Never could do more than a couple inches of wheelie on a bike as a kid. Didn't get into mini bikes until I was in my thirties. Bought Coleman 200EX to share with my kids. Started to get little wheelies, then one day I was going up a little slope and it did a huge wheelie and flipped over on me. Bought a Baja to mod for myself. Put a TAV on it and it pulled wheelies but it never seemed to wheelie as easy as the Coleman. I chalked it up to a difference in lockup between the belt and clutch. Always though those people pulling big wheelies had tons of power from modded engines. Only realized recently that wheelies are more about front to rear balance than power. Sure power and gearing helps, but at the end of the day, balance is what matters. Don't know why it took me so long to figure this out, it is so simple. I've been watching drag bikes, of all sorts, on youtube for years, but never really applied it to our bikes for some reason.
So back to the Coleman, my Baja was disassembled for upgrades, so I decided to go for a spin on the Coleman. Between the grabby clutch and rearward balance point made it miserable on the trails with dips and rises. I had to very carefully poke along, not much fun at all. I decided to stretch it a bit (added some lift, too) to see what that would do. Ended up adding around 6 inches, about as far as the stock brake cable would reach. The difference was amazing, the front end was much more controllable and I am now able to put the power down to the ground.
So for anyone who is tired of feathering the throttle to keep the front end down, I highly recommend extending the wheel base!
Oh yeah, the Baja now has enough power and gearing to do some pretty nice wheelies
So back to the Coleman, my Baja was disassembled for upgrades, so I decided to go for a spin on the Coleman. Between the grabby clutch and rearward balance point made it miserable on the trails with dips and rises. I had to very carefully poke along, not much fun at all. I decided to stretch it a bit (added some lift, too) to see what that would do. Ended up adding around 6 inches, about as far as the stock brake cable would reach. The difference was amazing, the front end was much more controllable and I am now able to put the power down to the ground.
So for anyone who is tired of feathering the throttle to keep the front end down, I highly recommend extending the wheel base!
Oh yeah, the Baja now has enough power and gearing to do some pretty nice wheelies
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