Riding back to London from Oxford on the old CB500 today on the A40 between Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross (single carriageway) I came up to overtake a group of three or four cars. There was a quite wide hatched central reservation (with dotted edges) but I went well over on the opposite side of the road as I could see well ahead and prefer to give cars a wide berth when possible. As I crossed back over the reservation which, it turned out, was made of quite thick paint, after I’d passed the lead car the bike went into the worst tankslapper I’ve ever had. I should have known better as a similar thing has happened in exactly the same situation on a different road, though far less bad than this. Those markings can be really bumpy and I think there’s something about the bumps/lines being at a diagonal angle to one’s direction of travel. It was so violent my palms are still aching and I’ve slightly pulled a muscle in my arm. Managed to hold it together with brute force and by keeping the throttle open, but I thought I was going for a second which at 60mph would not have been pleasant at all.
Just a heads up for anyone attempting the same manoeuvre!
Yea, I did a similar thing as well when I first started riding. I remember someone told me to get the front light to try and catch it. I held on soooooo tight that I thought my bike would rip my arms off then I dumped the clutch whilst giving it throttle and the front lifted ever so slightly and the snapper stopped.
I stopped on the next junction to gather my thoughts after that…
i had one few years ago that scared the **** out of me, was almost the same way really, over took at speed, as i crossed back in to the right lane i believe i clipped a cats eye+ plus it was a bumpy road in places and wallop!- tank slapper at around 90 odd mph, lock to lock so hard i thought the tank must be marked or dented!?
i still dont know exactly how or why it stopped, i think i possibly came off the power but didnt slam the throttle shut, i defo didnt brake had no time to was busy trying to hold on but not with a death grip!:w00t:
I’ve had some big ‘oh ****’ moments over the years but that one was truly frightening, i remember thinking ‘this is REALLY gonna hurt’.:pinch:.but it didnt happen!:blink:
Yes chris711 that’s it, although luckily mine wasn’t as bad as that, probably because I wasn’t going at 130 on a super-grippy sportsbike! Although mine didn’t develop into a full bike wobble like that, I did almost lose control and at the point when I’d stopped it I was only about a foot from the LH verge.
I think relaxing the grip is more for on gravelly/slippery surface at low speed where the front wheel feels as if it has a mind of its own. I’m quite sure if I hadn’t applied my full strength to this I’d have been straight off. Opening the throttle is definitely the answer though—if you snapped it shut in a panic weight would be transferred to the front wheel and the wobble would have a far greater effect on one’s stability, again almost certainly resulting in a crash. I did read somewhere that opening the throttle a bit (or at least not closing it) is actually the answer to many hairy moments. It has been in my case—many a time I’ve given it a bit too much whilst leant over, felt the back wheel start to lose grip, and only eased off the throttle instead of letting go of it completely which can result in the classic high-side.
I’m sure you’re free to cross those hatched areas as long as they’re bordered by dotted lines. There were no junctions to turn right into here (if there had been I wouldn’t have been overtaking). The ones with solid lines around them are only accessible ‘in an emergency’ IIRC.
…but overall the lesson here is ‘think twice before assuming all painted lines are safe to ride a motorcycle on at speed’…or maybe just ‘chill out’.
I hate to think what it must have looked like for the car I’d just passed. Luckily I was ahead of them and not beside them once I entered the hatches and the wobble started.
I know the stretch of road well. I used to work in the Highways Dept @ Buck County Council.
That stretch of road has been surfaced dressed (yes, the dreaded tar & chippings). The white line painters have come along to re-do the markings, and because they could just make out the previous markings throught the tar & chippings, they’ve put the new markings exactly over the previous ones, saving themselves from doing all the re-measuring etc. They’ve then re-done this whole process several times over several years resulting in very thick white line hatchings.
I’ve ridden over it myself, and it can get pretty hairy. I was lucky enough not to get a full on tank slapper though. Well done for holding on to it!!
Geez, sounds like a nightmare. Only bad tank slapper I’ve ever had was when I had an R6.
Early morning start on the way to Snetterton, still asleep, gunned the throttle and the front came up slightly but came down and went pretty slaptastic. Almost veered of the road into a tree, but it came back to me thankfully
