Problem with wheelies.

After reading a few things about the SVa dn people on here telling me about the apparant problems with oil, or a lack of it getting to the front cylinder and it blowing. Because my bike has developed a little rattle which I'm praying isn't one of my cylinders giving up the ghost already.

If anyone uses their bike for showing off, has this been a problem for you or have you found that provided you're not wheelieing everywhere 24/7 its wasn't a big problem?

Any advice would be appreciated as I'm not too keen on blowing up my bike!

Thanks a lot.

EDIT: Sorry if this is the wrong section, we need a 'technical problems' bit.

The problem will stem from the oil pickup in the sump, stick the bike at too high an angle and the pickup will no longer be submerged in oil … consequently the pump will not be able to supply the moving bits oil … the engine will not last long in this state …

With this in mind it depends on angle and duration of your wheelies … how high and far are your wheelies?

yes idd it depends on the angle and duration of the wheelies....

Now i did power wheelies (1st gear) over a distance of +- 80M and about 2 O'clock (angle) i need to know that too, can this type wheelie already effect the oil consumption or pick up?? !!

now on an stunt site, they told me that SV's in general are ****y bikes to stunt with cause of the many oil starvation probs they have, there was a guy who stunted his sv and ****ed up his engine after only 35 min. wheeling the bike (long wheelies) !!

another guy (who was sponsered) ****ed up 5 engines in 1year ! ! ! on a curvy 2002 also cause of the wheelies

Now some say that short wheelies doesnt seem to be a prob but you have to stay in low revs? any1 who can confirm this?? or you have to put another oil pump in it or something like that....

oh yeah ratteling noises arent good (especially if they come from beneath your tank !!) ! ! ! i heard that to and 15min later my bike was totaly broken down ! (1800euros costs!)

You want to do long wheelies buy a fireblade and flat bar it. Everybody I've ever spoken to who has blown an SV engine has been a wheelie merchant.

ratteling noises on the sv could just be the cam chain, mine rattles abit now with only 6000 miles on the clock. they all rattle abit.

It is the position of the oil pickup/strainer that is the problem, you could try and calculate the angle by knowing the position of the pickup (it is roughly in the middle of the sump) and the oil level. But this doesn’t account for any swishing/slopping of the oil …

It goes without saying that damage will occur if oil stops flowing … your oil pressure light will be an indicator that there is no oil circulating (i.e. the pickup is running dry).

I’d say that if the oil light isn’t coming on then there really shouldn’t be that big a problem … as for time till death when oil light comes on and if any damage might have occurred before the pressure is so low the light is activated, I’d not like to say …

The revs thing goes without saying … firstly the volume of oil being pumped/required will be less, and the stresses in the engine will be less. But this is masking a more fundamental problem …

Another thing to consider is that the vertical distance from pump to the cams on the front cylinder (furthest point) will increase with the angle the wheel is off the ground. So even if oil is being pumped, the front cams will be getting slight starvation.

Varying degrees ranging from 5-12 o clock and lasting no more than say 100m at a time. Revs do hit the limiter a bit but I am now starting to stayat around 9-10k and hold it on the bp.

Blazingsvbiker: You on about stunlife by chance?

Yeah I do have a rattling noise, but I was banking on it being the cam chain rather than my big end just on the brink of an explosion.

Cheers for clearing this up and not making any 'well its a stupid thing to do' comments. Its most appreciated.

Originally Posted by Davido

Varying degrees ranging from 5-12 o clock and lasting no more than say 100m at a time. Revs do hit the limiter a bit but I am now starting to stayat around 9-10k and hold it on the bp.

Blazingsvbiker: You on about stunlife by chance?

Yeah I do have a rattling noise, but I was banking on it being the cam chain rather than my big end just on the brink of an explosion.

Cheers for clearing this up and not making any 'well its a stupid thing to do' comments. Its most appreciated.

Well, from an engine point of view, high wheelies for the aforementioned reasons are going to be putting your engine at risk, if not to explosion, to premature cam wear. How much is hard to say. That said, I doubt 100m wheelies will cause too much of a problem, that is unless you do them consecutively. If you were one of these guys that can run on the rear wheel for miles then I’d say you had a problem

It might be worth your while wiring up a big red light, perhaps a buzzer too to the oil pressure switch, if this goes off, however cool a wheelie it is, it is time to back off and put it down Also make sure you oil is always filled to the max, this will give you the largest wheeile angle before it runs dry.

Thanks man, that's a good tip.

I'm probably gonna be naled to the wall for this, but where's the engine oil fill up on the sv? Same place the dipstick comes out of?

I would normally know, but my old bike had it under the seat nowhere near the damn engine.

Cheers again.

idd, under the little head of the dippstick, you have to unscrew it and then you can fill up the engine with oil ... till the "full" level marking on the glass

What i would like to know is where is the little screw, i have to use to let the old oil flew out of the engine?, i know its somewhere on the bottom of the engine ...

So i can can conclude that power wheelies (max. 100m) arent dangerous for the engine?

btw: yeah that sytem with the extrra warning tight is great idea !