Well, I've totaled my bike because of the death wobbles. It was maybe the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced. Here's my story if you care to read...https://cbrforum.com/forum/f4i-main-forum-11/wrecked-89384/

The only information I've ever gotten regarding how to correct death wobbles is loosen grip and give it gas. But I've gotten such mixed advise that I figured I'd just try not to let it happen again

 

I was watching an interview with a rider that crashed from the wobble, and she said she should have let go of the bars. This coming from a pro. I was almost as confused as I was when introduced to counter steer. But after some research it all made sense.

 

Makes sense? Yeah, it does. Everything I've seen shows one of the worst things you can do in a tank slap is tighten up on the bars. The tighter you grab, the worse it gets and you begin fighting the bike's attempt to stabilize itself.

Would I let go of the bars? Hell no!

 

as a longboarder, I will throw my 2 cents in here.

pull the clutch in so its in nuetral, dont speed up or slow down as that will put extra strain on the bike and create more opportunities for an irregularity to become worse.

the BIGGEST thing that will get rid of it is light carving. go from side to side on the street you are on, but have them be long sweeping carves, not tight quick ones. Your front tire will be directed at something and the pressure from the turn will help lock it into place, allowing you to regain control.

I know im a newbie, but I hope this helps

 

Sorry, but trying to direct the front wheel by "carving" can put you in a ditch with your bike tumbling after you. The front wheel, tire and brakes weigh between 20-30lb on an average bike and that weight makes for tremendous gyroscopic force. If you don't put a death grip on the bars or apply brakes to the front, the bike will stabilize itself in short order. The main thing to remember is relax ...

 

I've actually gotten speed wobbles before when I was going about 40mph. I immediately let off the throttle and pulled in the clutch and the bike straightened out pretty quick. I didn't hit the brakes at all just pulled in the clutch and made sure not to fight the bike too much and it straightened out on its own.

It was probably the scariest thing that's happened to me so far while on my bike and I for sure thought I was gonna hit the ground hard! Thank God I didn't and I hope it never happens again.

 

sorry If some of this has been covered, but im a little late on this thread, and didnt read much of it.

MY EXPERIENCES

I have had many...MANY tank slappers, have never been downed form one

They can be devoloped from a million different causes. from coming down on a wheelie with the front wheel slightly turned, to accelerating while changing lanes and hittinga road reflector wrong.

In any situation, you never want to try and force the wobble to stop, this will result in a CRASH, let your arms go with the bars, keep the throttle on, or you will put more weight on the front wheel, and it the wheel is not straight then... you guessed it CRASH

This is one of those tricky things to learn, because you usually dont see them coming, but it is a skill to get them under control, one which takes practice, and practice for these is no fun, there is no real way to explane how to stop them, there all different

 

Yeah practice tank slap? F that. Buy a damper. I've only been riding since 05 and I've gotten the slap about three really good times. Only the most recent put me in the weeds. Brought the front wheel down over 100 and whether or not the front wheel was straight or it just reacted from the instant speed change, she was sent into some serious shake. I had a gixxer and with it I experienced this twice and purchased a gpr damper. That fixed that problem. With my 929, the first time I got tank slap it threw me off. Quite an experience. I now have a Scotts damper and so far I haven't put it through a serious test, but I haven't had the slap since. Good luck with the practice. It's quite a rush.

 

To add a slightly different perspective on this- what's going on here is a phenomenon we see OFTEN in control engineering- high gain instability. In any system with feedback control, excessively high gain (control inputs) results in an oscillation with growing amplitude. This occurs predictably, and with boring regularity. On a motorcycle, YOU are the feedback.

What this means to riders is, by stiffening up and attempting to correct the wobble, you are in fact feeding it. The wobble is occurring fast enough that your attempts to correct it occur at EXACTLY the wrong time. So, for example, your attempts to correct the bars to the right actually occur as the bars are moving to the right, amplifying the shake. The harder you fight, the more you feed the shake.

There are really only 3 ways to deal with this: adding a damper, snorting kryptonite to gain superhuman reflex speeds, or relaxing your control on the bars. If you relax, your own arm tissues act as effective dampers, and will stabilize the bars even faster than if you fell off (which would also stabilize the system).

 

snorting kryptonite, sounds like a plan.