How to wheelie an SV650s, by G

Just to make this clear, this is a long post, going through the basics.
It is not for people who can already wheelie (as I presume people would have worked out).

I wrote this on another forum after I'd been asked by a few (and happen to be riding an SV at the moment), however thought some here might like it ...


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.

[Red ones]

Yeah I'm not reading that.

Roll along at about 15-20 mph, pull clutch in, rev to about 5,000rpm, dump clutch, control with throttle.

Then stand up, do it from a standstill, give the peeps a wave and laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C38NGtXMkZA

NOTE TO ALL: POWER WHEELIES SUCK THE BIG ONE.

You left out the bit about the noise your engine makes when it gets starved of oil !

Only when you leave the oil too low for wheelieing. Now it comes with added smoke when you overfill.

HOLY CACK, THE RARE AND ENDANGERED LESSER SPOTTED SVBIRDTHING!

Damn, that's a hell of a long explanation.

I'm not suggesting it's entirely risk free, however with a little common sense the risks are very low

I'd disagree with that. Risks are always high when stunting.

Centrifugal forces keep it going in a straight line and there's no front wheel to make it turn in odd directions

I'd disagree with that also. Balance and position is what keeps it in a straight line. And it's actually quite easy to drift one way or the other.

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.

Questionable.

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.

Questionable again. Clutch wheelies are by far more easier to control. Power wheelies can go wrong very quickly indeed. I would say that clutch wheelies would be the safer way to learn.

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.

The SV is easy to wheelie. It's not down to the power output of the engine, it's down to the torque at the lower end of the rev range.

Sorry, couldn't be bothered to read the rest of the post to make any more comments.

I'm sure there is useful information there to help the inexperienced start having a go should they wish to. But the above points caught my eye as soon as I started to read it.

Added to the bookmarks

Right, some more long-winded waffling...
Maybe I should have made it clearer that this was a guide for people that could not wheelie and wanted to do so, but were a bit aprehensive about it.

I, rather foolishly perhaps, presumed it wouldn't interest those already could wheelie, or didn't want to - and those that aren't so aprehensive and do want to would have either already tried or needed a more indepth guide.

Didn't go into further detail after the basics as I thought I'd waffled on quite enough!

However, I did ask for comments, so suppose I was 'asking for it' as such, I suppose .

Roll along at about 15-20 mph, pull clutch in, rev to about 5,000rpm, dump clutch, control with throttle.
.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C38NGtXMkZA

Fine for some one that's confident doing them or has looked around.
Not great for people that have tried that and either not liked the quick bang up or who it generally doesn't work for.

Oh and I couldn't be bothered to watch all your video, but from what I could make out in the dark, the wheelies didn't look too great :P.

I'd disagree with that. Risks are always high when stunting.

I don't why they it should be higher risk than normal road riding when starting out.
I agree that as you start to push it more, it does become more risky.

I'd disagree with that also. Balance and position is what keeps it in a straight line. And it's actually quite easy to drift one way or the other.

At a decent height, yes. But in a lower wheely while still accelerating quite hard (guide only covers starting out, remember) I don't think this is the case.
If anything it's fairly hard to change direction under such situations I'd say.

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.
-
Questionable.

Depends what you consider a 'spirited ride' probably .

Questionable again. Clutch wheelies are by far more easier to control. Power wheelies can go wrong very quickly indeed. I would say that clutch wheelies would be the safer way to learn.

Appreciate you hadn't read it all, I do suggest people move onto clutch wheelies once they have got the basics 'feelings' of a wheeling - can hold a basic wheely stable for a bit at a not too high height.

I've seen quite a few people get a bit scared with the sudden hit you get from a clutched wheelie and have prefered a gentle lift to get used to the feeling.
I do mention that a power wheely starts slowly and gets quicker as opposed to the opposite for a clutched wheelie.

The SV is easy to wheelie. It's not down to the power output of the engine, it's down to the torque at the lower end of the rev range.

Not everyone finds it easy. That's why I wrote this in the first place - as I had been asked by several people that didn't.
The SV has got a broad range of power/torque, but still not a lot. Power makes for easy wheelies. I'd say it's a hell of a lot easier to wheelie a sports 600+ from the last eight years or so than an SV. You have a much bigger range of decent power to play with.

Note that I didn't say peak power specifically (I appreciate that a lot of people do presume peak power when 'power' is mentioned and spread of torque is presumed when 'torque' is mentioned) - and while it's got a decent range of power/torque, as standard it's not that great compared to many.


See you're both local to me, maybe we should have a cheesy american film style 'stunt off' to decide this as a just-as-useful alternative to the traditional punch up to settle arguments .


Comments about oil level etc is a good point as I did this guide in relation to the SV - though another thing for those doing more than the basics.


For the record, while I'm not that great at wheelies myself, I can do them to some degree; at the moment, I'm playing to get the first gear balance point. Second gear I'm ok with.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Davido

Only when you leave the oil too low for wheelieing. Now it comes with added smoke when you overfill.

That's not a cure, it just helps- a long wheelie's still pretty likely to starve the engine.

I stopped at the lights the other day with my wife riding pillion. A souped up Ford Escort had been tail gateing me for miles in traffic. I was very annoyed. I decided to take off quick when the lights turn green so as to get rid of the neusance. I twisted the right hand hard and let go of the clutch sharp. The front wheel went up and I just got... erm scared.

This had never happened to me before. Maybe it was the added weight of my better half (Hope she doesn't get to read this). Well in that moment I thought shutting down the throttle isn't a good idea so I kept my hand steady and just shifted my weight that bit more forward and the bike went down nice and easy. It was like a plane doing a smooth landing. Really nice.

When we got home my wife was grinning like a cat. No wonder I married that girl She told me it was all very exciting but to never ever do that again whilst she's riding pillion. I told her ok dear but said nothing about it being accidental Nothing wrong in ignorance I guess.

But seriously, its not a good idea to do dangerous stuff when other people are involved. Mine was simply an accident. Bikes are dangerous in themselves, we don't need to turn the odds more towards disaster.