How to wheelie an SV650s, by G

[G]

As usual, a rather rambling post, written in snippets over a month or so...

Are wheelies dangerous?
(For those that are worried that they are.)

Personally, I'd say you are much more likely to crash your bike riding on the road ‘normally’ than starting out practicing wheelies, if you are sensible.
If you've chosen a suitable place to practice, the fact your front wheel is on the ground isn't a problem, as there will be no oncoming cars and such like.
A bike in a low wheelie held up on the power is naturally very stable. Also, big throttle movements make relatively less difference throughout a low wheelie.
Centrifugal forces keep it going in a straight line and there's no front wheel to make it turn in odd directions.
Initial wheelies will usually see your body thinking the bike's much higher than it really is, making your right hand a very good 'wheelie cut out device' that stops the bike flipping way before it could happen.

I'm not suggesting it's entirely risk free, however with a little common sense the risks are very low.
As you progress and start doing higher wheelies, nearer the 'balance point' there is more risk, but then you wouldn't decide not to go for a ride on the road because you saw a BSB racer crash their bike during a race.

As with any riding, of course you should make sure your bike is in a good condition. Providing your bikes in good condition, you shouldn’t put any parts through too excessive wear from starting out doing wheelies in comparison to a spirited road ride.
Also, as I re-iterate a few times, the old mantra of ‘get faster, slowly’ – don’t take big jumps, make sure you’re happy with the level you are at before you try and push it a little further and you will be fine.

How to wheelie an SV650s

I'm often asked 'how do I wheelie' - not because I'm any good at it, more because people don't know anyone that's better!
Those who have asked me before will know I usually recommend clutched wheelies. So why do I here first start advising people to do power wheelies?
While the technique isn't as good for prolonged wheelies, it is an easier 'introduction' to wheelies. A clutched wheelie should come up quite fast initially, then slower as you fine tune your attitude. A power wheelie will come up quite slowly initially, then speed up the rate of ascent as you get higher.
So for the beginner getting used to the feeling and not trying to wheelie for several miles, I'd recommend starting on power wheelies to get an idea of how it feels before progressing onto clutched wheelies.

Definitely find a nice straight road with a good surface and little traffic. A local industrial estate or business park is often a good choice.


My bike is a standard 99 model SV650s with 21k miles on the clocks.
An unfaired bike or a tuned, downgeared or newer one should be easier. Do be careful and as ever progress slowly; for instance my 72hp race bike will quite happily hit me in the face in first without really trying when I have the lowest gearing on it - much more of a problem keeping the front down on a race start than trying to wheelie at the end of a race!
If you're unsure, be a bit gentler with snapping the throttle on, however you should be able to start slowly and fairly quickly build up until you get the desired results.

Less fuel in the tank means less weight to lift, so best to try with a fairly empty tank; though this is still perfectly achievable with a full tank - when I was doing the 'research' for this the tank was pretty full.


Getting it up
Especially on the fairly lowly powered SV, body position is important - your body pushed backwards can be the difference between it coming up or not.
So you need to be sitting far back on the seat and despite me normally shouting at people for having straight arms when riding - this time your arms should hardly be bent at all - so that your upper body is pushed back as far as possible as well.

Before you've started the engine, I'd suggest you get into this position with your feet on the pegs (remember to make sure the sidestand is down first!)
While the engine's not running, you've also got a chance to practice your wrist-action! While sitting in the correct position:
Hold the throttle about 1/2 open.
Quickly close the throttle to fully closed, then 'snap' it fully open.
Do it a few times to make sure that you can do it snappily - it should almost look like a twitch of the hand.
Also make sure your hand is comfortable in the fully open position - You don't want it too contorted at the position you need to hold it during the wheelie.


Now, on your nice stretch of straight road:
Adopt the 'sitting back' position.
Accelerate briskly to 4500rpm.
As the tacho goes past 4500 rpm, close the throttle quickly, then snap it fully open.

If it all happens right, the front wheel should slowly rise into the air as you accelerate forwards.
Keep the throttle open as long as you are happy with the bike staying up.

The first few times you may want to close it soon after the front lifts - try and increase the amount of time you hold it open for each time.

Most people's natural reaction is to close the throttle when they feel themselves too high, which brings the bike down quickly.

As you get a feel for it, have a play around with what revs you are starting to pull it up at.
For writing this, I was looking at the tacho, then looking up as soon as I reached my desired RPM and snapping the throttle closed then open. As you get used to it, you should be able to do it by feel - obviously it's best to be looking at the road all the time, rather than initially staring at the tacho.

