Looks to me what "saved" him....his ability to keep that front tire straight down the track till his rear hooked back up.Now THAT's amazing piloting.Intentional or not!

+1

Just watched a related ideo of IOM crashes. All of the wiggle clips start with a wheelie where the back tire looses traction -- like what happened in the vid above. I imagine the front tire acts as sort of a rudder to keep the bike straight under all that power. Lifting the front can be like pulling the rudder up -- you lost your ability to keep the thing on course.

Just had the biggest wiggle of my life today which is why I return to the thread today. I came up a freeway ramp revving t ~9000 rpm and nailed itinto second. The front was just coming off the ground and I felt 6 wiggles. Wiggle wiggle waggle---1-2 3-4 5-6. I wish I would have had the cam mounted on the side. The hyperPro is not on the bike. I took it off to rearrange the fuel tank faring so that It would not be necessary for me to remove all fairings before I can take the tank fairing off (which is the way it came from the factory). It was not a large wiggle but the first time I ever felt it ocsilate,

* Last updated by: Rook on 7/3/2011 @ 4:55 PM *

This may sound contrary to what you may think you should do, but if you ever have the front tire "Wiggle side to side" or have a "tankslapper" or whatever you want to call it, give it a little more gas. If you accelerate, and I'm not talking a whole handful of throttle, but if you accelerate, the front wheel will unload and it'll stop "wiggling." Then, ease out of the throttle, don't chop the throttle.

If you get a "wiggle" and you chop the throttle, you will load the front tire because you are decelerating, which will amplify the effect of the "wiggle" and cause a full on "tankslapper."

The bottom line is that when the front tire "wiggles," you want to unload the front tire and straighten it out, then slowly roll out of the throttle. Chopping the throttle puts more weight on a tire that is "wiggling," and loading the weight onto the front will just make it worse.

Just thought I'd offer up some info.

Thanks, KneeScraper. That makes sense but you are right, most of us will intuitively cut the throttle unless we have extraordinary presence of mind during that half second of tank slapper onset. This is one good argument in favor of having a damper on any bike that gets ridden hard. I guess if you experience wobbles enough, you might have the nerve to practice controlling them---but with a damper, maybe you will never feel the wobbble. I didn't feel the slightest wobble when I was at the track. I was careful to NOT lift the front and it only got really light one time.