ROCKET 3 GT WHEELIE !!!

[Dr.D]

If you don't disable traction control, then yes, the ECU is preventing the wheelie.

I’ve had the TC off and it still just does not come up like my other bike, oh well I can live without wheelies, I guess.

 

[estoma]

Horses for courses. Get yourself a SuperMoto if you wish to wheelie and hoon around, and do it properly. Most of these cool dudes wheelying Rockets on YouTube are definitely not using their own rides, potentially even demo rides that will be sold to some unsuspecting sods. Those who are, need to think through what they are effectively doing - picking up the heavy Rocket motor (and the rest bolted to it) by levering the wheel-end of its driveshaft. Better your crown and pinion (and motor-side bevel gears) than mine. And you simply do not come off soft on each wheelie, so chances are that you will slam it down hard once in a while (very hard on a Rocket). Again, better your front end than mine.

Each to their own, of course.

 

[R-III-R Turbo]

I’ve had the TC off and it still just does not come up like my other bike, oh well I can live without wheelies, I guess.

Fair play to you for being honest, I saw a comment on a Rocket 3 video where the guy claimed it was "easy" to wheelie, talked like it was actually hard 'not' to wheelie

 

[Dr.D]

Fair play to you for being honest, I saw a comment on a Rocket 3 video where the guy claimed it was "easy" to wheelie, talked like it was actually hard 'not' to wheelie

Yeh right that’s all I hear from the new R3 owners saying, “ I can’t keep my front wheel on the ground”.

 

[Dr.D]

Horses for courses. Get yourself a SuperMoto if you wish to wheelie and hoon around, and do it properly. Most of these cool dudes wheelying Rockets on YouTube are definitely not using their own rides, potentially even demo rides that will be sold to some unsuspecting sods. Those who are, need to think through what they are effectively doing - picking up the heavy Rocket motor (and the rest bolted to it) by levering the wheel-end of its driveshaft. Better your crown and pinion (and motor-side bevel gears) than mine. And you simply do not come off soft on each wheelie, so chances are that you will slam it down hard once in a while (very hard on a Rocket). Again, better your front end than mine.

Each to their own, of course.

I will tell you it is very difficult to let the front end down softly on the older Rockets. Most of the time it bottoms the forks. It does not feel or sound good.

 

[Vector]

I am glad the ECU in TC stops a wheelie, I'm to old for that!

 

[estoma]

I will tell you it is very difficult to let the front end down softly on the older Rockets. Most of the time it bottoms the forks. It does not feel or sound good.

Agreed. Bottoming out forks while riding, say hiting a bump in the road while braking hard, is quite different from slamming the front end down coming off a wheelie. The angle of attack is in line with the forks' compressing geometry in case of the former - both the bike weight transferring forward (into the forks) as well as the hump squeezing through below the front wheel. Not so in the case of the latter, essentially dropping back, with the bike rotating down around the rear axle onto fully extended forks and slower rotating front wheel - thus not in line with fork operating axis but rather a vector inclined at the rake angle, now acting as a Moment as well as a Force. Brutal. And lets not forget about the steering head bearings experiencing the same offset jolt.

The previous Rockets carry their heavy motors in (more patient) steel frames. The new ones' motors are stressed members with probably 7075-t6 Ergal or similar (63-69 ksi / 430-480 MPa Yield Strength) alloy bolted fore (steering head assy) and aft (single-sided swingarm/shaft-housing) - trading less weight for less flex. A much improved sportier ride, but much less forgiving.

 

[estoma]

The motorcycle shaft drive's claim to fame is the ease of maintenance and (perceived) improved reliability. It is also the least efficient final drive (increased friction and heat), the heaviest (highest unsprung weight), and the most expensive to repair/replace (as many a BMW air/oil-head owner will attest).

We bathe the crown and pinion in high-spec high-viscosity oil to maintain sufficient M2M-trumping lubricity in this high-friction, high-torsion environment. And it works fine as long as we minimize impact (shock) loads, some of which are inevitable even during reasonably hoon-less riding. We already (perhaps unknowingly) witness that when wondering about the shiny hard bits coming off the oil plug magnet during rear-end oil changes. Add high-impact M2M contact (juddering burnouts/donuts, clutching and chasing wheelies) to this formula, and be prepared to wonder about more and larger shiny bits the following oil change, keeping in mind that the motor-side bevel gears run in regular-viscosity engine oil.