I was looking thru my computer for a file for the State of Mississippi this evening...ran across these photos.

They are a few years old, and I've had more than a few people laugh at me, ask me how I like riding bitch.

But that was a fun day of testing out what the TG would do and grabbing some video footage.


I won't say that my days of pulling wheelies are over...but I do find myself doing them much less than in years gone by.












Oh, and here's a really old one, probably from 8-9 years ago-

 

Good Morning Kevin. I see you are up kinda late also. I remember you posting some of these 2 or 3 years ago on different forums. I think you posted some about pulling wheelies and snow riding in a big parking lot cutting donuts. I seem to remember a picture you posted somewhere of the scraping on the mufflers. Hope all the folks at your business and their families come through this COVID19 mess in good shape. We are having some great riding weather over here in Bama lately, just like your Mississippi weather. Stay Safe!

 

Not to brag...but I will. In my misspent youth I was known as the wheelie king. Yup its true. I could ride a wheelie for a city block or more. I did it by standing on the seat of my Sportster. Impressed the teenage girls. Know who else was impressed? Cops. Two things attracted the attention of gendarmes for some reason- loud pipes and wheelies. But being a teenage bonehead I never learned. Until I was called on the carpet before my battery commander accompanied by a cop.Sheesh, adults are so humorless.

 

Yeah, the photos above have the mufflers scraping...that is what keeps the Trike from looping.

Posting video below of riding in the snow.

So far everyone on the DK Team, and their families,, are healthy, and we're trying to keep it that way!

Yes, we're having some good weather. I just called a couple county Sheriff offices (we have a Statewide Shelter In Place that went into effect last night) to see if is ok to ride with no particular destination...they both said yes, just not in groups.

Hope you and yours are healthy and stay that way!

 

Yep! That will do it. Sounds like a FUN youth!

I've never been good at riding wheelies...pulling them is fine, riding then any distance, never mastered that.

Burn-outs, donuts, yeah. One time a cop would not give me a ticket for doing some donuts in a road construction site...instead he accompanied me home and had a chat with my dad. Not good at the time, looking back, pretty funny.

 

Kevin, thanks for the grin .... just what I needed today! I've been playing around doing some little mini wheelies on my 17 freewheeler and have two questions. Is there any worry about one rear wheel braking loose just as the front is coming off the ground, and 2) on a scale of 1 to 10 how hard is this on the drive train... 10 being only do this on a someone else's bike.

Thanks again,
Ron

 

Hey Ron, Glad you enjoyed.

Yeah, most of the time when doing wheelies the rear tires will chirp, but on dry clean surface they don't break totally loose as the wheel is coming up. I have had more than a few times when I went to pull a wheelie where the rears broke loose and the front did not come up. That is generally either a weight distribution issue, a road angle issue, or something on the road surface reducing traction. But once that front wheel is up, there is a lot more weight on the rears, helping out with traction.

Little wheelies, from just hard acceleration or a good strong shift into 2nd or 3rd, I don't think those are particularly hard on the drivetrain. You have a '17, so that is an M8. On the Twin Cams, they have a weak crankshaft, so even hard acceleration or dumping the clutch, greatly increase the chance of that crankshaft twisting on a Twin Cam. It does not appear that the M8's have that vulnerability.

Before talking about the kind of wheelies above, or in the video that I'm posting below, I want to mention something....

All the bikes I have, including the Tri Glides...they are both bikes that I use for daily transportation & personal rides and trips, BUT, they are also used as test bikes for R&D on parts. And part of that is a bit of torture testing.

If I was not in the parts development and manufacturing business I could not justify owning 4 bikes, nor would I treat them nearly as hard as I do. But, me beating on my bikes to see what works and what doesn't, and what holds up and what doesn't, is something that I do for fun, but also for business...while I would still like to have that fun, absent the business aspect, I would not be nearly as hard on them.

Ok, that said....

When you do full on wheelies on a Harley Trike the bottom rear of the mufflers will scrape and will get ground down.

There is always a greatly increased chance of snapping a belt (I never have).

There is a greatly increased chance of twisting a crank on a Twin Cam (I've done that twice since 2002. Once on a Road King and once on a Tri Glide) Whether it was from wheelies, burn-outs, or just riding hard, is unknown.

Increased clutch & compensator wear. HD clutches are pretty stout and I've never had a problem. The compensator issue for a few years ago seems to be taken care of, but I've been thru a few of those, but so have a lot of other folks when HD was having trouble with them.

In general, I would say dumping the clutch and doing wheelies (like in the video below) is a 7-9 out of 10. Absent the business, I would do it a few times, just to do it, but I would not keep pushing my luck. Small wheelies from just riding hard, I would do without much worry.

One other thing I should note...business or purely personal, I ride a lot, and because I put a lot of miles on my bikes, I will not own a Twin Cam or M8 with all the electronics they have without an Extended Warranty.

 

I did a few wheelies on my ‘12 TriGlide with SE255 cams. Neither was intentional as I gave it heavy gas and left the clutch fly to get out of the way of another vehicle. On a clean surface the rears don’t break loose, but it can pick up the front pretty easily. I bet a 131 Crate motor would be a hoot! It was also fun to go to a large open beach parking lot that was covered in sand, and drift it. Weeeee!

 

Yeah, these trikes are so stable, they are great at very predictable drifting...sandy lot, nice dirt road, or just a good banked asphalt when a bit wet.

 

Kevin, really great info on wheelies and perfect timing on the extended warranty comment! My 3 year warranty runs out in May and I've been going back and forth on extending it. As mentioned, I'm not real easy on my bike and have been playing around with all the torque I get out of my M8 with my wood 22X cam so I think I'll go for it. The dealer said my non-harley mods is no problem warranty wise (the reason I chose to purchase my new bike from them the first time around).

I'm not planning on going crazy wild, but it's great to talk with someone knows how to let loose once in a while : Hard for me to get excited about gas mileage.

Ron