HOLY SHIT!! (my first tank slapper)

:eek: Dear Lord! I had my first tank slapper tonight and had visions of when I totalled a '92 FZR 1K. It was terrible! I went back and looked and sure enough, little skid marks about 3' apart for about 30'. This was even scarier than when I almost high sided on my old bike. I thought I was going to total the R1 I just bought a week ago (and was picking up from a valve adjustment). Here's the story: I was coming up to a red stoplight and it turned green so I downshifted and hit it. I still can't do much of a wheelie but the front end must have come up because the next thing I knew the bike was shaking back and forth. I yelled "Oh Shit, not again!" and my knees were banging back and forth against the tank. It got a little worse, then subsided by itself. I checked to make sure I didn't have any brown squishy mass in my underwear and thanked god that my bike was still ok. After this experience I'm even more reluctant to try and get the wheelie thing going. Very few of the wheelie instruction posts warn about this. Ok, I understand what causes tank slappers, but how do I avoid them? I almost feel like I should be learning this on a bike that is much less good looking. (still shaky) Dave. :eek:

Get a damper, don't put your weight on your hands, use your lower back to support your body weight and don't grip the bars so tight that your putting additional input into them. If the slappers start, relax your grip(I know, it's hard but the more you fight them, the more the oscillations will get transferred to the rear of the bike) and I repeat, get a damper.:fact

Yeah, we should warn.. but someone that is hot on learning wheelies won't read "you'll get a tankslapper and might crash".. part. Lucky you came out of it. I've gotten a few slappers too.. they are not funny. I've also crashed because of a tankslapper (one serious one.. remember Isle of man TT? that's how I went down..) Like most.. get a damper. The R1 needs it.

You were probably doing one of two things, you were either in first but reletivly high in the rev and so didn't pull the wheel high enough off the ground to avoid the slap. OR You were in second and hit the throttle hard, but once again, not enough to bring it high enough, so the front wheel skipped on the road, and with stiff wrists, you end up slapping. Alot of 'science' has gone into working out what to do in a tank slapper, and if my memory serves me right..... At the beggingin of a tank slapper, if it's not too bad, simply lay off the gas. If however you're already well into a vigourous tank slap, then supposidly suddenly hitting hard on the gas should bring you out of it. I suppose the theory being that you lighten the front end, and hence allow yourself to regain control of it.(Takes more bollox than it sound, as your natural reaction is to let off the gas.) Please let me know if you have any input on this, I'd hate for someone to follow these instructions and endup bending their bike around a lamp post. Thanx

I was thinking that would be one way to get out of it. If it is occurring becuase one side is loaded while the other is rebounding, if you get the weight off the front it should let it settle out.

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: damn! Thats some scary stuff! I checked to make sure I didn't have any brown squishy mass in my underwear and thanked god that my bike was still ok. :D :D :D

you think thats scary!!! try getting a vicious slapper at 140 mph. There was a ridge in the pavement to change into the far left lane (maybe they just added the lane?). The closest thing I can equate it to is the starwars episode 1 speeder thingies when they crash... that is what it feels like is happening. my friend also got one at 160 mph, by the time the bike worked itself out it was going 60 mph, bled off 100 mph of speed! gotten a really bad one at 90 also. now I have a scotts and its all good, the headshake is no longer present. I definitely wouldn't recommend wheelies without a damper.

When is the last time you had your steering head checked/tightened? Do you have cupped tires due to slung weights???? Both of these can help induce slaps... If all is fine, get a dampner!

Just remember guys....although a DAMPER (not damPner...sorry guys &girls-but that gets annoying... is ;) ) is a great investment and is highly reccomended - not to mention mandatory on many tracks, it's certainly not the ultimate "wheelie insurance" and slappers can and still do happen with them. I'm sure this is commen knowlege to most- i just wouldn't want someone who is just learning about many of these things to just go out and by an Ohlins or Scotts or whatever and figure they are now invinceable to slaps. Ride safe everyone:thumbup

Ummm....sorry for flaming the "Dampner" spelling when i made a bunch more typo's in the same sentance! See: "reccomeded"! Ha! :eek: :lol

Decent tyres and properly set-up suspension goes a long way to helping with headshake too don't forget.

I had a 2000 R1 and came down off of a 3rd gear stand up. As soon as the front wheel hit the pavement it was all over. Bike shook hard as hell for about 200 feet. I tried to nail the gas (Worked on other tankslappers I had) but I landed the wheelie at the end of 3rd gear, so when I hit the gas, I had nothing but rev limiter. Tried letting off the gas and it got worse. The next thing I knew I saw a telephone pole straight in front of me. I don't know if I jumped or got thrown, but I went through a corn field at about 100MPH, and somehow came out with a paper cut size scratch on my finger. There was nothing left of the bike, and about 20 feet was missing from the telephone pole (It was a full size wood pole). I had a Scotts damper on order from Star Cycle for 7 weeks. They lost the order, then lost my address, etc. etc. :machinegu I got the damper 2 days after I wrecked. Anyways, point of the story, I think a damper would have saved the wreck, but I don't know. I got a Scotts and thats the first thing that went on the 02. Just In Case.......:thumbup

wow t-pole, thats one hell of a story. "i just wouldn't want someone who is just learning about many of these things to just go out and by an Ohlins or Scotts or whatever and figure they are now invinceable to slaps" ok this is an honest question, but how would a slapper persist if a damper was fitted correctly (assuming no hardware failure)? I honestly can't see how a slapper would overpower a damper for any serious length of time, each slap cycle the damper should considerably reduce shaking...

