I was up reading the posts tonight and Mellow said something I meant to ask a while back. Tank Slappers - what is the cause? I had a friend who had it happen to him, and he said it was at high speed and hitting the road reflectors. Any tips on what they are and how to avoid them? I am not into busy handlebars.

 

Tank slapper is a lock to lock uncontrollable steering condition. Landing a wheelie goofy can cause it as well as hitting the brakes during a high speed wobble. A steering damper will virtually eliminate this happening. And powering through a wobble instead of braking will also help you avoid them.

 

Perfect answer!!!

A lot of people mistake the head shake you get from hard acceleration on uneven pavement as a tank slapper, but if you fight this head shake, for example; try to physically stop the head shake, chop the throttle or jab the front brake this harmless head shake will become a full out, stop to stop tank slapper and if that happens you're screwed!

Do what chainstrecher wrote and power through a wobble, or just maintain the throttle while relaxing your grip on the bars will help, but the best thing you can do is to have a loose, relaxed grip...

 

i have never had a serious wobble, is it the natural tendance to slam on the front brake or forcefully hold the bars, i just would like to know incase it ever hapens to me. i imagine most people would panic and do what ever feels naturall (PANIC). any more tips on correcting a bad wobble besides a steering dampner?

 

Knowledge is the first step and knowing the surface you're riding on helps too...if you know of bumpy sections of road (or track) don't ham fist the throttle in that area...as you should with everything on a motorcycle, your main goal should be to ride as smooth and relaxed as possible...being loose on the bars will let the bike straighten itself out, because at speed a bike really wants to be upright and go straight, you could literally jump off the bike and it would roll away from you upright until it slowed enough or hit something, so being loose in the case of head shake lets the bike correct itself. If you get some head shake you might have to consciously tell yourself to relax, because a rider's initial reaction is to fight it or try to correct it themselves.

 

Tank slapper...............?

Please explain this or elaborate because i have absolutely no idea of what you guys are talking about.

 

see the above post from chain, but to put it in other words the handle bars of the bike turn back and forth slapping the tank. TANKSLAPPER, I was told this is where they got the name but I could be wrong. Roll down the road and wiggle the bars back and forth quickly and that is a fraction of how it feels, I got one on my old bike and it soiled my undies I actually think I pissed myself, or it could have been sweat, either way I was scary, and yes hitting the throttle was a difficult thing to get myself to do.

 

Tankslapping is when backhand your tank after your bike's been cheating on you. It's general practice to "You dirty Ho!" while slapping the tank.

 

and this joke is called "knee slapping..."