Wheelies Round 2: Power to Clutch, or shifting?

[notabikeranym...]

tl;dr: Understanding power wheelie limits now, do I keep doing powers and learn to shift w/ quickshifter, or start learning clutch wheelies?

So I've been practicing power wheelies for ~2 months now and I'm able to chase them out in 1st and 2nd gear consistently until red line (I drop them relatively gently before hitting the limiter, getting good at that now).

I'm working on making them higher at the moment, second gear is much easier for this. Got a couple of questions. Does more height = longer wheelies? I feel when they're higher, I can carry them for longer, but I'm not at balance point and I'm very much still chasing them out.

Me two months ago would've seen me now and been satisfied/impressed but I want to level up because this has become a massive addiction.

The thing is, with first gear power wheelies, to get a good smooth longish power wheelie I gotta blip them at about 30-35mph. Anything less and it struggles to come up resulting in high revs when I'm up, and anything more and it's really twitchy plus the revs are already high when it's up there.

With second gear powers, I start those at about 70mph (or 8k RPM+) and have to quickly on/off the throttle and then rip it back, otherwise I get no lift at all. Same issue, I'm always at high revs when the front reaches a decent height.

Can't get any lift trying power wheelies in third gear, so didn't even try.

Do I continue with power wheelies and learn to shift with the quick shifter/try to get them higher, or will learning to clutch it up at a lower speed in the same gear be a better option?

Also, why do you prefer powers or clutch ups?

Clutching it feels completely alien to me still. I'm not scared of doing it, I just REALLY couldn't get any lift last time I tried it (though that was over a month ago).

I'm no longer afraid of the front end coming up at all anymore, so maybe it's time to make the switch? I heard you can pretty much do these at any speed, so maybe it'll help me do third gear ones that I can carry for longer?

End goal: Want to carry wheelies for longer, maybe learn to do it in 3rd gear.

[Sister Sledge]

Have you dropped it from a wheelie yet? It kills the addiction!

Personally I do both methods and it really depends on the situation. Might be just a tad too fast to power up and a tiny bit of clutch is called for.
I once had a (slightly tuned..) Yamaha YB100 that I could wheelie from power in first and keep it right around the balance point but accelerate and go right up to the top of the gearbox (4 speed). Practice makes perfect.
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CCM 404 DS

[G]

The higher the wheelie, the less extra power needed to keep it up, so the longer you can go.
To the point of course that at the balance point you no longer need any extra power to keep it at a stable attitude - and past that you need need to be reducing the power for the same.

I'd say; Clutch up, maybe in 2nd so it's a bit smoother. Because it gets it up quicker, this gives you more revs to play with to fine tune the height.

Of course usual caveats apply; the closer you are to the balance point, the less stable it is and the closer to 'danger zone' you are.

[stevo as b4]

I've never liked the term power wheelie, as I think to many people it means releasing the clutch and then pinning the throttle open and waiting for the front wheel to float up under acceleration.

I think of wheelies from an off road technique style where its all about loading and unloading the front end deliberately which is what lifts the wheel.

Either way if OP wants long wheelies, he needs to get the front wheel up at low speed, maybe 10-20mph, not trying to keep it up at 70-90mph revving to the red line.

[notabikeranym...]

Cheers for further advice fellas.

Ok so yesterday I transitioned from power wheelies to clutch wheelies in one night, and my god now I completely understand why people prefer clutch wheelies.

Where I'd have to get to about 70 in second gear to lift the front I can now do this at 40mph (or just any speed) and carry them twice as long.

I think I get it now. I'm re-addicted, this time to clutch wheelies.

Hopefully there won't be a looped my bike thread in future but this whole learning experience has been fun. Took around 2-3 months of solid practice from not being able to lift the front and now I'm clutching in 2nd and holding for plenty long.

So if anyone's looking to wheelie and stumbles across this thread in future, if you learn progressively and have a 1000, it took me about 3 months to go from aggressive fork extensions to long enough second gear clutch wheelies.