| Author | Message | ||
     Midknyte |
Follow this link to the very best article I've ever run across regarding tankslappers. Sportrider.com: Riding Skills Series: Tankslappers http://www.sportrider.com/ride/RSS/113_0206_rss/index.html There have been endless discussions on all the boards I frequent. We always identify what a tankslapper is, but not the why. From the article, and in terms even "I" can understand: "...Usually occuring when accelerating hard over bumpy pavement, a tankslapper ensues when the front tire becomes airborne, then regains traction outside the rear tire’s alignment. The resulting deflection bounces the tire off to one side, followed by another bounce in the opposite direction as it contacts the pavement again..." As bad as a tankslapper is, it makes you wonder just what keeps a bike up at all - and the above relates it to exactly that. A bike, in motion, wants to stay up and keep moving in a straight line. The above explains, a tankslapper occurs when the front wheel, having lost traction, comes back in contact with the tarmac "outside the rear tire’s alignment", or, outside of its' natural straight line desire. As it snaps back, if it bounces and overshoots in the other direction, it sets up a nasty oscilation as it comes back and tries right itself again. Viola - a tankslapper. DO give it a read for other insights and advice... | ||
| Scitz |
Good article, I've had this happen a couple of times and found that a relaxed but secure grip works better then tensing up to hard and over steering. "The easiest way to avoid tank slappers while accelerating over bumpy pavement is to—believe it or not—keep a relaxed grip on the bars. Relaxing your grip on the bars means you must lean forward in order to assist in keeping your torso stabilized" | ||
| 5liter |
Had this happen on my GL1100. I managed to ride through it, thank God. It happened quite fast so I don't know if I had a relaxed grip or not. I do know the seat cover was hard to remove from the MAJOR pucker factor. | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
So I am going to guess and say that instead of just the rear tire coming off the ground in my accident, the whole bike became airborne, and pogoed on the front tire causing the lock to lock tankslapper while still only on the front wheel, because once the rear wheel contacted the ground it was all over with a slam to the right... Midknyght, man thanks for the article, going to print it out nad add it to the bike books  |