If you're having trouble with this, first have a look at the 'Troubleshooting' section. If none of that helps you, move onto the 'Clutch wheelies' section. Clutched wheelies are a better technique, but aren't quite as friendly for your first few forays into one wheeled wonder.

What goes up must come down
The trick here is to bring it down smoothly.
Most probably, your first few attempts won't be too high, so will come down quite gently.

Do make sure the bars are held straight, although I haven't had a problem on the SV, coming down with crossed up bars can lead to wobbles or tank slappers in extreme cases.

As you start to get higher, you may find the front comes down with a bit of bang. Do this a few times and it's no worse than riding over some bumpy roads. Do it hundreds of times and you're not going to be doing any favours to your fork seals or head bearings.

First thing to do to prevent this is to bring the wheelie down before you hit the revlimiter - also good advice to keep your engine running as it should!

So now you're making a conscious decision to bring the front down.
To do this you can roll off the throttle for a moment, then bring it back on to at least the same point you had it before.

However, while this is the method I use at the moment, I would recommend that you tap the rear brake.
When doing wheelies, especially experimenting with higher wheelies, it's always good practice to have the rear brake 'covered' so that it can be used if you suddenly find yourself a little too high.
By using it to end your wheelie, it will hopefully become second nature that when you want to lower the bike, you use the rear brake.
In most cases, you can keep the throttle held on, or even open it further to slow your descent.

A throttle opening that would hold you steady at your chosen attitude will see you descending slowly when your front wheel is a little lower. The lower you get, the more throttle is needed to keep the front up, so I will often dip the throttle then find myself opening it fully for a graceful descent on the SV.
However, as with all things, increase the throttle used slowly - get it at just the right point on a downgeared or more powerful bike and whacking the throttle open without knowing what you're doing could see you back up very high very quickly.


Keeping it up
As the SV isn't that powerful, trying to keep a power wheelie up when you're not too near the balance point is a bit harder, so I'd suggest you have a look at the "clutchin' it up" section first.

Once you're happy with the feeling of the front wheel coming up, the next step is to be able to sustain the wheelie at your chosen height.

The ideal we are looking for here is to have the front wheel held a certain distance off the road throughout the rev range.

Once you reach your desired height, you will need to let off full throttle, leaving the front wheel floating.
However, it's quite likely you will let off too much, sending the front gently downwards.
To counter this, you can then bring the power back on a bit. This may well leave you with a bit of a 'see-saw' effect.

As the SV650 is quite low powered, you will most likely soon be approaching the redline.
As mentioned before, It's probably worth taking a look at the "clutchin' it up" section if you find you are running out of revs too quickly - this will give you a bit more room to perfect your techniques.

Try and smooth out the action while you practice to prevent the 'see-saw' effect; as you get used to the feeling you should be using smaller throttle movements and fine tuning it so that it's a lot smoother.
Once you've got the hang of this, you should be able to get the bike to sit at a fairly level attitude until the revs start to run out.

Once you can happily sustain a desired height moderately smoothly, the next step is to prolong the wheelie further. If you are riding out the wheelie until just before the red line there's three ways you can achieve this.
You need to either start the wheelie at lower revs, get it higher or change up a gear.

Getting the wheelie higher is the most 'technical' way and the most useful skill to have.
Get a wheelie high enough and you're at the 'balance point' - the engine should stay at a steady rpm to hold the height. Keeping this position will mean you can wheelie on for ever. It's also the start of the road to being able to do '12s', 'circles' and lots of other interesting variations.
However, I'd suggest you not try this high until you're more experienced.

Starting the wheelie earlier may help you to get it higher, as it gives you more room to fine tune your height. As you get a feel for your bike, you may be able to bring the front up on the power a bit earlier, however using the clutch is going to be a better way.

Going up through the gearbox on an SV needs to be done at a decent height in the first place.

A good way to give your self plenty of room to play however, one way to make it a fair bit easier is to clutch it up in second gear. Once you've got the bike to a moderate height in second gear you've got a relatively wide rpm range to play. Too low, though and you'll find the bike doesn't have enough power to hold it up.



Progress slowly

Power wheelies in brief:
- Accelerate broskly from low revs.
- At 4500rpm Snap throttle off then fully on.
- Hold throttle open, then smoothly ease off to keep bike at desired height.
- Modulate throttle to keep desired height.
- Bring down before red line by pressing the rear brake, keeping throttle open.

