re shaft drives and wheelies in article stafford stafford winona msus edu stafford vax winona msus edu john stafford writes on apr gmt xlyx vax cit cornell edu said is it possible to do a wheelie on a motorcycle with shaft drive yes but the rear wheel comes off the ground not the front see it just hops into the air figure john stafford sure you can do wheelies with a shaft drive bike i had a bmw r rs that was a wheelie monster of course it didn t have the initial power burst to just twist it into the air i had to pop the clutch i also had to replace front fork seals a few times as well the fairing is a bit heavy to be slamming down onto those little stantion tubes all the time but let me give you fair warning i trashed the ring pinion gear in the final drive of my k i assume doing wheelies and this was no cheap fix either there is some kind of slip device in the shaft to prevent it from breaking unfortunately it didn t save the gears on the topic of wheelies the other day i saw a kid on a big hurricane do a stoppy or rear wheelie man he had the rear end on this bike up about feet off the ground at a traffic light i don t recommend these activities anymore now that i m an old guy with kids of my own but it looked damn impressive if you can t keep both tires on the ground at least have em pointed in that direction cheers b
