Victory Vision crash

[trip]

Hmmmm.....ABS malfunction?

[tazfl]

Originally Posted by Trip

Hmmmm.....ABS malfunction?

he didn't have ABS on his vision Trip. If you look at the last post on the 1st page of this thread you'll see where i posted the guys actual comments about what happened.

[dantama]

Here is a video of a racer hanging on for a while in a much worse wobble



This one shows a guy doing a wheelie (the one out the passenger window) and comes down in such a way as to start a wobble.




And it can happen on a pedal bike too.



We all try to find a "reason" when something goes wrong, and usually settle on a reason, whether it is what truly caused it or not.
Watching the shadow, and then watching his windscreen in high quality mode I didn't see any huge fork dive, and didn't hear the real wheel locking up. Could have happened though.

We get tons of fork dive on a Nomad when doing an emergency stop, and I've locked my rear wheel in about every true emergency stop I've had. I've never heard of that causing a tank slapper.

But tank slappers do happen, more on certain bikes than others. I don't know how much rake and trail have to do with it, but sport bikes do it more. A certain line of Harleys are known to do it also. I thought the Harley riders were just whacked, till a friend had a tank slapper at freeway speed on his Harley. I knew he wasn't whacked, and it put him on the pavement.

I've never heard of it happening on a Nomad, and time will tell if it happens enough on a Vision to get peoples attention, or if it was an isolated incident. If I heard it happening a handful of times on a Vision in a short time, I doubt that I'd ride one.

He may have been able to ride this one out further if he had presence of mind to do so (not easy). I've seen racers ride one most of the way into a corner slapping side to side before eventually going down when the whole bike got into the oscillations. This guy seemed to go into the brush after only a few wobbles. It may take a racers skill and instincts to continue to try to ride through one, though there are youtube vids of regular people ridding through one.

Here is an extreme example of a racer recovery, not that he could pull it off twice.

[dantama]

One more thought

I'm surprised to hear that whacking your face on a pole is better with just your skin, rather than a full face helmet; as he said that the doctor told him in his posting.

Doctors are great at letting riders safe face when crashing with no helmet, or the wrong helmet. I had doctors say that when I crashed with no helmet, the result would have been the same with a helmet on. I guess it kept my family off my case.

Who here would really, when having the choice of letting someone hold a metal post and line up like a batter and take a whack at your face, would choose a half helmet to be safer?

I think the doctor is just letting him not feel so embarrassed in front of family, and have to take all their crap about not wearing a better helmet.

If I get to choose, I'm wearing a full face helmet when getting whacked by a metal post.

[jamiep24]

I'll take full-face helmets for two hundred, Dan. (little Jeopardy humor there)............ I may be wrong, but I would lean towards driver error on that one, or maybe unseen, uneven pavement. Just can't imagine a bike doing that on it's own. Jamie

[trip]

Well, after reading Spocks explanation of what happened, I see he didn't have ABS on his Victory.

It looks like he panic'd in a turn and hit the front and rear brakes hard causing his demise. I'm glad he's OK and on the mend.

[jmilucky]

Wow! what a self assessment by Craig who is a serious rider. It's also good that he gets chance to make some corrections to his gear and riding style. I think most long time riders have had an experience with going down and appreciate the feeling when it happens.

[Jared]

Wow. What a crazy accident. I'm sure the riding was skilled, but just made a stupid mistake. It's a good reminder to wear your gear and never to let your guard down while riding.

[medicaldawg]

I would like to say that when a bike is above 35mph it wants to maintain its heading. I practice tank slaping on a regular basis just remain calm when the bike begins to slap tighten ur arms and lean the bike in one direction or the other it will recover i promise. control ur bike dont let it control u.above all else never ride faster than u can control you really should practice emergency situations at least once a week keep it low guys i really enjoy reading this site.

[glwilson]

I had heard that from a guy that used to race... but didn't know if it was BS or not.

How does one practice tank-slapping?

[Dave]

Originally Posted by glwilson

I had heard that from a guy that used to race... but didn't know if it was BS or not.

How does one practice tank-slapping?

With your right hand on the throttle, reach down with you left and smack the side of the tank. At the same time say, "Bad bike, bad bike. You've been a very bad bike!"

And in the off riding season you can practice with your spouse.

[Idaho]

I'm glad that the guy survived to give us an assessment of the cause. There is a lot of meat there for us to chew on. We can learn from anothers mistake.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

I would say there was a bad section of road that appeared to be grooved out sort of. He was also going way to fast for road conditions.