What do you do if you wind up on one wheel?

Ok so I went to the store for bread for my kids this morning and on the way back somehow I wound up on one wheel scraping the sissy bar on the road and then dropping my bike. (this hurt more than me hitting the road, I am fine by the way) I admit I panicked when the wheel went up, I pulled in the clutch and hit the kill switch, I still wound up scraping the sissy bar and wrecking stuff. Any help on accidental raising would be appreciated. This was the first time the bike ever lifted off the ground.

Thanks
given another Chance to live...

 

More details please............

 

XJ 550 maxim left the red light at 2.5 rpm letting out clutch then for some reason the suddenly jumped way up did'nt see how high rpms went just heard the the sudden race tried to pull in the clutch but was already up in the air before I new what was happening, felt sissy bar hit the road, and my head, somehow managed to turn of the engine and let go. Scared the begeesus out of me. now I have this damage I will have to repair. I will swap my other engine in in the mean time.

 

Oh ya Drove it home like this but didn't it didn't race again, ran smoother than ever, go figure... Or i was just that shook up...

 

Lifted the front once in 1986 with my XJ550 trying to see how fast it would do zero to 60 by dumping the clutch with revving. Didn't tip over backwards as I backed off throttle and leaned forward. Scared me to death. Last time I tried that stunt.

 

Ya I hear ya, always liked doing it on my ten speed, and on my banana seat bike, but I have never liked the idea under engine power. Now that I have done it totally accidentally I really don't like it. I will still say bravo to those with the guts to do it, just not for me... I still don't know what happened I have been driving this bike for over a year and never had this happen, the closest to this was a couple inches when I first got all four cylinders running, and that scared me, but I kept it under control, and that was fall of 2014...lol
I will say I picked up the bike today right away started it again and road it home. After a really quick once over. only had front brakes because the back break was jammed into the clutch cover.

 

Clutch control. Practice more, so you don't pop the front up unexpectedly.
Doing it on purpose actually takes a bit of effort, since the goal is to not slam the front end down right away.
Once it is up you balance with the throttle. Gently (barely) dragging the rear brake brings the front down, as does slowly rolling off the throttle a little. If you have the space the front end will come down naturally as your speed increases and gravity overcomes the twist at the rear wheel.

 

Not me! Too old and to me it's unnecessary abuse of the machine. Glad you survived it.

 

that must have been quite a loaf of bread

 

The bread made it without a scratch, and the kids had sandwiches for lunch. Scratches on the sissy bar and crushed my exhaust, but no damage anywhere else. I will be going over the frame with a fine tooth comb once I get the motor out just to be sure.

 

Glad to hear your ok. When I rode dirt bikes and I would do some wheelies I always hit my front brake to come back down.

 

Good to know. but I will never do it on purpose, like tabaka45 said " Too old and to me it's unnecessary abuse of the machine." But I will happily watch others...

 

Did it work? And wouldn't that possibly cause the front end to twist when it hit the ground?

 

Only been riding for year and half. so new to this in some ways.

 

Yes it works. You don't hold the brake the whole way down.

 

That is good to know. thank you very much guys, I will drill this into my head so I never forget. Hopefully I will never have to use it though. Kind of like insurance good to have but you never want to use it... I like both tires firmly on the ground...

 

Wait.. you mean rear brake?
And you probably don't want to apply brake on front wheel while coming back down.
I never imagined you could wheelie an 550 and actually flip it.

 

I've seen many smaller bikes flipped off the line due to poor throttle and clutch handling. Tried to teach my roommate to ride my RM250 about 18 years ago, fLee out from under him and he was still just standing there. Lol.

 

You apply the front to initate the front-end drop. Slowing that gyroscope causes the inertia of the wheel to transfer to the frame and drop the front end.

 

yeah what k said.

 

Interesting, didn't know. But this still wouldn't do much if there is still power to the rear.

So I read this thread several times looking for the cause: was it rider's error or something wrong with the bike?

 

Rider's enthusiastic error.

 

I got on 1 wheel the first week I had the xj. This was my first bike and I pulled up to a four way stop and tried to wait for everyone to go through before proceeding. Unfortunately, one guy insisted that I go first, so I tried to proceed but stalled out. Got her started again and stalled out again! This time I wasn't stalling out so I gave get a good amount of throttle and let loose. I probably got 3 inches off the ground, but it felt like I was riding 12 o' clock with fireworks going off and eagles soaring overhead. I was in second gear....

 

Bike ran fine home, still not sure how I screwed up but anything is possible. Stated disassembling the bike Friday for and engine swap, will know more tomorrow, hope to get to working on it some more.

 

Stupid not being thorough enough error while working on the bike is what caused the problem. Piece of rubber had got caught in the throttle making it nice and stiff, Found this piece of rubber stuck between the throttle assembly. I saw it fall in the week before,, but when I peaked I couldn't see it so thought it fell out behind the platform into the dirt. Didn't check properly, didn't need the piece of rubber. I assumed it was gone from my light peak. Well it seems to have made a real ass of me this time. Mistake I haven't made when working on an engine sing I was 16... As Red Forman from that 70's show would call me "Dumbass" and I thoroughly deserve it. will not make that mistake again. So K-moe you are right Rider Error..

 

Oh boy. But at least you didn't get hurt....

 

Nope, just my pride. And to think when I was a teaching assistant in an automotive shop I used to lecture kids on making sure they always found every piece before moving on, if they could see me now the fun they would have, even though it was 26 years ago...

 

Been there. Done almost that.

I was the safety officer and lead technician at a former employer when I crushed my hand in a machine that I was working on. So much embarassement....

 

Started the tear down and got the engine out today, would have been much easier with two people. tomorrow I will start the part transfer from one engine to the other. Here are a couple pics of what she looks like now. The Motor going in is from my other xj550 maxim I was going to start building this year. here is a pic of the motor where it sits in a pile of parts.

 

When you go to put the engine back in, lay it on its side, and lay the frame down over it. Set the bike back up after the mounting bolts are in. Super easy one-person job.

 

Finished going over the frame today, no cracks or twists found, so I think its good to go. just have to clean the other engine and swap some parts over and hope it works. It was stored in a closet before I got it, so here's hoping. The plan was to rebuild this one over the summer at first now it will be the original that gets rebuilt.

 

The other factor is weight.... Had 120 lb kids trying to wheelie there R6 with no luck , they could only spin the tire. I being in the service dept at the time had them ask if there was something I could do to the bike to fix this? I said let me run it up the street to asses the problem . A light tug on the bars with a flick of the wrist and up it came and a click into 2nd gear and slowly settle it back down
Nothing wrong with your bike your just not fat enough! ... More burgers and fries will help.
(Ps I was tipping the scales at just over 200 at the time)

 

Finally! My gut has a purpose! Now when people ask, I'll say it's wheelie ballast.
Real men weigh 200 pounds.

 

SCIENCE!!!!(physics too)

 

Unless your under 5'5"

 

Well finally got around to putting my other engine in, Started up with just my 4 into 1 headpipes installed but When I install the crushed muffler, there doesn't seem to be enough flow, have to look and see if I have an original in my stack of boxes somewhere, Hope so I would rather run original exhaust anyway. the supertrapp sounded to racey anyway...lol