Death Wobble Update and how you can prevent it!

[Anonymous 42]

After a member here posted this video “he photographed” in a thread he created, I scratched the internet here and there, on and off, to find some answers. I’m sharing my findings with my brothers that ride.

Here’s the video in question, viewer discretion is advised:

The answers I found are astonishing and worthy knowledge if you plan to ride.

Weight distribution:

Saddlebags over loaded, especially if the load isn’t secured tightly and has freedom to sway or shift back and forth, or side to side. All articles must be fastened securely and maintain proper weight distribution.

Grooved pavement or uneven shoulder(common knowledge).

Windshields at higher speeds are also hazardous as they buffet in the wind and transmit that shaking straight through the handlebars.

Damaged front tire that behaves erratically will also start the death wobble, smooth one minute, wobble the next.

Damaged forks, loose wheel bearing, damaged hub, loose triple tree bearing (steering bearing) will also cause the wobble of death.

Jeeps can experience death wobble from worn or damaged front end parts.

Death wobble is universal across all wheeled vehicles and trailers including unicycles (if you can peddle them fast enough, they will wobble).

The common reaction to death wobble is to tighten your grip, a fatal mistake as more mass leaves the seat and joins the wobble ballet!

loosen your grip on the bars and tighten your grip on the bike with your legs instead, you become more mass and resistance the wobble has to overcome. Like a well behaved passenger that becomes part of the bike in cornering and not trying to balance or resist your input. A passenger can help with bumps the way they ride or they can throw you allover the place, a poorly behaved passenger can cause a deadly situation and resistance to steering.

Ride safely, wear gear, and always inspect you bike before you ride, check everything over, even grab and shake parts to see if they’re loose.

In flight school a student shook the front landing gear of a trainer and found some substantial damage, that plane was grounded immediately until a full assessment of damages could be done, including paperwork, repairs, and all that s~~~!

Don’t forget to discard you blitz gasoline cans or install flame arresting screens in the spout. They can burst and spray flaming gasoline allover you! Test can without a flame arresting screen starts @ 1:17

Be safe brothers!

F~~~ up once you suffer, happy life over! VROOM VROOM!

[Anonymous 54]

Harleys got a problem, and they aint talkin.

Dont ride unstable junk.

[Anonymous 42]

I like lean forward seating on snowmobiles, bikes, and skis! I never wobble! I steer!

F~~~ side straddling a snowboard! catch an edge topside or bottom side and you go down FLY SWATTER HARD!

[Anonymous 54]

Anonymous wrote:

I like lean forward seating on snowmobiles, bikes, and skis! I never wobble! I steer!

F~~~ side straddling a snowboard! catch an edge topside or bottom side and you go down FLY SWATTER HARD!

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If rideing in this position doesnt come natuerly to you, dont ride.
Its not about being cool.
Its about doeing a Stunt.

Get it Mg!!!

[Anonymous 42]

Anonymous wrote:

Its about doeing a Stunt.

I don’t do stunts!

They present themselves without even trying!

My stunts are only a matter of reflex!

[Anonymous 43]

make sure the wheels are true. I ran a race on a bike with a bike that was out of round, miserable day.

[RealityBitesParticipant 2198]

I got into a “death wobble” on my Hayabusa one day…locked up the back tire on the freeway and skidded past a car that cut in front of me. It was weird and very dodgey skidding past a car AND managing to do an uncontrolled swerve to avoid hitting the fricking thing (yep…woman driver on her f~~~ing phone!)…I released the rear brake and the bike started to wobble with a build up (resonance)…I got out of it, by instinctively hitting the gas really hard and spinning the back tire…which acted like a Gyroscope…while this was all going on…I gave the bitch driver on her f~~~ing cell phone the finger…

The bike went into a wobble when I release the back brake because the rear was misaligned with the front tire and forward velocity vector…thought for sure I was going to lowside and get run over by the bitch…but it didn’t happen…I gunned the throttle and spun the back wheel…all this in the carpool lane doing over 60.

Note: Some Harley’s have a vibration problem with how their Engine Vibrations cause a resonance in their frame which affects the stability of the motorcycle. In my case it was a rear tire skid…that went out of align because while skidding I was trying my damndest to avoid the bitch in her cage who cut in front of me at a much slower speed…I managed this but instead of skidding to a stop…I released the back brake and then the wobble began.

[sidecarParticipant 35837]

Two words that can save your life: Steering Damper.

[Anonymous 42]

sidecar wrote:

Two words that can save your life: Steering Damper.

So that’s what that stupid little sideways shock absorber was for! I didn’t think I needed it so I took it out instead of replacing it…

[OgreParticipant 5863]

Don’t be a pirate or a squid. I’ve eaten pavement at lunch and gone back to work for the rest of the workday. Gear saves skin.

My falls have been my fault.

I can’t tell exactly from the video what caused the down but he definitely wasn’t dressed for the occasion.

Even a well behaved bike can give you a wiggle every once in a while. Normally letting up for second helps, but RB’s story shows that sometimes hammer down is the answer.

Near misses happen often, but riding a bike is better than chasing a chick. The bike gives it up whenever you roll your wrist.

I failed to realize in my youth that I was the prize. I was going to work. I was going to earn. Little did I realize that due to feminism, that no longer meant I had to share. Road soon, Desert after.

[sidecarParticipant 35837]

Ogre wrote:

I can’t tell exactly from the video what caused the down but he definitely wasn’t dressed for the occasion.

^this

Isn’t it funny how insufficient control and insufficient gear always seem to go together in these videos?

In all the videos I’ve seen where the rider is properly armored up, the incident always seems to be some cager’s fault.

[OgreParticipant 5863]

@sidecar. Wearing at least minimal gear I’ve never gotten seriously injured from my own goofs, but the one’s I’ve avoided with cagers would have been life changing events.

I prefer to ride twisties away from traffic for good reasons.

I failed to realize in my youth that I was the prize. I was going to work. I was going to earn. Little did I realize that due to feminism, that no longer meant I had to share. Road soon, Desert after.

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