There's a lot of folk not impressed with wheelies but can you do them. I've never been one for wheelies. The two that I have done have been total accidents.

When I had the Yam RS125, when it was new, back in 84. It had highish bars which made the front end light, it was fine with one person on the bike but two up it would lift easily.

When we finished work at night, the blokes with bikes would give their mates a lift to the factory gates, so that they got a head start for the bus queues. I had a mate on the back one night and as we pulled away, we bumped over a ridge of broken concrete, it must have been about 3" high. The front end came right up, so I'm trying to get the front end back down and my mate is hanging onto me and pulling me off the back of the bike. The two of us sh!t ourselves. Needless to say, I changed the bars for flat ones.

About a year ago. I was waiting at a junction for a gap in the traffic. A cage driver slowed down a bit, which would give me enough time to get out. So as soon as the gap came, I shot out and gave it a handful to get up to the speed of the traffic. I also gave a wave to the bloke behind, who had let me out. So my weight was not over the front of the bike and accelerating hard, while holding on with one hand. Up comes the front of the bike. Okay, it was only inches but I wasn't expecting it. I'd hammered the viffer before and never once had problems with the front lifting. So it was yet another butt clencher.

But that is all the experience I've gained of wheelies and both were butt clenchers.

I used to do them on my Hustler but I was only 18 back then. If you pulled off up to about 20 mph then closed the throttle and snapped it back open the front would come up a treat.

One afternoon I left work and there were all the girls from the payroll office at the bus stop just past the traffic lights. So I pulled away and as I got level with them I snapped the gas off and on and............... bus stops are always covered in oil and diesel aren't they?

I went past them sideways doing a very good Ivan Mauger impression.

Never done one since. It's not big and it's not clever

I can do them easy, the Raptor is very good at them, all it needs is a little over-exuberance on the right Paw...






.... but its NEVER intentional (especially the one off the lights on my advanced training day! )

back in about 1986, i had a GSX-R 1100 (mid/late twenties i would have been.)
i tell you this to explain my actions-it was one of the 1st 1100 up here & i quickly discovered that once run in, it would wheelspin & pull a wheelie going down the local bike shop nirvana that is Westgate Hill.simply roll off the throttle in 2nd, then snap it open & the back end would spin up, grip & send you skywards.once i had perfected the technique i got bored with doing them (&was always a bit embarrassed when i pulled up outside a shop after doing one)
apart from the odd power wheelie on the ZZR1100(going over an uneven B road whilst "making progress" can be lively to say the least) i've never conciously tried to pull a wheelie since the GSX-R
corse i'm older & wiser now.

I've got a great tip for doing wheelies......
























buy a fecking uni-cycle.


next week i'll be covering doughnuts............

















in sugar...

LOL- talk about P.M.S.L

No but I can get my knee down...... and my leg........... and the rest of me....

Simple for you isn't it BG- you just take your bionic leg off and put it on the floor while you hop around the living room trying to find the remote.








Not that I'm mocking the afflicted of course

Bikergran laughs at knee downers! Ha! They dont get there pelvis down theyre nothing!

The last intentional wheelie i did was on me trusty old 600 radian. It was to impress my brother and i used the clutch in quickly at thirty mph - clutch out quickly while winding it on method and it worked a treat. Brother didnt kow i was going to do it and fell off the back so all in all it was the last intentional wheelie and i wont be doing any more!

Unintentionally i have had the front wheel off the ground plenty of times with big zeds but its only and inch or two when gunning hard like dp says when you gun a zzr1100 its very difficult to keep the front wheel on the road.