Harley wheelie

[aostling]

I have never seen such a heavy bike doing a wheelie. How did this guy get it up?
'

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/56zYIFErokA

[chipmaker4130]

Death wish

[mochinist]

This company contacted us awhile back about building their "scrape plates" they sell to people that like doing this sort of thing. I couldn't buy the titanium cheap enough for what he is selling these on his site, so didn't work out. Anyways he showed me a bunch of videos like what you shared, pretty nuts.

https://www.instagram.com/scrapecity/

[QSIMDO]

He wants to change his fork seals.

[LKeithR]

He wants to change his fork seals.

And probably his shorts--that's just typical biker stupidity...

[I make chips]

It's not that hard to do. Those hardleys have zero horsepower but have huge flywheels Clutch in rev it up and clutch away ya go. Once it's up it takes very little power to maintain a wheelie. +1 on fork seals!

[A.K. Boomer]

Ehh - hate to be a buzzkill but im calling AI on that lol for one he's going way beyond going over and the only thing to stop it would be rear brake action and ehh look at his rear brake foot, nothing going on at the time it needs to be,

using the throttle? yeah but the sounds don't match saving his bacon either...

[aostling]

Ehh - hate to be a buzzkill but im calling AI on that lol

I suspect you are right, and I am now sorry I posted it.

A giveaway is that when the bike is close to vertical there is no indication of the rider sliding backwards, or bracing himself.

[Ian B]

It's probably real. Dumb, but real. The saddle looks like it has a sort of hook profile, which would account for him not sliding down (backwards), my Kawasaki 900RS has the same. Not that I plan to do wheelies anytime soon.

There are even instructional videos on how to wheelie a Hardly Dangerous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmS3...nnel=brian_636

Wheelies are controllable, to a degree. Here's one of a rider who did a lap of the entire Isle of Man TT circuit on one wheel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCDS...ullMotorsports

Ian

[A.K. Boomer]

Wheelies are very controllable --- I could ride one indefinitely on my old Nishiki sport road bicycle --- around turns and whatever, but you find the sweet spot and you stick there, with very little deviation,,, this guys bobbing back and forth between going way too far and not far enough would be the sign of a total newbie and there's angle of degree's that are pushing it way to far beyond without drastic measures to save it,
keep in mind like a classic harley rider the guys built like a toad, look at the angle with all that in mind "hanging off the back" ,,, then also the "convenience" of the cop going bye at the end?

Im sticking to the AI and in fact we've been seeing computer enhanced AI stuff for decades but it's about to get a whole lot worse due to many of the new breakthroughs in fact the good stuff will be near impossible to tell....

It would actually take about 5 times the skill level to ride a wheelie like the guy in the vid, and what for? the skilled guys only use it when they have too knowing bobbing back and forth like that is high risk, the skilled keep it on the edge and smooth it all out...

So who knows, maybe they did catch a total newb on the ragged edge and a cop going past at just the right time to make it look so crazy... or more likely someone actually really experienced making it look ragged edge on purpose and a staged fake cop...

im only giving that less then a 5% chance due to the angles being seemingly off...

[Doozer]

My first thought is the poor oil pump is sucking air,
even though I think Harleys are dry sump, but still.
I think of oil starvation every time I see those skid
steers pulling tricks videos too.

-Doozer

[Michael Edwards]

More AI for you Boomer.

You are right, It does take more skill to wheelie like he did. It is amazing what can be done on a motorcycle.

[A.K. Boomer]

That's got to be one of the best ones iv seen, the guys a jock and for real, some of these stunt riders are more comfortable doing that kinda stuff on their bikes then they are walking...

If the harley vid is real then it's all staged and the guy is making it look purposely wobbly and out of control... for all the crazy stuff the guys doing in the stunt vid he's actually executing it with way more control then the harley guy...

[old mart]

The old U frame Honda 50's could do spectacular uncontrolled wheelies if you did not understand how the automatic clutch worked. The centrifugal clutch locked with increased engine revs, but had an over ride connected to the gear change pedal to make gearchanging smoother. If you pressed the gear pedal into first when stationary, held the pedal down and revved the engine, the centrifugal clutch locked and engaged as you took your foot off the gear pedal. I did not try this more than once.

[I make chips]

To avoid (minimise) oil starvation, the stunt riders on sport bikes just overfill them by 2-3 quarts or enough to keep the oil light out in prolonged wheelies.
Dry sump bikes seem to scavenge ok and are not a problem.

Balancing it when it goes over 90 degrees is the fine art and just backing off the throttle will get it to come down.
*add that finesse to the list of things I'm not that good at.