So having dropeed off my new set of Pirelli Sport Demons at the the tyre fitters I returned on my Le Mans to have them fitted.I was following a van at about 40mph and decided to overtake it, so went up to about 50mph and cruised past. To do so I had to overtake on the wide painted lines that keep the two lanes separate. They were quite thick and the front end started bouncing, very quickly I went into a full lock tank slapper, with the front tyre skidding over the white lines. I thought, this is it: down I go. By some miracle (no skill involved, even though I have done lots of off road) I held it. With my heart in my mouth I conitinued my journey and got my new tyres on.Thinking about this (which happened yesterday) I think that it was a combination of the speed I was doing and the thickness of the paint on the road surface -I reckon if I was going 5 mph faster I would have gone across them rather than bounced across them if that makes sense.I am now thinking about getting a steering damper fitted, even though nothing has like this has happened before.What’s the consenus on this -also any recommendations on steering dampers suitable?
A good investment which works on any bike is a weekend with i2imca.com. MC1 and 3 include tankslappers…Or yoga may help:- YouTube
You were riding on worn out tyres which will certainly have an effect.
The tyres were actually pretty new, but very old. They were fitted when I finished the bike last year ‘new’, but were manufactured in the 90’s!The front was over sized at 110 and I have gone back to the original 100 size…
steering damper makes a massive difference to the steering stability, eps on a troublesome bike with 16" like mine…but i have found to my cost that you wind it up enough to work well on the main roads and lanes then you cannot turn out of a junction as the steering is too hard :-(appart from that im very happy with the differnce one has made to my bike
on my ntx/xpa i had some real fun untill i fitted a steering damper ,its just so much more stable .Next on the list is a damper for the T5 im really riding it now and when over on the limit it sometimes feels like a tank slapper is just waiting to happen and for peace of mind i need to fit one .I go cheap but if i had more money and was not so tight i would go for a good one .
very true ,only ever once had a real tank slapper and that was when my norton rear wheel collapsed
Yes Baldini, this was most definately a proper tank slapper -full lock, side to side, it felt like a bucking bronco. I have done a lot of off roading and not at all bothered by a bit of head shake. This was my first (and I sincerely hope, only) full blown slapper.As I said it was by pure chance that I held on. I backed off the throttle a bit (too busy trying to hang on) and it stopped. I think it was a combination of the 110 tyre (an old Metzeler, which could well have been a rear), and the speed I was travelling at over the painted tramlines, was perfect for getting the front bouncing then into a full blown tank-slapper.I have to say it scared the bl**dy life out of me!The Pirelli Sport Demons. Well what can I say? Only done about 80 miles on them but boy, they are a world of difference. The turn-in is so quick and they appear to have worlds more grip than the old Metzelers I had on. Not properly scrubbed in yet, but so far really, very impressed indeed. You feel you can really push them and then some…Will let you know in a month or two how they progress…
Two people have told me now (if you’re reading this and one of them was you I apologise for not remembering your name)
Tyres over x (where I think x is 5 years??) are automatically considered dangerous by insurance companies and can invalidate your insurance should you need to claim.
As the Daytona has its original tyres with less than 3000kms on them, I am loathed to change them… but maybe I should?
Regards
Adam
Take 'em off and store them if you think the originality will bring a price premium at some point.
Glad you held on, and that it’s a tale to tell & not for us to mourn you over.
Ride easy, Dan.
+1