Fellow TR-ists, i know more than a few of us have experienced some weave, wander and skittery activity up front. i've experienced two very unnerving head shakes, prior to this mornings inccident. One slow speed, one hi, both i was able to regain control. Today however was a different day. The one you never think about for obvious reasons. In short , as i'm accelerating out from a slow moving truck in a looong exit lane already at freeway speed. Renentering at a point where the asphalt transitions into a concrete overpass. Movement, acceleration, irregularity of surface, all seemed to combine into a formidable volatile mixture. The tremor appeared and whereas on previous occasion i could regain control. This rapidly became an utterly out of control full opposite lock tank slapper! Somewhere between a paint shaker and a buckin' bronco. Both wheels dancing, pilot floating out the saddle, opposite lock to opposite lock, awaiting an end to the violence, and i do mean extreme violence! That being the result of launched from a high side across 3 lanes of commute traffic. Very hard to reassemble and determine things precisely. As i lost count of how many times i flipped like a rag doll. Each turn fully aware of the traffic behind and trying to be mindful of any possible vehicular collision. So much so, my arms were already being raised before i came to a complete stop. At which i was on my feet next to the concrete divider on the fats lane. Everything but the imaginary white flag. Hands raised as i looked long and hard into the fear strucken eyes of the morning commute, utterly perplexed in shock!. Still holding everyones attention, i walked towards the bike, stealing glances back towards the motionless motorists, somewhat in awe, more so in gratitude. Whilst simultaneously responding to a call from a truck driver some 30 yards away, "are you okay?" I replied ' i see stars', but i'm alive and walking! Thanks to this kindly man who assisted with the removal of my wrecked bike from the freeway to the shoulder and another man who kindly handed me a bottle of water and gave me a ride home. My sincerest gratitude to you both! I love my bike and don't care to rip into any of the shortcomings. But in the next life, being as i was so clearly granted another one today. I shall be sporting a steering stabilizer. Instead of pointing at the culprit. I'm going to point to the saviour of my inccident. That of a little known one of a kind, US owned family business namely Motoport. Without any doubt in my mind what so ever. Their superior hand built kevlar suit and upgraded quad armor positively saved my bloody bacon. Okay, one bitch, Wayne maybe we can get that 2 piece zip installed now! The only item missing from this garment at purchase. I hit every panel of that thing and considering it was concrete to boot. You'd be amazed at how little damaged took place. The armoring in this thing is off the chart and the stuff stays put thanks to the stretch kevlar. I literally bounced around on the padding. Besides my pants drawing down to expose a cheek to remove a nice gob of flesh. Maybe a broken shoulder from initial heavy point of impact. But thanks be to the cycle gods, today was a good day, cause i got to walk away!
Yeah me too! Sure was a freakish thing. Medics just said no breaks on xray results, feeling very lucky indeed!
I can try and get some shots once i can get over to it's present location. Could be a recoverable write off? Bike appeared to of gone down on one side only. Of course the violent nature of such forces make for concerns for the chassis. Took a hard left, tail pipe swing arm sub frame where pillion extrusions attached to sub torqued. Rider peg totally pegged and swept. Bar clutch lever bye bye, font fender, headlight cowl . palmer windshield toast. Tank panel indicator, rad cowl and so forth, oh and of course that cheesey rack! Best picture i can manage at present from a brief once over prior to tow. I may get lucky as it appears most of the impact force was sustained by heftier steel and the silencer. Time will tell.
Yeah i cannot stress that point enough. Without the superior armor of the Motoport and impressive tear resistance of the kevlar. I have little doubt i'd be in ICU as we speak!
Hate to sound like a ghoul, I need a wrecked one for a project. That and it reminds me how fortunate I am, when I see the carnage of another. You sir are lucky, it is only money. When I went down, the bike was perfectly fine, but my ankle/leg got broke. I would much rather had a beat up bike. I don't remember where I grabbed that picture to give credits. It is just the sweetest thing I have seen. I have been wanting a Can Am Spyder, except that they are $20k and suck fuel. The 650 engine from the TR would be a great power plant. Try to keep it under 500lbs, add a reverse gear box 10 or so gallon fuel tank and keep the Husky lines/look. The wheels on the HD are awesome and most likely cost more than our Terras did new.
Yeowie! That's some beastly awesomeness from tridom! I certainly appreciate your comments. Also sorry to hear you faired less well from your own get off. Agreed, there is no evaluation between metal and flesh. I certainly wish you a full recovery and greatly appreciate your vision for a donor plant for such a project. I'm not making any decisions till the bike has been fully assesed. Like most TR owners, i just love this bike. Having owned maybe 5 versions of the Rotax singles dating back to 87. It's somehow embodies all the best traits of it's predecessors in one and some. Will keep you in mind, depending on what results. So what was the outcome with your TR after the wreck?
