Do you pop wheelies? I saw a Nightster at Bike Week popping them a lot. At the cost of damaging spokes, blowing fork seals and the chance of dumping my bike, I got the front wheel off the ground about 6 inches today just to see if a 1200 Custom would do it. Once was enough for me, sure a hell of a different feeling between going up on a crotch rocket and a Sportster.

 

Remember to ride it out and bring her down easy, it won't hurt anything.

I've done a few when out runnin with friends, No biggie

 

Yeah, but not intentionally. Ask 6066er, he broke his bars doing wheelies.

 

Cheap bars with crappy welds

 

Not entirely. Many people use the EXACT same bars and never have a problem. I just ride the **** out of my bike. I broke my primary cover, I've replaced 3 kickstand springs in 5 months, I already need a new rear tire after about 6 months. I also developed a new bad habit...I kinda like to get on it towards the end of a turn and get just a LITTLE bit sideways and throw some smoke. [sm=badbadbad.gif]

I also ripped a valve stem off a tube one time by rotating my rear tire on the rim doing wheelies. I tend to stand it up FAST.

Doesn't mean I stopped doin em. I'm not an *** hole about it or anything, I just LOVE riding hard. I'll also say this...doing them when riding in groups isn't a good idea...if anything goes wrong, you could hurt alot more people than just yourself. I may do some stupid **** from time to time, but at least I do it alone.

 

LOL!

The guys I ride with and Me, we are used to flying thru the air side by side. simple wheelies are nothing! if your breaking stuff doing wheelies, you are lacking expierence.

 

 

It is just a different feel, I used to ride wheelies all the time on the Ninja 6R. The Sportster as light as it is still fells like sluggish and heavy when standing it up. Maybe it is just the ape hangers?

 

I've never wheelied anything over 650cc. Not because I didn't try. Just that my old Lowrider simply would not do it. It would rather smoke the back tire. I think I did get about 3/4 inch of air one time going over some railroad tracks. Didn't like the feel at all!!!

 

When I was a kid I did them all the time on my '72 Ironhead. First time I did one after extending the forks, I didn't realize what effect the raised front end would have and I went up and over. I'm older now and only occasionally pop the frone wheel off the ground, but never a good wheelie though. My bones are more brittle thant they used to be, and it costs more these days to put the bike back together than it did when I was a kid.