Tank Slapper

[Two Smoker]

Hey everyone,

I saw the famous footage that Le Mans reposted of the tank slapper.... That got me thinking, how many of you have had a tankslapper and what were the consequences....?? also were there instances where you rode it out, ie accelerating to lift the front wheel..? I hope like anything it wont happen to me, but im sure it will one day.......

Cheers everyonce

[James Deuce]

Hey everyone,

I saw the famous footage that Le Mans reposted of the tank slapper.... That got me thinking, how many of you have had a tankslapper and what were the consequences....?? also were there instances where you rode it out, ie accelerating to lift the front wheel..? I hope like anything it wont happen to me, but im sure it will one day.......

Cheers everyonce

Had one on my RG400 going like the clappers along the Paekakariki rd. It was along the bit near the Pauatahanui village where there is a couple of final twisties to finish off the ride heading Sth. Banked left, then right, and nailed it mid corner. Hit a bump just as the front went light. Lucky for me the front came off the ground and the front stayed stable as it landed or I would have been through a fence and into a paddock.

[Lou Girardin]

Yeah, on a CB750 MOT bike. Started at 140km/h, finally spat me off at 100. I used to bounce in those days.
The bosses put an 80 km/h limit on them for a while after that.
Lou

[wkid_one]

Yup - had a blinder not long after I got the R1. Combination of heavy right hand, light front end and a small bump on the exit of a corner saw me wiggle my way down the next 50m.

Had a few more since then. I just let the front end do its thing and try not to hang on to the bars too tight to avoid transfering any of the movement to the rear of the bike - it tends to sort itself out. Had I not sold the R1 - I would have had a damper on it pretty soon.

[Jackrat]

Twice,First time on a Suzuki T500,That one I buttoned off and it came right.
Second one was a Suzuki GS 850G and it spat me off and then landed on top of me.Also known as a straight line high side.Not fun.!!
The 850's were well known for it.
My current bike could also do it without to much encouragement.
Next on the shopping list is a good stearing damper.

[Racey Rider]

Yep! One here!
Pushing the RZ250 a little hard on the way home, along a narrow back country road I'ld ridden lots of times. leaning into the corner tightly, (not getting the knee down ofcourse, couse you'ld end up with cow S... all over your jeans), maybe a little TOO tightly. Pothole! Or should I say, Edge of the road hole, Slap, Slap, Slap, Slap, Slap then came right. It wasn't cow S... over my jeans that day!

[wkid_one]

Second one was a Suzuki GS 850G and it spat me off and then landed on top of me.Also known as a straight line high side.Not fun.!!
.

And not overly pleasant to watch either....ouch. I still remember the one with the motogp rider who got flicked off the bike but held on and was sliding along the track standing up beside the bike trying to slow it down - now he deserved a DB

[speedpro]

I've ridden Kawasaki triples and Z1s, and a Honda CB750. So plenty of tank slapping at times. The closest to departing the bike was on the old club circuit at Puke just coming off the main circuit towards the start/finish on a GSX1100. The front was coming off the ground as it swapped sides and the front engine mounting bolt was missing afterwards, probably the cause. People on the hill afterwards said they could hear the front tyre chirping. I ended up sitting on the gas cap.
My brother had a cracker on his GPz600R on a corner just out of Rottenrua when he clipped a bump while peeled into a corner. No warning on that one just straight into a full on tank slapper and into the weeds. I'd hit it on my GPz500S and thought it might cause a problem for him and checked the mirrors just in time to see him disappear. I think those 16" front wheel Kawasakis were worse than the older bikes, except the triples, as they were either sweet or tank slapping to the stops with no warning.
The McIntosh wiggles a bit down the front straight at Puke, especially if the damper isn't wound in but you can fix that by either backing off a bit to plant the front or gassing it to stop it skipping from bum to bump. Actually not too sure if backing off would fix it, haven't deliberately tried it.

