Commandos don’t do wheelies, I was told long ago. Riding through San Francisco on the way to a club ride, Phil Radford and I kept getting stopped at red lights. When one turned green I gave the throttle a hand full and the front wheel lifted for two blocks. Phil said “I can’t believe you did that”. Yes, but it was fun. That was a ‘73 high compression 750.
For a Commando to do a wheelie, the weight distribution must be wrong. My Seeley 850 cannot do a wheelie because it loses traction at the rear wheel first. The easiest bike to wheelie, which I ever rode was a Triumph Trident - it had almost no go, but it could be wheelied even at walking pace. The best wheelie you can have is when the front wheel just starts to rise and the rear wheel is just beginning to lose traction. Then you are really going. There is a thing about JIm Schmidt's Monoshock racer. The motor only needs to be an inch too far back, and you will ride slower in corners. When you accelerate in a corner the bike rotates back around it's centre of gravity. When the motor is back a bit, the bike can feel wrong - especially if it has a peaky motor. Losing the front is really bad.