- Keep it smooth
- Clutch Wheelies
- Increase height



Clutched wheelies
This is the preferred method for doing wheelies - it gives you more revs to play with, which allows you more time to get to your desired height and keep it smooth as well, of course, what every man wants - to keep it up for longer - or was that what the women want the men to do?

As with everything else, progress slowly.

Starting with first gear clutched wheelies.
As with before, I'd suggest you practice a little with the engine off.
This time, the left hand; you need to be able to ping the clutch out.
Harder than it might sound, we need the clutch to jump straight out unaided, rather than being 'let out'.

Start with two fingers on the clutch, two on the bars; hold the clutch in so that it's just before the biting point, but don't worry, you don't need to be too accurate!
Rather than letting your fingers out in the line of the lever, lift them upwards.
I have heard of some people putting a bit of electrical tape on the lever where their fingers rest, to make it a bit easier for the fingers to slide off

Alternatively, if that isn't comfortable, you can just let the clutch out normally, but very quickly.

It doesn't really matter how you do it, providing you can do it quickly and comfortably.
However you do it, the clutch lever needs to pop out un-restricted.

As well as with the engine off and the bike stationary, you can practice this while riding normally - if you're keeping a constant speed and not going too fast you can practice twanging the clutch out while you're going along (no, don't try this while maintaining a steady 45mph when filtering around a corner in a busy London Rush hour, though!)

Now to make this flick of the clutch do something useful, we need to throw in some revs.
The ideal is to make the whole process one fluid action.
So, clutch in rev engine and dump the clutch as one smooth process.

It will take some time, but with practice it will come naturally.

Again, making sure on an empty and safe straight section of road:
Start going along at say 3k rpm, though this of less importance for clutched wheelies.
Pull the clutch in and rev the engine slightly more. Looking at the tacho will probably just distract you, but we're talking 1k rpm or less.
As one smooth action, let go of the clutch again as the revs start to rise. Keep on the throttle gently, so that you continue to accelerate.

What should happen, is, well, not much. At the least, the bike will hiccup and jerk forward slightly, at the most the front may pop up a little bit.

If you're comfortable with the feeling, turn your right hand a little bit more so that there's a few more revs.
Repeat using more revs until the front wheel has popped a respectable amount into the air.

As you are continuing to turn the throttle after you have dumped the clutch, the front wheel should float or continue to rise.
Now you can use the skills from the 'keeping it up' section to control your wheelie.


Progressing from here, once you're happy with the basics of clutched first gear wheelies I would recommend trying a clutched second gear wheelie.
On my stock road SV650s I go along at 3k - 4k rpm, rev almost to the redline and dump the clutch!
However, to find this ideal position, I of course started revving the bike much less - were I to do this on my race bike I would undoubtedly flip it!
So start small, and work your way up.
Remember to experiment with the revs you start at as well as how much you rev the bike, though make sure you start with a small amount of extra revs when you change the starting revs - starting a wheelie an extra couple of thousand revs higher or lower can make a massive difference!

A clutched wheelie doesn't have to reach your desired height straight away, it's often just enough to give you that few extra rpm to play with. There's no problem clutching up a small amount, then using the throttle to slowly get you to the height you want.
As you progress, you may find it better to increase the initial height to give you even more room to play once you get to the height you want.

Second gear wheelies on the SV give you plenty of room to play with height and smoothness.
Being faster the bike is also more stable and has a lower balance point, meaning that for the same height, your wheelie will stay up for longer.

Once you're happy with clutching it up in second, I would suggest perfecting second gear wheelies before moving on to the balance point in first or going through the gears from second.



Clutch wheelies in brief
- As one smoothly movement
| Clutch in
| rev (Starting with only a few extra revs)
| Clutch out
(Repeat with more extra revs until you reach your desired starting height)
- Keep opening the throttle to maintain or increase
- Modulate throttle to keep desired height.
- Bring down before red line by dipping throttle, then pulling on again.




Troubleshooting
"I can't get it up"
The SV seems to produce noticeably better power when up to temperature - so make sure your bike is properly warmed up first (which you should be doing anyway).
Though, of course, a few runs trying to do wheelies will probably get the temp up fairly quickly anyway, but better to start with gently ‘general’ riding.

Are you properly 'snapping' the throttle closed, then open again, or is it a bit slower?

