Cliffsta isn't full of it...hes right. If you have to do all kinda of trickery and jujitsu to lift the front wheel off then its not effortless.

Effortless is a full fledged dirtbike or MX bike. Those lift the wheels no problem. These bikes do not stock. And the worst problem is is they don't all run equal. My bike has never ran 100% since I owned it. It just takes so much tuning going back and forth and there are so man redundant parts on this bike, if I get it close enough that its within 90% or so I leave it. If not I would of been putting this bike in front of the muzzle of my 870 long ago.

So if it was bone stock and was 100% tuned and you learned these little tricks...yeah I suppose you can lift it off. But I would never call it easy or effortless.

 

my bike gets dropped off today for the 351 kit.....i am hoping it wheelies "effortlessly" when i get it back!!

 

To someone who is good at whee-lying, It would be effortless. I am not good at it but there are people that can ride a stock klx250 for miles on one wheel. Mod the heck out of it and the bike will be more awesome and whee-lying will be the icing on the cake. The old 13 tooth sprocket trick will def. make it a whole lot easier.

 

That was the point I was trying to make... I thought we were talking about yanking the throttle and pulling back... not jumping up and down trying to bunnyhop the bike. Can't imagine doing that in a technical section of trail where I'd like to lift the front wheel up and over something.

Though I will be trying this bunnyhop method next time I'm out and about

 

I assume you are referring to the clip of Shane Watts at his Dirtwise off-road instruction clinic? No offense, but open your mind a little bit, cliffsta. If the technique you are using is not working for you, you might be doing something wrong. Every off-road expert I've seen instructs you to compress the suspension to unweight the front on the rebound, then use a little body english, clutch work and throttle to get the wheel up for clearing logs, ditches, etc. A moped will wheely like that. That's how you do it. Even with a 450 which has gobs of power, if you are zipping down the trail at a good clip and need to lift the front, you still need to compress the suspension, both to unweight the front, but also to dig the rear wheel in so it gets traction to lift the front so it doesn't just spin and throw roost instead. Everyone teaches this. And it's not a bunny hop.

 

BTW, here's a little drill you can use to practice getting the feel of it. It's so simple you might think, WTF, I don't need to do that. But just practice it a little bit, and you will be surprised how much it helps. It is designed to teach you to feel the engagement of the clutch in combination with the throttle. This was taught at the off-road clinic I went to last year.

The set up is, you are sitting on the bike, centered over the pegs, bike is sitting still, both feed on the ground (if you can reach), in gear, clutch pulled. Now, rev up a little bit, use your body and lift up and then compress the bike, then smoothly release the clutch to engage the transmission. You should pop a little wheely. Immediately stop, set up, and repeat it again. And again. And again. Do it on all kinds of surfaces, get a feel for the traction you have. There is a point where you are weighting the rear wheel perfectly for optimal traction given the current surface. You should be able to get the front up under about any conditions, you just have to find that point. It's a combination of body position, weighting the suspension, engaging at just the right part of weighting the rear and rebounding the front. What Shane Watts is doing in that video as he is getting the wheely started is very close to this drill. But he doesn't stop and repeat, he just starts riding around on one wheel.

After you get comfortable and master the engagement, then putt around at 1 mph, standing on the pegs, and practice the same thing. Not sitting, standing. Use your knees to drive the bike down. Clutch feel and engagement is the same.

Most importantly, learn to open up to what the experts like Shane Watts teach and not be so closed minded.

 

adding to westklxoz - pay attention to the terrain, your weight distribution and the suspension loading, it should pull.

 

I have a pretty much stock 09 KLX 250s and yes it isn't the easiest thing to do a roll on wheelie. But it can be done. I agree with Nobrakes though. You do what he said and you'll get it up like in Shanes video. Use that clutch baby it will do wonders! But like every thing, you got to crawl before you walk, so play safe!

 

AGAIN........if have to be a wheelie expert or explain to someone with an entire paragraph of instructions THEN ITS NOT EFFORTLESS.........shall I repeat? I'm not trying to be an ***, but for goodness sakes...are some of you guys not getting this? This is about doing them effortlessly, not if it can or can't be done. Hell, if I can wheelie my dad's old 230cc 650lb 4-wheel drive King Quad than AAAAAAAAAAAAANYTHING can be wheelied. But it wasn't effortless by any stretch of the means.

Go ride a CR.....that's effortless. Even an XR. But not a KLX250S.

 

looked pretty effortless in the video, it's all about technique