For the life of me I can't go fast in first gear or my front wheel will come up. Doesn't matter what I do.

Any RPM below 8 grand and my front wheel comes up. I even tried practically sitting on top of the gas tank. Still almost flipped.

I've tried gradually rolling it on, but I can't twist the throttle past 75% without it wheelying.

Any suggestions? Could it be suspension? Or is it just not possible to go fast in first? I usually just skip it and go into second.

 

Check the gearing... If it's the stock 16/41, it's possible with a little finesse, but takes practice... If it's not stock, it's just about impossible...

 

Back sprocket is stock. I'm assuming front is too but I'll have to check later.

 

I just changed to a 16/43 setup and I have no problems keeping the wheel down...

 

Well... I can't tell you how your bike is running or not... But for me, whacking the throttle open in first would probably result in the bike making a complete sommersault...

Infact, getting my bike to full throttle in second or third without standing it up, takes a bit of finesse...

While I'm running stock gearing, there is nothing stock about my engine... I'm actually contemplating going to longer than stock gearing...

 

i can tell you that if you can hit anything past 40 to 50% throttle in frist and keep the front wheel on the ground then there is something wrong with your bike, i too just changed to 16/43 and i pull the wheel out of every first gear corner.

As for the issue of stock gearing and keeping it down, it is very possible unless you are pinning it between 2500 to 5k, in which case its most likely going to come up, BUT thats the fun of the hawk right?

 

Which is why it's odd that some people run 15/43 or even 15/44 to me... but to each their own!

 

That's why I went to 15/42 gearing. First gear is to get off of stop. Shorter gearing lets you use 2nd off slow corners. The transmission shifts better and you get the bike stood up as you are rolling into the fat part of the torque band, so it's easier to ride hard.

 

I'm used to it by now... So much infact that when I swapped bikes with a friend riding a spanking new CBR 1000RR, it felt odd not having the front go light every time I accelerated... (on that bike it's not hard to loft the front, but it has to be a conscious act...) On the flipside, his comment after riding my bike was that he was kind of scared of it, as he plain and simple could accelerate without the front coming up...

 

The bike has a certain torque at the rear wheel when the front wheel will come up. It doesnt matter what your gearing is, the minimum time accelerating from 0 to 40mph (or whatever) without wheelieing is still going to be the same...

Or are you purely wanting to be able to thrash first gear without wheelieing, and dont care about your speed of acceleration?

If that is the case, go get a 17T front sprocket and a 38T rear or whatever.

 

No I was just curious if there was a method to pin first gear to get full acceleration without wheelying. Right now I always have to let off when the front wheel comes up.

 

Shimming the rear had a noticeable side effect of making the front end harder to pick up for me.

 

Pull the front plug wire.....

 

lol!

 

That would make it a VTR500f right?



I say dont worry so much about fixing it but learn how to control and enjoy it. Like i said earlier thats one of the many things makes me love the hawk over I4's.