[speedpro]

bum?? Wrong forum - sorry!

[FROSTY:Me]

The old club circuit at pukekohe used to have a lip about 40mm high just before the start finish line. I think everybody got tank slappers to one extent or the other. The worst one I was involved in was a kwakka KR1 rider who's slapper just seemed to get worse and worse till he finally got shaken off the bike -It happened ruight in front of me just as I was hitting the line that caused the tankslappers. Shat me daks as I tried to control my bike and steer round the debris.
In between race bikes I used to punt an ex cop xj750 round tauranga raceway. Those that remember the place will remember turn one was a decreasing radius corner with a wicked bump at the end.
The old XJ used to give a real nasty slapper as she hit that bump.

[Jackrat]

Any body know what you are supposed to do when it happens.??
The first time it happened to me I backed off and was lucky.
With my 850 it would always start to wobble a bit at 120km so you just pushed it through,when you came back down it would give a little shake again at 120 but wasn't much to worry about.The day it chucked the big one I had just passed a car on a passing lane with a corner in it.That time she slapped instantly with no warning as I came out of the corner.
That was on the first passing lanes after turning off the motoway heading for Puke' just past the apple place.
I have a thing about stearing head bearings and correct suspension set up now days.

[Vagabond]

Had a few in my time riding, especially in the 80's, Z750 ,Z1000.
Had a really bad fall on the Z750 actually wrote the bike off as it had holes on both sides of the tank where the clubmans punched through, the tank slap started when I hit a really good bump in the road (dead straight) was busy accelerating and can remember seeing the needle creep past 160km/h, thats when all hell broke loose
Initially I also thought you could just keep accelerating out of it, I actually dropped a gear when I realised things wern't improving, I then locked my arms at the elbows and that was the end for me as the handlebars then started to shake me around like a rag doll!
The next thing I remember was my elbow hitting the ground and I was still basically in the riding position, but the bike was going down the road on it's side the foot peg dug in and I was then thrown high side. Boy was that painfull.

The next day I went back to the crash site and only then did I realise how lucky I was to still be walking around, as from the first scratch marks to where I stopped was just under 200m, the bike carried on for another 50 odd meters where it ended up against a tree.

But my reason for writing is that Iv'e learnt to keep accelerating when in a tank slap and apply the rear brake at the same time this tends to straighten it out very quickly.

Hope my advice will help you out in your time of need !

[Wonko]

Had it happen to me twice, both post crash. First time shoot off from the Greenlane/Manauku road lights and hit 80ish and saw nothing ahead of me till the next red light, so sat up and took both hands of the bars. As I slowed down passing 70 the bars started to slap, managed to grab both, change down a gear, and hold on. As soon as I'd changed gear it disapeared, leaving only a brown stain in my pants to show it had ever happend. times slowing down while going along Greenlane road.

Next time heading off the motorway at Greenlane, sat more upright putting less weight on the handles, and letting the rev's slow me down. As I was about to change down the bars gave a quick one-two-three-four before I clicked down. Again magiclly disapearing.

[Ghost Lemur]

[Spot the n00b]

What's a tank slapper?

[/Spot the n00b]

[DEATH_INC.]

Had a good one on my mates TL1000s out hunua,just pulling past my mate doing about 240kph and she just went mental,no real reason.Kept her nailed (good old MX learning ) and it just got worse and worse,the whole bike was leaping from side to side (the rear was trying to come around )my mate who owned it was following and said he could see daylight under both wheels.....got to the point I knew it wasn't gonna come out of it and started looking for somewhere to crash it(I still had a bit of directional control.....)and decided to try to slow down a bit before I hit the ground ,and buttoned off(amazing how fast yer brain works in these situations isn't it?)......and it stopped Didn't ride it far after that
When I gave it back to my mate(after a quick change of daks)He told me 'yeh it does that,I just button off and it stops'(though he'd never had it happen that fast....)