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Charlie is very good at it though !
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Charlie is very good at it though !
He'll come off though, you wait.
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Oh he has - big style. He's a generally good role model though. Worth you watching the "Race to Dakar" DVD - he paid the price. Old and bold still hold true.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_gXPCMUDw
Check at 3:00. The camera bike is travelling around 270km/h (170ish mph) assuming the accuracy of the speedo.
Considering the bike passing on the left is a turbo-charged Hayabusa (capable of 200mph in standard form with a midget riding it), I assume it's fairly genuine.
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>>> Charlie Boorman does it in his programmes..and it irritates. <<<
WP, it usually irritates those who can't do them:)
Pat
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WP it usually irritates those who can't do them:)
Very true Pat as it happens in this case....but like anything in life, you only get good at things if you practice them...and if you can't see the point, you don't bother in the first place.
I'm sure when my mate and I spent days on end racing around his dad's 200 acre farm on trials bikes when we were kids, we could easily have mastered it...but i'm not convinced i'd see the need to do so on a public road.
It's the same with 'stoppies'.
.*********
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It's the same with 'stoppies'.
Stoppies can go wrong in much the same manner as the wheelie in the original post. This is Niall McKenzie and is very amusing.
tinyurl.com/yfp6zbg
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I think the Niall McKenzie clip says it all, really.
Compared with 99.9% of riders on the road, McKenzie is a deity of machine control, don't forget the guy is a multiple British champion and a GP winner. But even with his skills, he still gets it wrong.
Stunting on the public roads is stupid and dangerous. Full stop. And no, I'm not a bike hater, I've been riding bikes for 28 years, and I still have a bike.
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I don't 'get' the wheely fix that some feel the need to keep doing.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one; it annoys me too, at least the show-off part of it does.
Leaving aside all the predictable gags about Harleys being unable to pop a wheelie anyway (not true, simply that their riders generally grew out of doing it) as a young squaddie back in the late 1970's I was lucky enough to be put through what was then termed "Police Basic" arranged by our RSM after a spate of fatalities at the camp. It was drummed into us that wheelies were for posers and if we wanted to do them, fine, but never on the public highway. When the front wheel is in the air, you're not in full control of the bike, simple as that.
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Just finished reading Charley Boorman's "Right to the Edge" funnily enough. Quite good. Read it while taking 16 hours to fly from London to Italy the other week :-( Another story. I like reading travel books while travelling for some reason. Plenty of wheelies mentioned therein.
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A few months ago I was overtaken by a rider on one of the race rep sports bikes complete with pillion passenger perched on the back. It was on a narrow, twisty country road and he overtook on a short straight stretch where there was no chance of overtaking in a car but a bike was safe, given that you went really quick. This rider pulled out, overtook three cars and then pulled a wheelie half way through the overtake!
Of all the places in the world where you could be, sitting on the tiny perch on the back of that bike was right at the bottom of my list!
I really enjoy Charley Boorman's programs and have the Race to Dakar DVDs. Also enjoyed the two By Any Means programs.
Race to Dakar DVDs are only £4.99 on HMV at the moment.
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Unbelievably, you have clowns like these contributing to the safety and reputation of motorcyclists -
www.iwanttowheelie.co.uk/
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The VFR800 ride I currently have has a recognised tendency to be made to pull wheelies very easily in most gears. I haven't managed or wanted to - what struck me was how primitive the front end is compared to the BMW set up.
The overtaking biker may have accidentally pulled a wheelie - easy if you are inexperienced and have no "feel" fro your front wheel.
Agree with RR re that website.
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The overtaking biker may have accidentally pulled a wheelie - easy if you are inexperienced and have no "feel" fro your front wheel.
Yes it could very well have been accidental on the part of an inexperienced rider. But it was a really tight overtake and I just felt for the pillion clinging to the tiny perch on the back of the bike !
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I thouht the whole point of the way motorcycle licences are issued now was to ensure that you did not get inexperienced riders on powerful machines.
Does that mean he was unlicenced or an idiot?
