MotoCrash

[CNF2002]

What happened with that speedwobble movie? What was going on with the bike there?

[Chip Beazley]

More on the high cost of wheelies:

My daughter’s boyfriend (aka Pseudo Son in Law) decided to do a wheelie stunt on his ZX10R a couple of weekends ago…we got a phone call late on Saturday afternoon from his riding buddy to bring the truck and trailer to pick up his bike because he had had an accident. The wife and daughter went out and picked him up, took him to the emergency room and brought the remains of his ZX10R to the house. He spent 4 hours in the emergency room getting a severe case of road rash attended to. Fortunately for him, no broken bones just a lot of scrapes, cuts and bruises.

The first thing I did when I saw the bike was to plaster one of Honda’s “Stupid Hurts” band aids on the bike. I talked to him when they brought him home from the emergency room and asked what happened…he was wearing a polar fleece gloves that caused the throttle to hang was the reply. (Yeah right and I didn’t fall off a turnip truck yesterday) Kid was doing wheelies and hit the powerband at 8000 RPM when things got away from him. I asked him if he learned anything from his incident (You know like the white flash that passes before your eyes and a quick review of your life follows…) and he said that what he learned was that he got over his fear of crashing. I told him quickly that was the ONE thing he never needed to get over and to always have a very strong memory of all the aches and pains he was feeling now the next time he was tempted to do something stupid.

The next day I rode my bike out to where he crashed and spent an hour walking back and forth at the scene of the accident. Found a lot of small parts and pieces of plastic. The accident from the first point of contact with the asphalt to where the bike ended up went for over 100 yards. The bike tumbled 3 times with 25 yards between impacts and then slid for another 25 yards on the left side where the pavement ground through the side cover of the engine and all the oil drained out where it stopped. Fortunately the engine had stopped running before then.

I even found the first impact point of his butt where it hit the asphalt because the point of impact was tinted blue and had denim threads ground into the pavement. (OUCH!)

The resultant damage to the bike: both rims totaled, gas tank severely dented, left clip on sheared off, seat and tail piece torn up and all plastic on the bike except the front fender, headlight and ram air duct broken. A 6 month old engineering marvel reduced to junk by 10 seconds of sheer stupidity. The cost of repair parts over the counter almost equals the original cost of the bike. I guess that he will be buying a lot of parts off ebay

He's still pissed about the "Stupid Hurts" band aid...

[sapaul]

Good for you Chip,

Rock on tough love.

[Kal]

Good for you Chip, and well done for the restraint.... I suspect a number of fathers would have taken the young man somewhere quiet by now to 'explain' things to him...

Polar fleece gloves? Sweet.

[scan]

It hurt my brain to think of this guy not getting that he should have learned a lesson. He shouldn't be afraid fall any more??? Damn. It makes me fear young people some times. Where's my cane?

[Dirtytoes]

Where's my cane?

lol

[Dirtytoes]

What happened with that speedwobble movie? What was going on with the bike there?

i have no idea but if i had to guess, i 'd have to say that something went wrong with the bike itself.

[Chip Beazley]

RE: The speed wobble movie...

A lot of bikes will develop a steering oscillation when decelerating from high speeds (way above legal speeds). I have read that the a lot of the crotch rockets are prone to doing it due to steep fork angles and little amount of trail designed in. This is an unfortunate tradeoff for nimble handling.

I have also read that Kawasaki ZX6s and ZX10s are pretty notorious for it and it becomes more prevalent with wear on the front tire. That is why people install steering dampers on their bikes. They help prevent this very scary phenomenon. Sadly the best way to get out of an o-ring puckering batch of tank slappers like this guy experienced is to get on the gas again and brake real hard to get below the speed where they occur real fast...not exactly what runs through your mind when you are trying to slow down for a corner.

Cruisers have a more streched out fork angle with a lot more trail angle designed in which results in a self centering tendency in their steering. This makes them more stable in a straight line at freeway speeds and requires more steeering effort to turn and as such are much less prone to experience lock to lock steering oscillations.

Steering wobbles can also be caused by an out of balance condition on the front tire, the front and rear wheels out of alignment, worn swingarm bearings or an axle nut not being tightened to specs. Rain grooves on pavement and steel grating on bridges can also cause a slight steering wobble.

If you are going to make a practice of riding really fast on a crotch rocket, a good steering damper is well worth the $450 - $500 they cost.

[Dirtytoes]

RE: The speed wobble movie...
If you are going to make a practice of riding really fast on a crotch rocket, a good steering damper is well worth the $450 - $500 they cost.

i myself am stil a little confused.....what exactly does the steering damper do?

[scan]

RE: The speed wobble movie...
If you are going to make a practice of riding really fast on a crotch rocket, a good steering damper is well worth the $450 - $500 they cost.

i myself am stil a little confused.....what exactly does the steering damper do?

Easy. The damper is connected to the bars and runs to the frame. It is a small shock absorber. It stops the handlebars from being free to just swing back and forth (a tank slapper). The lighter and sportier the bike the more likely a steering might help.