Say it ain't so about the R1

I was visiting sportbikes.net and several hardcore stunters said the R1 was a terrible stunt bike. They said it was very twitchy to ride out long wheelies and it has too much power for this use. Is there any truth to this?

don't know about riding long wheelies. i like twisties.... joe

I am very pleased with my '02; it handles great;goes fast. And am not the least bit (well only occassionaly) interested in stunting. I LOVE corners. I would never live in a flat part of the world. And this bike's reason for existance is going fast in twisty enviroments. :lol

Well I can tell you the R1 is a lot harder to stunt with because you have to do a lot more balancing on it.... not only due to that the R1 is longer than moste other bikes but that it also is more powerful = you have to be easy on the throttle. But I hope you don't buy the R1 just for stunting.

If you're into stunting a Supermotard thing can't be beat. But I do have a stunt video around here somewhere where 2 of the guys are on R1's. One is a streetfighter jobbie.

I would defer to swedie here;) I am a twisty road/track guy meself, and swedie loves the standups etc;) I have noticed everytime I've seen Gary Rothwell his preferred mount has been the older air/oil cooled Gixxer 1100's with tubular bars. He'll wear one out ( blow it up ) then find another. I've also seen him stunt on a 1200 bandit and a Triumph Speed 3, but his prefered mount is the old gixxer:p

don"t know about long wheelies...used to do only 1-2 miles sitting&standups wheelies.. with this turboR1 it"s quite more difficult...yes it do power wheelies quite easy...with 5th gear at 140-150 mph...but balansing it at that speed is tricky...if it get too much air under the fairing ,it comes up fast...

sweet yama! :yesnod

This hard to stunt thing. If you check out the SBFreaks site. You'll notice that a lot of them ride R1's or R wheezy as they would call it. If you go to videos look at "darius bun to grab" and "darius combo". He's one of the SBFreak stuntas and although he's got skill , he's only one half of the equation, I'm sure the bike figures in somewhere.

you should check out C&I that movie is sweet probably the best stunt movie I have seen and most of them are R1's and TL's also. If you havent seen it check it out you wont be disappointed.

solidus, funny you mention SBfreaks, I was just going to say the same thing; I was watching them stunt a couple weeks ago (yep yep, gotta love livin in the bay area) and the best riders were usin the R wheezy. They were blowin by cars going the other way and cyclists biking up the hill like nothing else, I don't think people knew what to think when they saw the 3 R1s doin their thing...

wish I lived in the bay area.. anyone in the bay area that want a room mate? :) I've been invited to join up with SBFreaks if I'm in the area.. and I'm sooo often there ya know! R1Rider. C&I .. is that movie on the net somewhere? What is the full name? I mean .. what does C&I stand for. I think I've heard it somewhere. Back to subject.. I think the R1 is the wickedest bike when it comes to wheelies. If you just get to know the R1 you'll find it better than any other bike. Olddog.. don't get me wrong. I absolutely LOVE twisties. But we don't have that many great roads around here that you can ride all day. You get tired of alls the bumbs and holes eventually. And the closets track is 100 miles from here.. the next one is 180 miles.. but you can only visit these once every 2 weeks.

Swedie, IF you DO make it to San Fran you will have to give me a yell:) Between San Fran, Northern California, southern Oregon, and beyond to where I am are litterally filled with thousands of miles of INCREDIBLE roads. We have extra bedrooms too. Come on now, admit it........... you really DO need a vacation, no?;)

Hell yeah oregon and washington have so many twisties. I would love to ride an R1 up to mount ST Helens. WOW... :D

I have wheelied pretty much every sportbike out there, and the R1 is one of the hardest to maintain looong wheelies on. It's balance point is way high, and it's pretty twitchy. I have to agree with ny2nj. THe 929 is a great stunt bike in m opinion. Very well balanced, low balance point, smooth throttle response and bad ass brakes. Don't really like the looks of it, though. The GSXR 1K is also a great stunt bike. Wouldn't trade the R1 for them, though. :rock

I agree....2002 R1 is twitchy....I had a 2000 Yzf600 that was a great stunt bike. I cannot surf the tank/seat half as stable as my old 600.....stand-up wheelies seem to require a little bit higher balance point. I have only wheelied through 1-3 gears so far this year....It's too windy in Colorado right now.....In fact, someone went down in a wheelie in the wind Saturday.

I could not disagree more with those who say the R1 is difficult to stunt, especially long wheelies. I own a GSXR 750 it gets up and balances well but at higher speeds (longer wheelies) it is a twitchy little fool. However a few stunt riders swear by them like Las Vegas Extreme. I have owned two R1s now and I think that standups on them are easier than the GSXR and sit down wheelies at over 130 mph are common and confident, it shifts gears easier also. As noted in a few other responses many stunters do use the R1 like on the Careless and Imprudent video. As for the Honda, my best friend rides a 929 and it is harder to pull up, but once up I would say that it is very similar to the R1. But beware, the 929 when it gets close to 12 o'clock does not give as a good feed back. Check out the pic of what happened when my friend ,who has been stunting for years, pulled a huge standup. I'd say the blame lies somewhere between the two; he got overzealous and the bike was not communicating its altitude well. Both are still going strong now... To sum up: "Blah-blah-blah" We all know not all bikes are created equall. Some are better than others, but still people buy those lesser bikes. Why? I don't know but everyone will defend their choice to the death, even when it comes to which pulls wheelies best. The R1 is great from my experience, I guess I have made and defended my choice. Lesser choice, I doubt it.... my $0.02 :yesnod

An Ideal Stunter would be the Bandit 1200. The right type of bars and lots of low down torque. If you want to learn properly, take a look here: www.thewheelieschool.co.uk :confused: :thumbup

I was on that ride. Off the hook! I logged 550m. that day. Damn I was tired. Originally posted by mercurial solidus, funny you mention SBfreaks, I was just going to say the same thing; I was watching them stunt a couple weeks ago (yep yep, gotta love livin in the bay area) and the best riders were usin the R wheezy. They were blowin by cars going the other way and cyclists biking up the hill like nothing else, I don't think people knew what to think when they saw the 3 R1s doin their thing...