+1 steering stabilizer!

The kawi zx10r i'm presently flogging is the most foot loose and fancy free of any bike I've ridden... couldn't imagine it without a damper. This is surprising considering my duc 749 has the steepest rake of all bikes and felt like it was on rails!

Your story is a good reminder to pay close attention to the road surface. Ive been riding ten years now on the street without one  incident that I would call a "real crash". I think a lot of this is because of what I learned in the old Motocross/dirtbike/mountainbike days. It was very good  experience and I highly recommend that everybody get some of this if you can. Things I learned. Cattle guards & slick tree roots are not your friend. learn to read the surface your riding on. Front end washouts are not necessarily the end of the world. Painted surfaces are slick too. Full face helmets save your face. Deer & other animals like to run out in front, to name just a few...

That being said, there is always some unexpected thing waiting to happen, and I hope that when it does, I have enough time to do something about it. I have no desire to ever crash on the street. But I feel it must be coming sooner or later.

Thanks for the story and pics Scott

Thanks for the write up. Glad your still riding. Very sobering when it comes to gear. Now I'm re-thinking. Time for leather pants.

great write up scott!
thanks for sharing on you anniversary.

Thanks for sharing your story.  That was a crazy ass cattle guard.  Ive gone threw a few but they did not seem to be that big or wide.  Glad you are able to share this today.  Makes a person think twice about going out without gear.  Thank you.

Great write up!  I need to upgrade my gear...

Thank You!

Excellent.. thanks for sharing...

COULD A STEERING DAMPER THEN BE CONSIDERED A PREVENTIVE MEASUREMENT?  if so, i will be shopping for one.

i remember when you posted that "what did i do wrong?" back then...  to be honest, at the time i read it, i never had even heard of a tank slapper.  it definitely made me think when approaching hazards like that, though. 

here's to another five accident free years 

Quote from: Cucciolo on October 06, 2008, 08:43:05 PM
Excellent.. thanks for sharing...

COULD A STEERING DAMPER THEN BE CONSIDERED A PREVENTIVE MEASURE?  if so, i will be shopping for one.

yes! when i had my slapper i had called the factory to talk to someone about the light front end. the guy on the phone at the factory had the same accident high sided and broke his collarbone too. toooo coincidental !!!

Quote from: Raux on October 06, 2008, 09:25:20 PM
yes! when i had my slapper i had called the factory to talk to someone about the light front end. the guy on the phone at the factory had the same accident high sided and broke his collarbone too. toooo coincidental !!!

Damn it..  gotta go shopping for a steering damper now... is this ever going to end.. 

Quote from: ScottRNelson on October 04, 2008, 07:43:03 AM
Five years ago today I crashed.

Congrats, five years is a good start!

I'm coming up for 7 years in a couple of weeks, I'm trying to ignore the incident a few weeks back where I had a car run into me and my Honda while I was sitting at a red light since it was clearly not my fault and I didn't get hurt at all... (tho the "no my fault" argument could work on the Oct '01 crash too, I got collected from behind by a Land Cruiser...)

Questions, was your bike running stock geometry when it slapped you off? Any raised rear ride height or lowered front? Were the tires in good condition and correctly inflated? A 60 or 70 profile front?

I'm just trying to get a better understanding of how common tankslappers are and what makes them more likely... Thomas, from back when the DML was still a Mailing List, got slapped off his 900, but he had lowered the front and fitted clipons. I've had my M750 slap once, like you over a crest on a gentle curve - mine slapped twice or maybe three times then sorted itself out (due to no particular skill on my part, it was _way_ too fast for me to have reacted). I was lucky to have enough space to get back on line for the road, but it _did_ slap violently enough to unscrew one mirror which ended up just flopping around in its screwhole...

big

Thanx Scott, great writeup, been accident free for 8 years now, incuding track riding.

The last accident had me scared so I ride like a little girl now, ( sorry ladies )

Quote from: bigiain on October 06, 2008, 10:29:03 PM
Questions, was your bike running stock geometry when it slapped you off? Any raised rear ride height or lowered front? Were the tires in good condition and correctly inflated? A 60 or 70 profile front?

Stock geometry with correct sag having been set for my weight.  No raising or lowering.  However, the fork springs were a little bit stiffer than stock.  Tires were in good condition and I believe they were inflated properly.  Front was a 120/70-17.

The bike worked really well in the turns and was way better than a few months before when, apparently, the fork oil had degenerated.  I had them revalved and refurbished just 300 miles or so before this happened.

It should be noted that the 1997 Monster had the 23 degree rake while later ones went to 24 degrees, if that makes much difference.  If you ride a bike like my ST2, then get on a Monster, you can tell right away that the Monster has a much more twitchy front end.  It might be the handlebar width as much as the steering geometry, but it's fairly obvious.  That's what I noticed when I was test riding all of the bikes before I decided I really prefer an ST2.

As I've mentioned before, I was one of those saying that Monsters don't really need steering dampers.  Right up until the time that I needed one.  You've all been warned.

Hey Scott,
When you had the fork work done, were the forks removed for service?  I remember thinking at the time that you having a violent tankslapper just a few hundred miles after fork work was quite a coincidence. (Plus never having had any indication of problems before, despite the occasional wheelie.)  I'm wondering if they might have put them back in the bike in a way that changed the geometry or harmonics.

Quote from: Michael Moore on October 07, 2008, 06:57:25 AM
When you had the fork work done, were the forks removed for service?  I remember thinking at the time that you having a violent tankslapper just a few hundred miles after fork work was quite a coincidence. (Plus never having had any indication of problems before, despite the occasional wheelie.)  I'm wondering if they might have put them back in the bike in a way that changed the geometry or harmonics.

I removed and installed the forks myself and made sure that they were at the exact same height as before.  They worked very well in the twisties.