I read things like this (and some of the rubbish posted in the intial thread about stunting IN TRAFFIC) and just shake my head.
Do some stunters have excellent bike control skills? Yes. No one is disputing that. Do some riders buy bikes that are clearly beyond their skill level? Yes. No one is disputing that either.
The initial threads ONLY complaint was with the lack of judgement exercised by those riders by stunting in downtown traffic. Period.
Now, before you re-ignite your flamethrowers…with all of the “they were demonstrating their superior skills blah blah blah…” DON’T. All they were demonstrating was their own poor judgement. Any argument to the contrary speaks more to your own lack of maturity and common sense than to my “old git-ness.”
As others have pointed out, there is a time and a place for everything. Most people who ride high performance bikes due so because they enjoy the high performance…the speed…the acceleration…the agility. The people who ride sportbikes WELL…choose appropriate times and places to “show off” or utilize the bikes higher end abilities.
If you can honestly look at yourself in the mirror and say that pulling up wheelies or stoppies in the middle of High Street on an busy afternoon is a “good thing”…a “responsible thing” to do…well, I don’t know what to tell you other than you probably need to grow up. A LOT. Preferably before you, or some innocent passer by, gets hurt or killed.
Its only as irresponsible as doing over 100mph ( you could have a blow out and cause a major motorway crash which would have many more fatalities than hitting the back of someone’s car in traffic.
Bizarrely it’s not really leg length that’s the problem - as you say, if you can keep the bike stable at a standstill then you shouldn’t have any really hassles - it’s arm and upper torso length. Why? Because if you slip down the seat a little for whatever reason, 99.9% of the time because you made a mistake with the throttle and opened it far too aggressively, you need to still be able to close the throttle
In reality, the chances of making such a big mistake is pretty slim (to say the least), but if it does happen, you want to know you can deal with it
There is a big difference between riding fast and stunting. It’s very obvious!
Much less of a difference with road racing and stunting.
Most normal people would agree road racing and stunting are dangerous regardless of whether there are other people around or not. Obviously even more dangerous when there are other people around. Especially the innocent ones that aren’t there to watch stunters…
Can we just drop this subject now?? The the old nags dead and it’s suddenly got very boring.
Good point, but 100mph past hoards of people just going about there business would be a better comparison. Are the people here saying that stunting in the wrong place is not good the same lot that slow down when they get to a village when riding fast in the countryside? Prolly they are.
The stunting at Beckton was about as safe as street stunting is likely to be cause of its location. Anyone there was there for the stunting. It was off the beaten track. If you were there you’d prolly made a choice to expose yourself to the risk.
1) If you’re just there watching do you park your ride out of harms way or where you can keep an eye on it or may be show it off?
2) If you were there watching, where you stood was your choice. The Better the view then prolly the greater the risk of injury. But you decided your own risk.
3) If you’re taking part, hero or zero. Its your choice.
But we’re talking about a stunter who decides to take his/her art to somewhere common sense and common decency says is adding extra danger and annoyance to people trying to go about their business. To them that have had a situation forced on to them, and judging by the response from pro bikers and mainly pro stunters on this forum, it is deemed unacceptable risk by the folk that enjoy it.
Yep, folk have said “if you don’t like it don’t watch”. But if you live in an area that stunters decide will be their new arena then that is what we are saying is wrong…
I pretty much taught myself how to wheelie but am a pussy to let it hit the balance point (also the prospect of throwing 6K worth of bike down the road doesn’t exactly make me happy).
I would do wheelie school just to the feel of riding out a wheelie and not destroying my own bike… in the meantime I’ll just keep em small…
As far as fines go, you just gotta keep an eye out for the old bill and not hoist it at every given moment.
Yeah but what happens is that I stress once the wheel comes up really high and just chop the throttle. That is why I reckon wheelie school would be good cos I think once I see that I can sit up near bp then I will be a lot more confident… see lame clip of wheelie attempts on my R6… sigh…
Coaching sounds good although I am now riding a K5 Gixxer-6 and find it even harder to hoist ! (Although once it comes up it seems to stay up better than the Six does… )
Nah, that place was crap… not enough space but enough for my wheelies I guess !.. yeah, I am looking for a place to play myself, if you find one in the London area tell me… I’ll bring a camera…
when exactly is “after hours” ? I am about a 30 min ride from the ace although the weather ain’t looking too peach nowadays… a few wheelie attempts with coolish tyres has resulted in a rather unusual seated rolling burnout, I am thinking of making it my sig move !..
Christ a bit late innit or am I just getting old ?
Some geeza off some other forum mentioned he found an area in Edwell Gardens/Village (something like that)… Sarf West London, wanna check it out, will keep you updated as to whether it is any good or not… be cool to have a place to play in peace… either way I might take you up on your “coaching”. BTW - I am powering those up and not clutching, almost looped the Six clutching it in 1st doing about 15mph so no more clutch after that !..
its always best to use the clutch but with the slow stuff its so hard to learn. alot of people who can wheelie think they have the balance point but there wronge thats why they are changing gear. if you can clutch it in 1st and ride a mile wheelie with low revs then ill clap my hands but if you aint i wouldn’t be going for 12’s. you gotta learn that back break.
ive just put new gearing on my gsxr1000 down 1 at the front and plus 10 rear this has helped alot with my slow stuff. but i think its best to learn on standered gearing. give it a few months i reckon me and the 444-riderz will be having circles locked. well i hope anyway. its just a total different ball game to power wheelies. practice and practice thats all it is. i wouldn’t say wheelie schools are a good idea or a bad idea ive never been to one so i cant comment. but i have one small thing to say if your gonna practice slow stuff be prepared to trash your bike and i mean totaly trash it mines a 2002 gsxr1000 and its focked. but its what i wanna do. and gues what still on finance take that for comitment.
ow another thing if you can buy a crash cage that alone will save you 1000’s.
Cool, we’ll hook-up sometime soon but as 444 says the bikes take a beating !.. Hell, I am even thinking of buying a banger to stunt on… could be a plan.
Balance point dreams sound good although sadly there has been more kneedown recenlty than wheel up !.. sigh…
I was going to do a wheelie school a year or so ago but just by hanging out with Sparky, Cooper, Eddie, Tariq and the rest of the AWOL crew (before they became AWOL) I was soon popping wheelies everywhere! Then progressed on to standups and stoppies…
Never mastered 12 O’clocks, rolling burnouts or rolling stoppies though, and to tell the truth since I got the R1 wheelies became a bit boring and I didn’t want to try anything more because of the expense of the bike. Had I known it was going to get nicked I would have been crashing it left right and centre learning new tricks!
