i was riding up the 219 towards springville from elicottville. i was not riding out of my skill level. i was humming along about 65-70 mph. i caught up to a buick doing about 55 or so. guy was all over the board, braking for no reason and stuff like that.
i was in a passing zone with no oncoming traffic. though i wouldn’t have done it in a car, i knew i could accelerate fast enough to pass the guy with no problem.
i dropped to third and passed him. as i was coming back over into my lane, there was some sort of break in the pavement. it was slightly wider than my front tire and a couple inches deep. my front tire gets stuck in this and it stretches for a few hundred feet. handlebars go all over the damn place and i think i’m going to eat shit. i didn’t think it was a good idea to hit the brakes. i really wasn’t sure what to do, so i leaned to the right pretty hard and bounced out of it.
it was sketchy as fuck, but i pulled out of it. i’d really never been in a situation like that, and had no idea how to handle it. is there a safer more appropriate way to get out of something like that so i know for future reference?
That is called an “edge trap.” Your shit’s going all over the place because when you get your front wheel up against a flat edge you can’t steer. Imagine easing your way over till your wheels are rubbing against a curb. Same principle.
You will see them a lot between lanes during road work. Fear signs that read “caution, uneven pavement” and stuff like that. Train tracks that don’t run perpendicular to the road are another to watch out for.
If you have to cross one, say if you’re in the left lane and the right lane is a different elevation, go all the way to the left, give a push on the right bar, and straighten up as you cross the edge trap. Basically swerving. Again, imagine how you would ride over top of a curb. You would hit it as square as possible.
Once fucked up and into the situation where you’re caught on one, well, I don’t know. I would hold on tight and try to ease away, as a hard swerve might just upset the bike more. Although you got out of it without dying, so I guess you can’t argue with results.
EDIT: Just saw that it was a double edge trap sort of gig. Easing away obviously wouldn’t have worked. I probably would have either done what you did or held on for dear life while slowing down. Probably the latter unless it was about to get worse.
Yeah I’m not sure that I would try to fight it too hard. It’s hard to apply the same logic here as a shaker. I’d probably just hold it lightly to avoid going into a tank slapper, and ease out of it.
that’s what i was thinking. clearly my rear tire is much wider than my front, so it wouldn’t get stuck in this divot. i was thinking next time a stand ub burn out wheelie would be sufficient to take care of the situation.
had there been those signs, i certainly would have been more careful. i didn’t see them, and didn’t know. you hit the nail on the head though. pulling out of it, i felt like i had just jumped a curb or something. i guess you really can’t plan for a situation like that.
your advice sounds good in theory. come to think of it, if i had cut back to the left, it might have been easier to get out of it. all i could think of was get back into my lane because at this point i was rapidly approaching a blind curve and would have rather hit a ditch than oncoming traffic.
would it have helped to shift my weight towards the back of the bike?
Yes I was. I saw you and wanted to say hi but didn’t catch up in time. By the time I came around the corner you were gone. The car is woodys. I have it on a loan for a brief period of time.
Eh I doubt it. I guess I don’t really know but one quick countersteering shove to get out of it, as you did, may have been the best way.
Tank slappers and weaves have a harmonic property. Some will claim that the best way out of a weave is a wheelie. That would work because it would eliminate the input at the front wheel that is sending you back and forth.
But if the front wheel doesn’t come up immediately all you’re doing is increasing the frequency of the harmonic and sending yourself into the weeds a little faster. I’ve always gotten out of weaves by shutting the throttle and holding on. Slower = less force, so it gets less and less powerful until you can regain control. Just a theory.
As for being caught in a groove… It didn’t sound like slowing down was an option for you regardless of whether or not it would have helped. Tossing yourself out of the groove probably was the best course of action.
? Has this worked for you? I’m not doubting, just asking.
As a biker, you should be processing these things before you get to them. You’re tire shouldn’t fall into a hole going down a highway, because you should have seen the hole, recognized it then avoided it. I don’t mean to say that you aren’t a good rider, but we all know that you need to be way more alert on a bike for circumstances like yours. :uhh:
^ to Fry : I don’t know about letting off throttle. When you cut the throttle the bike lunges forward and start slamming back and forth a little harder before calming down. Might be enough to put you over if your not careful.
You’re right about the harmonic part. And more speed is certainly not always the answer, but has worked for me before. I guess it depends on how deep in shit you are at the time. Or if your mid turn.
That makes sense. More speed and leaning back would unload the front wheel a good amount. I’ve also never been in more than a tight weave. Maybe that’s why slowing down has worked for me despite the weight transfer. :shrug:
in a slapper, another benefit of gassing it: even if the front wheel does not lift, it will cause the rear end to squat, effectively increasing the rake angle. The greater the rake angle, the more inherently stable the system becomes.
If the steering rake is zero degrees off of the vertical, the bike has neutral equilibrium. (a ball on a flat plane)
If the steering angle is positive, the system has stable equilibrium (a ball in a bowl)
If the steering angle is negative, you are in a constant state of unstable equilibrium (think of a ball balanced on top of an inverted bowl)
The lower the rear end, the greater the rake, thus the more damped the oscillations become.
This is why when people do “stoppies” it’s VERY easy to get “shakes”
wrd, getting on the throttle pushes the weight to the back
first day out on my 636 a few years back; full leathers, knee on the ground going around lafayette circle. Hit some shitty pavement and get headshake super hard. Get on the throttle and straighten it out, only I was used to my 01 r6; the 636 stood right up, damn thing’s got more power than my other 600’s
edit: buy a steering damper. people who ride without dampers are stupid. end of story.
I never thought of that. That’s a good point. Heck, the rake angle and trail length are the reason why sport bikes are more susceptible to slappers in the first place. I wonder if a bike squats enough to change the angle by more than a degree or two? Granted that might be enough…
