Topic: My first tank slapper today

[eigenvector]

Never really had to deal with bad accidents in all my years of riding, today my luck ALMOST changed.

I was commuting in on my BMW.

Riding in to work, 6 am, just coming off the highway onto the main drag and the road transition isn't particularly good.  Lots of seams and tar snakes.  I've never had a problem, but this morning - must have been some oil in the seam because my rear wheel slews out to the side.  I'm thinking - here it comes - high side city at 50 mph.  But then something catches, and the bars slam over to one side, I muscle it, they slew over to the other side, I'm straightening out, once more and then I'm back under control.

I pulled it over to see if I had blown my rear tire because it was riding squirrelly like that.

Not a single thing wrong.

Only event I could tie it in with is that quite a bit earlier I activated my rear brakes while on the road to make sure they were still with me.  I'm wondering if my rear pads locked up on me and skidded the tire on the tar snake.

[faux fiddy]

That tar can be slick, especially when it's hot. LYou lived to tell about it and have the experience for another time.

How'd your adrenaline glands work?  As well as the bike?

[trueblue]

I had something similar happen today, without the head shake.  I rounded a corner and found a pile of stones mid turn. The bike slid sideways about 2' before it caught grip. I was lucky I was only going steady, otherwise one way or the other I would have been on the deck.

[vfourfreak]

Tank slappers are not funny. Back in the day our local race track normally ran races "left hand in" or anti clockwise. Once a year for s**ts and giggles they would run an event the other way round. There was one fast section where youre lining up for a two stage righthander and on a TZ250 it shook the head visciously EVERY lap. Just got used to it and rode through it. Looking back however, I realise I should have been scared.

Kev

[Maurice]

That's not a tank slapper.

This is a tank slapper.

That being said glad you didn't go down. The temperatures changing make for slippery situations. It's likely your rear just lost grip then grabbed back, giving the sensation that the tire is rolling off the rim.

Good reflexes for catching that, man.

[eigenvector]

I appreciate the empathy. 

I definitely came close to loading my pants, but at the same time I am amazed at how well my body was able to figure out how to stabilize the bike without needing me to think about it.

The whole zen philosophy is true I think, relax and let the events happen.  Quit trying to control everything and it will all work out in the end.

[Retro Rocket]

Try and avoid grooved pavement, this is a common occurrence and caused by the grooves, sport bikes, with their bigger tires hate grooves, thick white lines can do a similar thing, makes the bike feel "squirrelly"  as the wheels track the change in surface...

[saltcitycafe]

Tar snakes and pavement grooves make my daily rider skitter around all the time. It scared me at first but I guess I have just gotten used to it and I just ride it out and expect it most of the time

[bwaller]

Now you have a tale for the Grandkids eigenvector! Well done riding through that.

Maurice, that poor lad had time to feel his pain before he fell. What adds to the problem is, he's opening & closing the throttle with the motion of the bars, it just can't be avoided. I can guarantee that front wheel was chirping with every touchdown. 

[faux fiddy]

Back in the day our local race track normally ran races "left hand in" or anti clockwise. Once a year for s**ts and giggles they would run an event the other way round.
Kev

Hallet is two tracks, CMRA schedules their  races go around opposite directions every other time.

[eigenvector]

Does reversing the course really make that big of a difference?

[Retro Rocket]

Does reversing the course really make that big of a difference?

If its not done very often then Yes, all the rubber laid down is on the racing line, in reverse that all changes with the new lines into the corners....

[vfourfreak]

Does reversing the course really make that big of a difference?

If its not done very often then Yes, all the rubber laid down is on the racing line, in reverse that all changes with the new lines into the corners....

As retro says, yes indeed,  but also at the time all the car events ran clockwise so their heavy braking had dug grooves into the tarmac. When bikes were running anticlockwise we were accelerating out of turns with the front wheel very light over their braking area so no great sweat,  but when we ran the same way as the cars our front end got into all sorts of bother with the grooved surface. Mostly everybody wound up the steering damper to full on and damned the torpedoes.

Kev