It can be a good idea to get people to film you doing it - I was definitely surprised when I was first doing wheelies - the wheelie that felt like it was going to flip, so I brought it down; actually was only a couple of foot off the ground. This over-estimation does give you an excellent and very useful natural safety barrier to prevent hurting yourself or your bike.

To be continued….
If you’ve got any questions, think I’m talking crap, etc, feel free to reply.

[Squiffy_The_Wombat]

Top Marks dude thats great, im sure many an SV'er will be googling this and thanking you too!
____________________
Squiffy_The_Wombat
Eagles may soar but wombats dont get sucked into jet engines

[GearboxGeezer]

Well thought out and easy to read guide. Im very impressed a biker wrote this

[phantomtek]

[phk6]

good post G, ive read thru it even tho i dont have a sv650 and im certain my bike will not power wheelie, but i know it does wheelie (found out by accident on the 2nd day of having it by a lightly fucked up "gp" start off the lights with my mate lol)
and the only way ive got the front wheel up is by accident, coinsidently doing what i like to call gp starts, but its never come very high, so after reading your clutching it section im gonna give it a go.
____________________
Current .. 2008 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure ..
Before .. 2003 Yamaha Fazer 1000 .. 2004 Kawazaki Z1000 .. 2003 Suzuki Sv1000s .. 1999 zx6r Track Bike .. 1999 CB 500 Cup ..
/Phil

[extreme3d]

This work for pointy SV's aswell as curvy's???

[THCi]

Or, how about heavy (in comparision to flighty SVs) Bandits? Thinking that it will probably power wheelie, but at higher revs, thoughts G?
____________________
Past: GZ 125 K4 Marauder, VL 125 LC Intruder, FZS 600 Fazer. Present: GSF 600 N K3 Bandit, GSX-R 600 X(soon)
"We're not gonna die. We can't die, Bendis. You know why? Because we are so...very...pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die."

[alone]

How about us poor souls riding around with only 33horses between our legs, but the weight of 90odd?
Think it's still possible? Or wait till Nov when I pass my test for a second time?..
Whatever you say, I'll probably try it out tomorrow anyway, having a day off n all.

[Luke_Retrofly]

Or
Get an SV1000, put it in 1st and in pretty much anywhere on the rev rang rev the nust off it till you cant see road.

TBO its not that easy, im shit at em

Luke
____________________
Flounced - Long overdue
Fuck you bitch I'm in the top 10 list I can do the what the fuck I want!

[DucatiEVO]

Sounds better than a few 'proper' wheelie instructions I've read, nice one matey!


*goes off to flip bike*
____________________
aKa: Ducky

[Minty]

Excellent guide.

Must be made a sticky for future generations.
We must think of the children.
____________________
My fingers smell of your mum.

[G]

If you want to start on power wheelies on a different bike, try doing the actions listed at a few different RPMs - start at say 3k and work up, in 1k increments to 2k below the red line. You may be surprised what bikes you can get to power wheelie.
Obviously, on something like the legendry 98 R1 (which did have short gearing I believe) it may well hit you in the face if you try it in first with a decent snap of the wrist above mid-revs. However, even then, you should be ok starting at 3k and going from there.

If you think you’re going to be happy doing clutched wheelies, then start on them however. You may still have to play around with both the starting rpm and how much you rev the bike.

On faster bikes than the SV, you generally don’t need to do the accelerate-then snapping the throttle on and off – snapping the throttle on and off at a steady speed should be fine (always was on my 01 zx6 through a decent range of revs).

Yes, it should work on injected SV, though you’ll have to appreciate you’ll look uglier as you do it*.


So, for lower powered bikes (33hp, etc), if you’re happy to try clutch wheelies, do that. Otherwise, you may get some results if you play about with different points in the rev range to try power wheelies.
If even the clutched wheelies don’t work, then the probability is you’ve got the technique wrong . However, you can also try combining the techniques – accelerating, snapping the throttle off then using the clutch technique, however if you’re not used to the actions in the first place, this is a lot to think about, so might be worth waiting until you’ve got a faster bike to try.


A few people have asked about bandit 600s. I believe they should power wheelie, probably at a little higher revs, so just have a play as described above. Once you’ve got the general area, you may find that you have to ‘fine tune’ the revs you use. Hopefully you will soon get used to doing this by the sound / ‘feel’ rather than by looking at the tacho.

