Almost dumped it

[Chuffmonkey]

So this morning I was leaving home, turning left out of my driveway. I was late, so I was more aggressive on the throttle than I should have been (esp. given the completely cold tires). All of the sudden the backend broke loose - I was still leaning to the left in the turn - the bike gave it a lot of wobbly action, recovered, and all was well again. It felt like it broke right, left, right, left again and then recovered.

When I looked down I discovered that I'd instinctively pulled the clutch in - is this even the right thing to do?

It was definitely not a conscious decision to pull the clutch and I fear that it may have been completely the wrong instinctive reaction and something that I need to fix. Suggestions on how to fix without forcibly causing the back end to slide?

This was on my Street Triple btw.

[rasta]

Hopefully someone corrects me if I'm wrong, but I thought you should never pull the clutch in any situation...

[cuong-nutz]

How fast were you going? Was the rear bucking? Speed and traction has a lot of factor in the outcome.

If you were going slow than pulling in the clutch was probably a good thing as the oscillation isn't bad to where it could have caused a death wobble and maybe high side.

Most cases, if something weird happen, I usually do nothing (no additional input) and ride it out.

[csmith12]

Did you take the MSF? This could be where you picked up that habit, as that is how they teach emergency braking. Fitting for this case? Nah you were trying to accelerate.

Imho, this is one of those cases where the traction (cold tires) or surface (cold pavement) doesn't lend itself to staying on the throttle or giving it even more throttle. About all you can really do is try to stand the bike up the best you can and roll off. "Practice your roll off as much as your roll on".

Also, don't just blindly trust your tires. Trust yourself and take the time to get them to operating temp. (you already know this)

Or... ride it out like a BOSS! Totally light up the rear and drift out like a champ. jk, jk

[Chuffmonkey]

Hmm - sounds like I need to fix a bad instinctive reaction then. Yes, I've done the MSF and yes they do teach you to pull the clutch in so maybe that's why I did it. I was probably going a little over 20, maybe as high as 30. There are tar snakes all down my street, but this wobble was way more than a tar snake wobble, as the back end of the bike seemed to slide both ways - maybe the lower traction on the snakes was working against me though.

I guess I'm going to chalk this one up to experience and just be glad that it all ended well - and then figure out how to ride it out like a boss, as suggested

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Chuffmonkey

...........but this wobble was way more than a tar snake wobble, as the back end of the bike seemed to slide both ways........

Did it feel like this?

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=103592

[Chuffmonkey]

Originally Posted by Motofool

Did it feel like this?

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=103592

Well, kinda - but nowhere near as violent.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Chuffmonkey

Well, kinda - but nowhere near as violent.

Yes, it seems that the torque of your rear tire was too much for the available traction at the point over which the rear tire did skid (it started rotating faster than the bike and front tire).

When that happens, the rear tires to move ahead of the front in the only way it can: sliding over one side, while keeping some traction but less than before the over-torque happened.

The bike starts falling over the opposite side and the rear steps out more an more; however, by doing that, its directions of rotation and translation don't match and that tends to stop and reverse the swinging out.

Now the tail is swinging back to the central original position, but the inertia makes it overshoot and the cycle repeats over and over until the tire runs out of the extra energy that you provided with enthusiastic throttle.

At high speeds, pulling that clutch when the rear tire is way out is a recipe for a high side.
Keeping steady throttle while it lasts is more recommendable.

It seems that the over-torque that broke the tire loose was moderate and induced just a mild tail-fish and pulling the clutch had no consequences.

The Ninja 250 reduced torque is unlikely to induce that mishap, but your more powerful bike could and did.