watts do slow wheelies past 12 o'clock then tap rear brake back to balance point and continue. Seriously, he must of gone to 1 to 2 o'clock position intentionally. Scared they heck out of me just watching lol.
ive done flips and taken the back end from my bikes, my clutch control and throttle control need a lot of work. 12oclock? i probably manage 9:47 before i reach my talent limit.
FYI that whole "not enough power" thing is not valid, Ive watched kids all over Italy ride scooters and even super low power 50cc mopeds down the streets for blocks on end, solo and 2 up on the back wheel.