I'm curious where your forks are set in the triple clamps? My forks are set 3 lines showing. It makes the turn-in sharp but does tend to be twitchy on the highway. May not be the best combo for folks who ride faster than 60mph consistantly... Glad to hear you're ok. My brother almost died on a bike and I've seen friends take a tumble at highway speeds (no jacket it was nasty). Sounds like good gear helped the favorable outcome. Since then I've been a "all the gear, all the time" kinda guy...
thanks much, yes indeed, all farkles aside. The best gear we can possibly get should be our first priority.
Good advice! They are slightly lowered in triples mainly for the reason you stated. This will be re evaluated should the bike be resurrectable. Along with the steering damper for good measure!
I am glad you walked away. Bikes, metal and plastic can always be fixed or replaced. Body parts not so easy. It made a huge difference installing the GPR stabilizer.
Personally don't think a steering stabilizer would have helped. You need to analyze the accident and bike to find the actual cause. THE most likely is diesel or oil on the road. A stabilizer won't stop a slapper in that case just reduce the number of slappers before you go down ( ie you will be travelling faster when you hit the ground). If the tyres /wheels have been damaged, then prob too late, but a flat/ low pressure tyre will do the same thing. Could have punctured just before the accident. Again a stabilizer wouldn't have helped much. However experience with the TR leads me to suggest you check the wheel bearings front and back first. The ones on mine were starting to be heading towards stuffed before the bike had done 1000km. I replaced them with non chinese ones and they have been fine since. Interestingly the worst one was the sprocket carrier which gets stuff all load so these are not good bearings. An unlikely, but possible cause, is stuffed rebound damping. but usually that would mean external oil leak and would be visible. Forks top out and headshake or the rear hits a bump and bounces. Also check your steering head bearings. Think I saw someone on this forum reporting stuffed ones a while back. This will create real head shake problems if they are at or near collapse or seized or seizing. It isn't a normal function of the bike if all the above are OK. My Strada will corner perfectly well at serious ( for the Strada) speeds on sustained bumpy curves with no headshake. And I have a Safari tank on and run my forks 40mm shorter ( shortened internally and dropped the triple clamps 20mm down the legs so I am running nearly 2deg steeper head angle). I get some weave, but that is the crappy rear shock and certainly not tank slapper territory. Trying to cure that at present with an aftermarket shock. Hopefully have that soon. Much less movement now that I am running Pilot road 4's as well, as the carcass is more compliant than the Metzler duals.
Agreed, body parts are, well rarer than Terra parts lets face it! Still feel the stabilizer would be a good investment!
Greg Jetnikoff, thanks for your varied suggestions. I tend to go over things, touchy feely visual during regular cleaning on the lift. I will double check as bearings would definitely be a culprit. Though nothing obvious last once over. Again, i'm somewhat familiar with poor beemer bearings dating way back, certainly on head sets. Shock, hmmm, again, will instigate such possibilities. It certainly appears that something has changed as all 3 incidents occurred in the last few thousand k miles. Wasn't a spillage of anykind. All three shared some similarities of road condition, moderate irregularities, all under acceleration. The one caveat of the later being that of a downhill grade. All forces of nature bearing down on that front end is a game changer so far as ones ability to smooth things out through changes either way in throttle change. Lightly loading the rear brake rapidly went out the window, as once Frank Zapa aka tank slapper hit. The transitional effects front to back, rapid and violent raising lower of the wheels left me in a state of momentary levitation before the inevitable big off! Sure appreciate all feedback concerning this issue and will repost back any further findings.
You make quite a few good points in your post about looseness in bearings and maufunctioning shocks. If that is an issue there is NOTHING to be done to correct the behavior besides fix the issue. A mechanically sound machine given I do have to disagree about the stabilizer. I ride freeway quite a bit and head shake always was on my mind at 70+mph. It happened almost like clockwork at 80 in my normal riding position. I have done a lot of expererementing with what initiates it and what makes it go away. I certainly can create the issue any time I want. A LIGHT tug in the bars will produce violent results. For me if I sit on the rear seat with a super light grip it seldom happens. This was no different with windshield, handguards, tire, crashbar, and skid plate modifications. I have had many a severe shaking, thankfully never thrown and never lock to lock. The thing that fixed the issue is the stabilizer. I no longer fear the shake because it very seldom happens and when it does correcting is easy. I occasionally take it bike 70-100 at decently long distance with good results.
Yep. I was getting a side to side weave or side to side wag. After the stabilizer it is gone. Straight and narrow. I usually turn it up a little for straight freeway stuff and turn it down for offroad. Besides tires it has been the biggest improvement. I get absolutely zero weave doing 95 cruising down back roads.
I decided after a test ride at GPR, I would never own another bike without a stabilizer. I rate it as a safety item.