I would still generally advice it’s best to not start out doing wheelies on really low powered bikes, especially when they’re not too light with a reasonable wheel base and higher gearing (RS125, for instance).
Yes, it probably is possible to wheelie these bikes well, but only really for someone that’s quite skilled at wheelies in the first place.

There are some more suitable 125s, starting with trail bikes, then lighter and lowered geared ‘commuter’ bikes, but even then, you’ll still need to get quite skilled quite quickly – as we have seen from the broken foot of someone on here trying .


Cheers for the comments.
Would be interested to hear how it works, if you do go out and try – unless you flip it, then you probably didn’t listen to the ‘progress slowly’ bit – do please remember that .


* Actually I do prefer the looks of the pointy SV, but it seems it’s customary for curvy owners to insult pointy owners and visa versa .

[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi

[CoronaBoner]

Good read!

I have recently been messing about with my Mille, was going to ask you whats the best method of making a good power wheelie.

I am at the stage where I can roll on the throttle in 2nd and get the bike up, my problem is when I do this it makes me crap my pants, and I find myself hanging over the front end like a baboon.

Would dipping the revs then "snapping" it back on give me a better feel and more control, instead of just opening the throttle?

Also how hard did you find it to not to lean over the front end of the bike when starting out? this is my biggest problem I think.
____________________
2004 RSV Factory

Cluck cluck chicken

[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi
Obviously it comes up quicker, but you will be going at a slwoer speed, i hate roll on wheelies, your going to fast. Its just a matter of practis, still scares me, but not as much as it used to. The more you get used to it, easier it becomes.

Luke
____________________
Flounced - Long overdue
Fuck you bitch I'm in the top 10 list I can do the what the fuck I want!

[s143144]

taught this mit help as well

https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6656191590638402466
____________________
unleash the beast
if it has tits R engine it will give ya bother

[steveh]

i can get good wheelies on my cat, somtimes big and sometimes pretty long, just got to master the art of landing the buggers, done my wrist in once


steve.
____________________
Current : 06 Zx10r, 07 Wr450f SM, 74 850 norton commando, 63 bsa b40, 1962 Triton 650, 67 Triumph Tr6r, 1955 Triton 750, 1978 TY250E.

[G]

Corona:
I suspect part of the problem is that you are still accelerating quite hard.
Also, by just holding the throttle open, the bike comes up faster and faster.

I would try using the 'snap' of the throttle, so that it gets up a bit higher initially, then try and keep it at that height.

While second is smoother, I would generally reccomend starting in first, this way you're not going as fast and the bike's a bit more likely to go up rather than accelerate hard in a low wheelie.
So try and do the 'snapping' thing at fairly low revs in first - do remember to start slowly though; you've got a fair bit more power than an SV650!

Start by just doing little 'bunny hops' and then try and keep it up for a little bit when you get to a height you're happy with and go from there.

As for the leaning over the front, well, err, don't . It is a kind of natural reaction I presume, I used to find I was doing it to almost pull the bike towards me in quite high wheelies - while of course it just ends with it descending again.

s143144:
I can remember not being too impressed when I got that on a mag, but it doesn't seem to bad.
Watch this space for a slightly more 'technical' video that may appear in a few months along those lines

steve:
Remember, bring it down before the red line and that you often need to open the throttle even more for a smooth landing.

[palmer]

Good read.

You can wheelie anything, even if it makes you look a fool

[Rookie]

Excellent read G, I've been wanting a comprehensive clutch wheelie guide for a while, because frankly it scares me a bit. I don't like clutches, there's too much to think about.

[Jenks]

[THCi]

[steveh]

it was more of front wheel fires up, front wheel fires down, but it was on one wheel


even if my legs were hanging of the back


Steve.
____________________
Current : 06 Zx10r, 07 Wr450f SM, 74 850 norton commando, 63 bsa b40, 1962 Triton 650, 67 Triumph Tr6r, 1955 Triton 750, 1978 TY250E.

[Jackyboy]

this will be interesting on a gt125r.
it'll be like wheelying a cow!
*goes off to try this out - will report back later*
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Yamaha SR125 - Scrapped 13/06/2006. Hyosung GT125R - Totalled 18/11/2006.
Honda VFR400R NC30 - Totalled 09/02/2007. CBR600F - currently in 1 piece...

[palmer]

It will work mate.

Use your bodyweight alot, go as far back as possible. Only thing when i did that was i couldnt use the rear brake, so couldnt get any length on the wheely