At the track here in hawaii, the back straight is kind of rough. When going down at about 110 - 120 mph you get some bad headshake - that's with a Scotts. the dampener does not stop it from happening, but it makes it managable. There is NO WAY I would ride hard without one. Yamaha should have put it on the bike!

I agree that you can still have a high speed wobble with a damper that is working right. But, I don't think that you will have a full blown tankslapper where the bars are slapping from full lock to full lock. My tankslapper on my 2000 R1 was so violent that I couldn't get my feet back up to the pegs. I don't want anyone to feel invinceable with a steering damper. I orderd it for my last R1 as insurance against a bad tankslapper. I heard that you don't need one with a 2002, but I got one again, for insurance against another tankslapper. I don't want to go through that again, because I know that I will not come out so lucky next time.

It is my view and I ride hard track and street that a damper will stop a crash inducing slap. True you will get some shakes when landing inconsistantly but you will pull through. Put your weight back and for God sake don't grip so hard. Anyone who rides an R1 at any level without a damper is insane or alot better than I am.:crash

If you keep your weight off your wrists during a wheelie, especially on landing, then you should avoid tankslappers. I can almost say, I've never had one, that is large enough to scare me at least. Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe I have good technique when it comes to landing a wheelie. Either way, a damper always helps...and listen to the other guys instructions on how to avoid tankslappers. Pointless for me to write them since there are many on this subject above my reply. GOOD LUCK!!:rock

hi everybody. what a great mix of wheelie-gurus and wheelie-wannabees we all are! call me old fashioned, but i like to make most out of what i can, and i think the standard R1 without all your turbo kits and steering dampers is, by itself - a major kick ass machine! you can lift front wheel in basically all gears if you ride it right. you can avoid tank slappers if you're riding truly as one with the One - (love the caption on top of this page). my R1 introduced me to the world of unexpected wheelies on the way home from buying it. riding home for the first time i took off from the traffic lights and before i knew it i was letting the throttle go because i couldn't see where i was going! the nose rose up and came down hard... as if to say 'don't f*** with me'! so i don't f*** with her, much. and she rises now on command, and only when the time is right. speed is irrelevant, its all balance and respect for the bike. i think a good rider can wheelie on a standard R1 anytime, and providing you don't push the limits too far, you can do it confidently without a damper. of course if your poppin' wheelies on a daily basis though, a damper would be good in the long run. the fun really starts when you have a pillion on the back! ride safe everyone .. and make sure you get home safely so you can :beer and realise how lucky you are to be alive AND ride an R1 !! :thumbup

Enjoy the whole wheelie thing myself, have had the odd headshake but nothing serious and no more than I'd expect on a bike like the R1. However, I'm inclined to think that I've been lucky so far and should get a steering damper . . . . Surely the dampers which provide low speed/ high speed damping offer much more protection against slappers than single rate dampers - single rate being Ohlins, M Toby etc while Hyperpro, Scotts and Matris are all high speed/ low speed dampers which provide more damping when the bars move quickly and less when it moves slowly. I'm trying to decide which one to buy right now, but there's not a lot of info on'm. MCN here in the UK did a review but the only low speed/ high speed damper they tested was the Hyperpro and they said it was too stiff for normal riding. Haven't heard much on the Matris or Scotts dampers. Anyone got any info on this? Those of you with the Scotts dampers, has it affected the low speed riding? If you try and force the bars quickly while you're stationary can you feel the high speed damping working?

Sorry SpeedRacer, but I have to disagree that you can avoid tank slappers just through riding technique. We have to ride our bikes under everyday conditions, and that includes irregular tarmac. My first and only tankslapper was while doing 160kph on a stratight on a highway ... I was not accelerating, nor leaning the bike, it was just that the tarmac was deformed into small "waves" for like 2 km. Once the front wheel started rebounding over these waves (which are quite difficult to see from afar as they are just minor ondulations on the tarmac surface), my tankslapeer was served. 2 weeks later I mounted a Scotts damper. Since then I have gone through the same area several times without a problem. QuentyB, I have not had any trouble with my damper under slow speed conditions, despite the fact that I like to set it on the hard side just to feel that it is working. You eventually get used to it. Or, in any case, you can just change the setting depending on whether you are going to ride on the city or go wheel burning across the countryside ...

Like many of your other R1 bruther'en have said here ... one word "damper". I just got my 02 R1 two months ago and have almost 1000 miles on it. This post will help my convince the wife that I need to invest in a damper since the last crash I had snapped my ankle coming down off a wheelie and the front tire hit uneven pavement. Tank slaps at 65 then boom, ended up laying in the fast lane of the highway at 10:30pm. An angel was there because the guy behind me claimed to be an off duty medic in a jeep with a CB. He called in the ambulance, laid out flares and made sure I didn't get run over or go into shock. When the ambulance came he disappeared so I never had a chance to thank him. Do I believe in God, heck yes, do I believe in angels, heck yes. No one else saw him except me and my two friends even though there were plenty of other peeps arounds.....

BTW, anyone have any good websites or recommendations where I can pick up a damper on-line for my 02 R1?...to avoid sale tax

Think I remember a company selling some caind of sponge that goes in to your tank and helps to stop tank slaps. I don't rememver the url do :(