How to control a speed wobble?

MISTI,
This question is for you as from what I understand you have quite a bit of experience under your belt. ( No jokes people get head out of gutter....) I am going to the track for the first time in mid June. As I am sure most people who go for first time, I am nervous maybe even some fear. What tips can you give me! I am a fairly experienced street rider, but the track is a whole nother monster...

I've been in a full blown tank slapper once. I commend anyone who has the skill to modulate the throttle in that situation. It happened fast and I honestly can't remember what even went through my mind. It was one of those "oh shit" moments when you feel helpless and everything goes into slow motion. My knees destroyed both fairings. Both feet left the pegs and I bashed up my shins pretty nicely...but I managed to ride it out somehow.

GixxerPiglet said:

MISTI,
This question is for you as from what I understand you have quite a bit of experience under your belt. ( No jokes people get head out of gutter....) I am going to the track for the first time in mid June. As I am sure most people who go for first time, I am nervous maybe even some fear. What tips can you give me! I am a fairly experienced street rider, but the track is a whole nother monster...

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Good question and happy track riding, you will be hooked just you wait! You are right that the track is a whole nother monster and the best thing to do is check your ego (if you have one and trust me we all have one) at the door and take it easy out there. Honestly put yourself in the correct group for your ability, ask questions, pay attention to the track rules and then try to pick one thing at a time to work on. Also, don't worry about what everyone else on the track is doing, pick your line and STICK TO IT. It always makes things worse when a rider tries to get out of the way of someone faster, do your own thing.

A big mistake that a lot of riders make is to try to work on too many things at a time so again, choose one specific thing, like throttle control or reference points and work on just that for the entire session until you are comfortable with it and want to move on.

And have fun!!!

Misti

PS. feel free to ask any more questions you might have either here or in a PM. I'm happy to answer :cheers

Reguile said:

the death wobble is that violent that it made your knees destroy the fairings? Holy crap. I've always imagined it being just a progressive wobble that'll get worse if you don't correct it.
What if you need to brake hard in the middle of a wobble?

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Thats just it. You cant correct it. All you can do is hold on(pray), ride it, and let it go its course, with hopefully a good ending(you still on the bike). Like a passing storm. You cant do anything to stop it, just let it run its course.

A wobble can start light and get worse, but they also can and do come on violent imediately.

Reguile said:

the death wobble is that violent that it made your knees destroy the fairings? Holy crap. I've always imagined it being just a progressive wobble that'll get worse if you don't correct it.
What if you need to brake hard in the middle of a wobble?

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It did grow in intensity but it was so quick. I could feel it move through my body. By the time I realized what was happening and had time to think about what I should have done, it was history. Braking didn't cross my mind. I was too busy trying to stay vertical and not die. I keep a pretty loose grip - that's probably what kept me from going down.

TOEJAM said:

That scenario is what (potentially) ended Tray Batey's career. He came out of the same turn and wheelie hill I mentioned up there ^ and got headshake and it pushed his pads back. Then he came into the braking zone of the next turn with no brakes. By the time he got them pumped back into position, he was waaay deep and waay hot. He laid it down trying to make the turn.

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I'm a friend of Tray's so I have to step in here and offer a correction. Brake pads DEFINITELY can retract from headshake, so I'm not at all trying to blow a hole in your teaching, but Tray was not the victim of such an issue. The crash DID end his racing career, and he still struggles to regain "normal" use of his throttle hand to this day. He says, though, that he accepts that he will never be capable of using the hand well enough to try to compete again, and that he is glad that he had nothing left to ever need to prove to himself or any others on a bike.

Dude, Tray's front brakes went weird (in the Road Atlanta AMA Superbike race) several laps before they suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared. I assure you he was covering the lever and pumping when necessary. He was running 5th when the brakes started acting up and rode with acute awareness of the situation, slowing a bit and dropping back to 10th over the next few laps. He says the situation had stabilized a bit, so he stayed out. It was heading into the turn 6 braking marker at well over 140mph when the brakes simply disappeared. No pumping them back into place, nothing - complete loss of front brakes. If it was not for Tray's incredible knowledge of every inch of the Road Atlanta facility (both on and off the track surface) from his years of teaching there, he would likely have died there. As it was, he knew where NOT to run off the track, and tossed the bike into the corner changing his trajectory enough to put him in a position of possible survival. Thankfully, that worked, and he did not run straight thru the runoff into the deadly trees. Headshake was NOT a contributing factor to this crash.

Tray has more endurance hours under his belt than all but a fraction of racers anywhere, and has ridden "limping" bikes at incredible pace for hours at a time many, many times. Electrical system problems, where revs must be limited to conserve battery power until the next stop, braking problems where wheel imbalance and headshake can cause pad retraction, heat issues in hydraulic systems where fluid boiling causes all sorts of adverse behavior. Chunking rubber off of tires. Fueltank venting problems. You name it. Tray is a VERY aware rider of what's going on with the bike when he's on it.

Specifically regarding Road Atlanta, Tray was very well aware of the areas where headshake played a role and re-seating pads was an automatic and unconscious action for him.

I know you're doing your best to illustrate your (very valid) point so please don't consider this an aggressive response. It's just that it was Tray's last race ever, he was performing great, and was taken out by a rare component failure in the braking system - not by a novice racer's oversight.

Thanks,
Mike C
Hendersonville TN

(I shortened this by about 5 paragraphs from its original version. I figure if anybody wants to have Tray's riding history "before roadracing" they can ask. After all, such trivia has nothing to do with Gixxers so it would certainly be considered out of place in this forum).