Had a tank slapper today

[Toly]

As they say, never say never. Whenever I watched tankslapper videos I secretly hoped this destiny would bypass me, and took some comfort that these scary things are rare. Well, today was my day. I stumbled upon a particularly poor section of the highway, full of cracks and small potholes, and before I knew it, handlebars were going all over, left and right. It was very sudden and very unexpected. The slapper has been going on for over a full second before I even realized what was happening. It was very surprising and unsettling feeling, but while my hands and bars have been whipped all over, the bike appeared to track straight and somehow felt in control. So I did nothing, stayed loose on the bars and the slapper was over in a few seconds, as I exited the nasty patch of the road.

As I pulled over to check for any damage (there was none), my buddy who was riding behind told me that my rear end was wobbling all over, but I didn't even feel it - I felt only crazy hopping of the handlebars, as the bike fought to stay upright.

The whole experience gave me more confidence in bike's inherent abilities to straighthen itself and keep shiny side up. While I have the electronic steering damper (this happened on my CBR) I am not sure how much it helped and how worse would I have fared without it.

The moral of the story is: don't get scared,trust your bike, and stay loose. Let the bike work it out by itself. In a way, I am grateful to this experience. I wish I had a helmet cam - it looked just as bad as in videos on YouTube - but it felt more unsettling than scary or anything.
Ride safe!

[cuz]

LIKE A BOSS LOL dude im glad that ur ok that kind off stuff can turn ugly FAST!!

[NDspd]

Damn man, glad you got out of that scary situation.

[Rexbo]

Link to original page on YouTube.

skip to 11:00 in, bad times. Jammed my thumb between my gas tank and the clipons, and bruised the **** outta it, and also loosened my front brake pads so when I got to the end of the straight the lever went to my fingers!

[Toly]

Originally Posted by Rexbo

... Jammed my thumb between my gas tank and the clipons, and bruised the **** outta it, and also loosened my front brake pads so when I got to the end of the straight the lever went to my fingers!

Yeah, mine was worse in a sense that it took longer, but had no ill effects. After reading up online, it appears I had a head shake rather than a full stop-to-stop tankslapper. Still, it was pretty bad, pretty close in appearance to this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvHtChodNk0

Now, it seems that there is no clear opinion on how to deal with it: some advocate staying loose on the controls and riding it out, while others emphasize the need to do something to fight the oscillations and dampen the shake before it grows into a full tankslapper. That "something" is either manual tightening on the bars, or changing the speed by hitting either the throttle or the brakes.

It is good advice - in theory. In practice, it's pretty impossible to have any reasonable control of the front end - in my situation all I could do was to hang on to it, as the bars were whipped around violently. Any input to the front end controls in such situation could have been disastrous. I considered applying rear brake gingerly, but it was over before I had the wits to try it.

It appears, that aside from luck, steering damper (hydraulic or electric) is a lifesaver. I considered it a neat "extra" that came with the bike, now I won't ride any bike without it.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Toly

Now, it seems that there is no clear opinion on how to deal with it: some advocate staying loose on the controls and riding it out, while others emphasize the need to do something to fight the oscillations and dampen the shake before it grows into a full tankslapper. That "something" is either manual tightening on the bars, or changing the speed by hitting either the throttle or the brakes.

It is good advice - in theory. In practice, it's pretty impossible to have any reasonable control of the front end

Just keep pressing the clutch while avoiding manual tightening on the bars has worked very well for me in several similar events.

[Toly]

Originally Posted by Motofool

Just keep pressing the clutch while avoiding manual tightening on the bars has worked very well for me in several similar events.

That's a great idea! Thanks!!

[RaZeDaHeLL]

Never had one, sounds scary!

[jboyd12]

Have you considered purchasing a steering damper? I guess everyone thinks they are invincible until things like this happen to them. I think dampers are worth the money because of their safety benefits

[Toly]

Originally Posted by jboyd12

Have you considered purchasing a steering damper? I guess everyone thinks they are invincible until things like this happen to them. I think dampers are worth the money because of their safety benefits

Yeah, I have the damper (it's electronic, comes built in with the CBR 600), and I totally share your sentiment. The vibrations were getting worse before they smoothed out, so while it's possible that I simply rode it out, it's also quite likely that the damper saved the day, and spared me from posting in the "I crashed" section or worse.

[jboyd12]

Originally Posted by Toly

Yeah, I have the damper (it's electronic, comes built in with the CBR 600), and I totally share your sentiment. The vibrations were getting worse before they smoothed out, so while it's possible that I simply rode it out, it's also quite likely that the damper saved the day, and spared me from posting in the "I crashed" section or worse.

Oooh I didn't know that about the CBR that's pretty sweet. I know the 09 zx6's come with the Ohlins but I've heard they're not that good. I read a really interesting paper about tank slappers, it gets worse before it gets better because of the way you hit the bumps. You got unlucky enough to hit them at the steering system's natural frequency, which is what made them get worse and worse before they could get better. There is a lot of interesting stuff out there about this topic!

[shiftyninja]

Originally Posted by Motofool

Just keep pressing the clutch while avoiding manual tightening on the bars has worked very well for me in several similar events.

This is what I have done a couple of times. This situation has happen numerous times and even coming down a mountain side road, which ended with my sliding sideways and managing to straighten it going 60mph. That was the most scary thing to happen to me. Luckily no cars, I would have been a hood ornament. Try and take weight of the bars, while clutching the tank with your legs for dear life. It's hard, but core exercises will help tremendously with fatigue.

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by Rexbo

Link to original page on YouTube.

skip to 11:00 in, bad times. Jammed my thumb between my gas tank and the clipons, and bruised the **** outta it, and also loosened my front brake pads so when I got to the end of the straight the lever went to my fingers!

note to self: don't jump the curb into the front straight

[Rexbo]

Originally Posted by alex.s

note to self: don't jump the curb into the front straight

good plan