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I and 3 others went to do this "course" for a day, a couple of years ago at Long Marston, Stratford upon Avon. Having never done a wheelie in my life I was a bit nervous but I have to say, the whole day was great fun. No one had an accident and everyone enjoyed it. Of course none of us was as good as the instructor, who at the end of the day offered to take anyone who wanted on the back while he performed a wheelie.
Two or three had a go including me, and believe me, this guy was in full control of his machine, unlike the riders in some of those videos.
He got the bike up onto the back wheel with me hanging on tight at not much more than walking pace and went the whole length of the runway/strip and back and then did a stoppie at the end for good measure.
Must admit though, I have never been tempted to try it on the road by myself though .
BTW, for those interested, all done on old Fazer Mk 1 600s.
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>>>BTW, for those interested, all done on old Fazer Mk 1 600s. <<<<
Good for you Mr T!
Pat
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believe me this guy was infull control of his machine
Sorry, he wasn't. To be in full control means that you have the ability to steer the bike and that means having the front wheel in contact with the tarmac.
I do however agree that it is a skill worth learning, like skid-pan training, and for the same reason, to teach you what to do in the event that it does happen to you. Having briefly owned a 750 Kawasaki triple in the late 70's I had to learn the hard way; clutch on said bike would have made an excellent bear-trap, and coupled with the light-switch type power delivery made for interesting take-offs on occasion!
BTW, did the instructors stress that this is something that should NOT, under any circumstances, be done deliberately on a public road? Good on you for resisting the temptation though.
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To be in full control means that you have the ability to steer the bike and that means having the front wheel in contact with the tarmac.
Got to disagree with that one a little bit. Not a normal example, but one of those at the leading edge of bike control like the motoGP riders - they often lift the front wheel while still leaned over coming out of a corner. The gyroscopic effect of the spinning front wheel still controls the bike as a whole.
ISTR that stunt rider who does the 5 mile wheelies used an electric motor to spin the front wheel while it was up up the air
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"Sorry, he wasn't. To be in full control means that you have the ability to steer the bike and that means having the front wheel in contact with the tarmac."
Have a look at some videos of Steve Colley on youtube and try and find one with him riding without a front wheel or forks ! and then tell me he is not in control.
Well OK maybe not FULL control but it is quite amazing what he does.
I saw him at the IOM last year at the TT
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Point taken..... but try explaining that to a traffic cop and see how far it gets you.
I'm not against riders pulling wheelies on the racetrack, and I admire the skills of stunt riders; I simply think there's no excuse for doing it on the public highway if the intention is merely to show off. You wouldn't accelerate a car hard without having your hands on the steering wheel, what's the difference?
I'll stick by my original statement.
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Unbelievably you have clowns like these contributing to the safety and reputation of motorcyclists - www.iwanttowheelie.co.uk/
Speaking as a non-biker, isn't this a bit like skid pan training for car drivers? Ie. it's not generally a good idea to go hanging out the tail of your car on normal roads, but learning to do it and control it in an appropriate environment improves your driving skills on the road?
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Speaking as a non-biker isn't this a bit like skid pan training for car drivers? Ie. it's not generally a good idea to go hanging out the tail of your car on normal roads but learning to do it and control it in an appropriate environment improves your driving skills on the road?
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In theory.
In practice it encourages Direct Access bikers on machines that are already too powerful for them to act like idiots on the roads they share with the rest of us.
Unfortunately motorcycles have largely turned into expensive toys for middle aged men whose experience is gained by riding 750 miles a year on sunny Sundays, hence the obsession with wheelies, stoppies and getting your knee down.
With apologies for those on here who I know are experienced and responsible bikers. And I am not anti-bike, having owned many myself and even earned my living on one for a few years.
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At the Kendal Mountain Festival last Friday I watched 'One crazy ride'...Guarav Jani and 4 friends motorbike trip to NE India. No film crew or back up. He rode a Royal Enfield. Gorgeous scenery and insight into life in an amazing part of the world. As a non biker I considered it one of the films of the festival, well worth a look at.
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As there was no film crew you went to India to watch this motorbike trip live?
Confused easily ;>)
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