A while ago, while I was driving across the state with my friends, we saw two guys on sport bikes (I don’t know what kind, but apparently they were fast). What they were doing on that copless, long strip of highway was my idea of “nuts”, but it’s probably a major thrill too.
They would pop up their front wheel and hold a wheelie while STANDING UP. It sounded like they were speeding up for it too. They would hold it for sometimes ten seconds. My friends and I were watching this, waiting for them to eat it. There was also a car next to them that was videotaping their insane riding.
WHAT IS THIS TRICK CALLED? It’s gotta be incredibly exhilirating. Too dangerous for me though. I know you can buy motorcycle gear that, when you eat it, will chemically melt into an unabrasive material and protect you like virtual armor, but SHIT. What a risk.
Standing up on the pegs? On the seat? I always called it “popping a wheelie”.
If you’re riding fast you’ll want a one-piece suit. They make Kevlar, but most people use leather. Suits are made to accept “armor”. These can be textured rubber pads that offer some protection against impact, or they could be foam backed nylon shells that protect better against abrasion. Armor fits into the elbows, knees and back. Maybe other places, but I know those for sure. As long as you don’t hit anything, you should be okay up to 150 mph.
Sadly, my current bike does accellerate fast enough for wheelies. (Actually, it does. I just don’t want to stretch the chain any more than I have to.) But I used to wheelie all the time on my Enduro.
Rider X is cruising along at 70 mph. He pre-loads his wheelie, increases his speed about 10 mph, and pops up into a 60-or-so-degree angle, holding that position, while at the same time standing up on the pegs (if pegs are where your feet are rested while riding casual). Rider X’s body is now hugging the bike while it screams down the road. All of the drive is coming from the rear wheel, which is all that’s touching the ground.
It basically looks like a bike standing on it’s rear wheel with a rider hugging it. Going very very fast.
what you saw was a wheelie and the inverse is an endo or stoppie. You didn’t know what a wheelie was?
I just saw tape of a dude doing a wheelie and got his bike past top dead center and then hit the back brake to swing the bike back over to normal wheelie territory. He was sitting the whole time. I don’t know what that’s called but that takes guts… as in takes your guts and smears them on the pavement!
Sport bikes are indeed the ultimate experience. Nothing, that I have done compares. And it’s not “crazy” it’s ballsy-ass riders, get it right.
get ready for this, its called…
a stand-up wheelie, or a “stand-up”
use: “I went out on the interstate to practice my stand-ups”
more wheelie terminology:
clutch-up–to begin the wheelie by blipping the clutch(as you are accelerating, you would grab and release the clutch around 6-7K RPMS, and when you let it back out, the front end pops up
power-up(or roll-on wheelie)–just yanking the throttle and bringing the front end up. May be precipitated by slightly rolling off the throttle first to compress the front forks
To get 600cc sportbikes up, you generally have to clutch them up. R1’s and GSXR1000’s can generally be powered up, even at 50-60mph(assuming you are in a low enough gear).
there are alot of videos floating around showing various stunt teams doing 1mile+ long wheelies, and stringing together tricks.
I don’t get into the whole stunt scene, but to each his own I guess.
There’s an American guy (who’d a thought it?) with a turbo charged GSX who follows the Superbikes and probably MotoGP around the world doing this sort of stuff. I first saw him in Oschersleben a couple of years ago where he entertained the crowds between races. For him, wheelstanding was just his way of moving from trick to trick. Burnouts and doughnuts while standing next to the bike, handstanding on the tank whilst moving at high speed, pulling stoppies whilst sitting on the bars. Lucky bastard gets paid a LOT to do it too.
That Brazilian stunt rider takes some emulating, he put the wheelie, then puts one foot on the the grab rail the other on the footpeg, and stands up with his arms stretched out sideways like a crucifix, still wheeli-ing.
There are also “12 o’clock” wheelies, where you launch the bike from a slow speed or a stop, into an immediate wheelie…you allow the bike to go straight up (12 o’clock), until the tail end taps the pavement behind you, then you tap the rear brake, which flops the front end over and back down.
Bah. Rear wheelies are for sissies. I’ve seen people do wheelies on the front wheel. I’ve seen videos where they do that for many seconds at a time. And I’ve seen a video where one guy doesn’t make it, and wipes out $20,000 of bike all over the road.
My bike is a mountain bike; it goes over curbs and gives me exercise. It does not do wheelies.
