I am not a jackass, but....

I'll just come right out and say it. I want to be able to to do a wheelie on my xj750j but I can't. I'm not a stunter, or anything and I do my best not to give bikers a bad name with wild and inconsiderate driving. I'm very careful with the laws of the road and the law of stupid. I have all the regular family guy responsibilities (two, soon to be three kids), so I am very careful not to injure myself, or any other motorists. I grew up on a farm in central saskatchewan. Farm kids rode bikes for two reasons. To get off the farm and into the air. Y'know, have one or both the wheels off the ground as much as possible. With the right dirtbikes wheelies are easy. I can still hoik massive wheelies on my yz250. And there are times in town when you can tell the coast is clear and conditions are safe, and that front wheel is just crying out to lift off. But with that big four right behind it it kinda wants to stay put for me. Any suggestions? Am I alone? does this just make me a jackass like the guy who passes me on the highway on the rear wheel of his sportbike?

 

Interesting. I'm not a highly skilled rider but I would have though the 750 could pull the wheelie. I know I've had a couple "spirited" launches on my 650 that briefly raised the front tire before dropping it down a second later. I would think that with effort it could be done. Not that I'm planning on doing it however.

 

You expect it on a sport bike.. but, it just looks funny on these old bikes... looks like you're trying too hard

 

I think you'd have to have it tuned to the razors edge, and sit as far back as possible. The bike has lots of power and torque, but its also very front heavy. It's basically made to not be able to wheelie.

A sport bike is half as light, has twice the power and will basically stand on its back wheel for the fun of it. Your XJ is at best only going to lift the wheel an inch or two for a split second.

 

Nothing wrong with a wheelie! I ride dirt bikes, too. It makes me a better road rider, imho. In fact, my brother remarked one day that he could tell I was a dirt bike rider (this after seeing me spin the tires, power slide around a corner and pull a wheelie on my HD). There are big differences and you can get into serious trouble, but I'm pretty tame. Low speed, low risk stuff. I'm into torque and acceleration and corners, but not into super high speeds.

Haven't tried it on the XJ yet. But I regularly pulled small, short-lived wheelies on my Harley. I don't have the faith in the strength of the Yammy yet and don't want to abuse it to the point that it breaks, especially since it's my only road bike in the stable right now. Abuse. That's pretty much what you have to do: commit and don't baby it. Start out by just getting the bike rolling, like you're pulling across an intersection, then pull in the clutch, mash the throttle and pop the clutch. Actually you kind of roll on the throttle very aggressively and release the clutch swiftly. It's quick, but not like an on/off switch. One way I got started...there was an intersection on my way home to my old house. It was crossing the "main" street from a side street so there was a slight crown in the road at the center of the intersection. I'd start to roll through the intersection and time my clutch-mash-release movements to correspond with my front tire hitting the peak of the crown in the road. Never failed to launch a nice powerful wheelie! I LOVED my 1200. What a sweet muscle machine it was. *sniff*

 

It`s hard to do because of the shaft drive. You have to really have it screaming before you dump the clutch, I must warn you they land real hard because the motor is so far foward............

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXZLuCtl6Qs could be a chain drive though....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0A72dpd ... re=related that one isn't for sure.

 

Exactly. You need a relatively high torque-to-weight ratio (which most XJ bikes don't have) to control a good wheelie, and the tendency of shaft-drive bikes to lift the rear end under hard accelleration doesn't help. Buy a chain-driven torque monster if you want to show off. XJ shafties weren't built for this purpose.

 

Put a fat chick on the back.

 

Funny you should mention that. My cm400t would wheelie with my ex-wife on the back. There's joke here about a prefered ride, but I'll leave it alone. I still have the 400 though.
It sound a little bit abusive to the machinery. and I watched those vids, the front end does slam down. Thanks for the tips. I'll maybe keep the wheelies to the YZ, and use my street horse power more wisely.

 

...I concur with Ronnie, the shaft drive and the transverse mounting of the engine were specifically designed to spread the torque evenly; also the anti-dive forks are very heavy on the SECA... One of the greatest bikes ever produced but heavy and a bit cumbersome...

 

+1

 

07spacker - Oh, my achin' forks! That bike hits hard.

That is tough on the old parts. As a kid I did wheelies on all my bikes until the forks broke and my dad freaked at about the fifth or tenth welding job and stopped the my silliness. One fork rebuild every few years is all I can stand, let alone a self-induced one. Eeek!

 

The fat chick will do it for sure.

 

i could wheelie on my 550 just fine but its a lighter bike,
but it took some practice and a couple light bulbs before i was able to smooth it out.

 

The steel frames, forward engine mounts and the Bikes weight and Center of Gravity pretty much keeps the front wheel right down on the pavement.

If you have it Tune-up Lean and are getting the most powera that the engine can develop, you have a chance at lifting the front up off the pavement for a sneeze-hop wheelie.

When you get it all tuned-up and ready to try for a rear-wheel festival ... have someone videotape it.

You are going to find out that the Gyroscopic Forces of the Crank, Clutch and Middle Gear are going to be tough to control without the front-end down on the blacktop.

It will ether be:
Exciting and a thrill to see someone doing the wheelie ... or, ...
Funny ... and maybe worth $10,000 on Americas Funniest Home Videos, or
Tragic ... and be played over and over on YouTube for some reason, huh?