Saved by GSA steering and handling

Bendy toy

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Last night pitch dark on a back road I came across a road works with temporary traffic lights. It's an A road so the road works had chicanes and all sorts of bollox set up.

Lights went green, followed a car though the "In chicane" at reasonable careful speed as lights from cars waiting hid the road surface. On the exit chicane the bike back end suddenly stepped out. Air temperature was 6 degrees so it had to be an oil or fuel spill. Other areas of wet road were not icy.

The Beemer threw it's back end right then left then (just as I thought the next swing is game over), we came onto clean road it straightened. Any other bike would have gone into a full on tank slapper and that would have been me down the road with expensive repair bills or worse.

I'm left with stiff chest muscles this morning (instinctively braced the bars to stop them flapping) and thinking the BMW does so well when it needs to.
 
So not other bike other than a BMW has traction control or electronics. Think the electronics helped, but your were lucky.
 
Traction control was not an issue. It was a downhill following a car thought a twisty chicane so I wasn't really using any power. The surface was like wet ice for a few yards. Im sure it would have been obvious in daylight but there was no telltale diesel smell. A bike with normal forks would have gone into full tank slapper mode. The GS was (just) controllable.

Ive had the back end go out (cold tyres on greasy salty surface). The traction if it ever activated was too slow to prevent the slide. This time, I was lucky the front end stayed just about well enough stuck.
 
Bendy toy said:
Last night pitch dark on a back road I came across a road works with temporary traffic lights. It's an A road so the road works had chicanes and all sorts of bollox set up.

Lights went green, followed a car though the "In chicane" at reasonable careful speed as lights from cars waiting hid the road surface. On the exit chicane the bike back end suddenly stepped out. Air temperature was 6 degrees so it had to be an oil or fuel spill. Other areas of wet road were not icy.

The Beemer threw it's back end right then left then (just as I thought the next swing is game over), we came onto clean road it straightened. Any other bike would have gone into a full on tank slapper and that would have been me down the road with expensive repair bills or worse.

I'm left with stiff chest muscles this morning (instinctively braced the bars to stop them flapping) and thinking the BMW does so well when it needs to.
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That’s a load of tosh. Did you ride any other bike over the same road? I’ve had a few moments on different bikes and I remember a aprilia capornord for getting sideways and righting itself. I think it’s a combination of bike luck and skill. JJH
 
Last night was more luck than judgement but every other bike that's got that far out of line has had me on my arse with some big bills. The Beemer seems less inclined to tanks slap.

A month or two after buying BMW I was checking the Yam Diversion 900 for selling. It had OEM suspension in good condition. The road had a bumpy section part way down that I used regularly on the BMW with absolutely no dram. The Yam very nearly had me off when the bumps set off a tank slapper. I should have known better than push the Yam to its edge, but had forgotten how well the Beemer copes with such stuff.

Two bikes similar weight and size - one had ordinary suspension with "normal" forks, the other had the steering and suspension forces separated. The latter copes much better when things go awry.

Ive had other occasions where my steering corrections saved bikes from low-siding due to leaves/mud/whatever. The Beemer is no different but is less of a handful when things go wrong.
 
Bendy toy said:
(instinctively braced the bars to stop them flapping)
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That 'instinct' is the monkey reflex. It also causes folk to reach for the brakes if they're too hot into a bend - almost always wrong on a motorcycle. Glad to hear you got away with it.
 
Bendy toy said:
Last night pitch dark on a back road I came across a road works with temporary traffic lights. It's an A road so the road works had chicanes and all sorts of bollox set up.

Lights went green, followed a car though the "In chicane" at reasonable careful speed as lights from cars waiting hid the road surface. On the exit chicane the bike back end suddenly stepped out. Air temperature was 6 degrees so it had to be an oil or fuel spill. Other areas of wet road were not icy.

The Beemer threw it's back end right then left then (just as I thought the next swing is game over), we came onto clean road it straightened. Any other bike would have gone into a full on tank slapper and that would have been me down the road with expensive repair bills or worse.

I'm left with stiff chest muscles this morning (instinctively braced the bars to stop them flapping) and thinking the BMW does so well when it needs to.
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Sod what anyone says - I'm just glad your okay, the only person I want to see go down the road is one of those London moped gang f*ckers!

James
 
Glad you're OK..


But.... A back end slide is not a tank slapper, sounds like you went from one lock to another because you over corrected, an authentic GSer would have styled it out with the application of some gas and hung the tail out for a while longer :D
 
Wreford Miles said:
Glad you're OK..


But.... A back end slide is not a tank slapper, D
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agree, it's a rapid side-to-side oscillation of the front wheel of a motorcycle, where the handlebars literally 'slap' the tank due to insufficient road grip on the front tyre, a shimmy on the rear always feels 10x worse .
 
Wreford Miles said:
Glad you're OK..


But.... A back end slide is not a tank slapper, sounds like you went from one lock to another because you over corrected, an authentic GSer would have styled it out with the application of some gas and hung the tail out for a while longer :D
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Thanks. :) I wish I was that "authentic"

Agreed, it was not a full tank slapper but it got very close.

I never had chance to over-correct. I simply braced against the swinging bars and hoped. The bike swung right, left, right: only correcting when I got back onto clean tarmac. Another swing to the left would have been curtains and probably head-on into the car calmly(?) waiting his turn at the traffic lights. :eek:

I've ridden full tank slappers. The MZ250 seized at 70mph on the M4. Before I realised what was happening (ear plugs) the back end was into pendulum mode. I could not get near the clutch lever to get the rear wheel turning again. As the bike slowed down the amplitude got wider and it eventually spat me off at about 20mph. Even on a little 250 stroker, all I could do was try to damp the swinging. Actual correction of steering (including over correction) was impossible. Frankly Ive no idea what you are supposed to do when the back end locks up. But the effect is like having ice under the back tyre.

The Diversion was heading the same way after a series of bumps set off it's natural frequency. Thankfully, there were just too few bumps to keep it going. Correcting - actually steering against the pendulum was impossible. All I could do was attempt to reduce the severity and TBH that was not very much. Again, I got lucky.

The BMW is inherently more stable in such situations and gives a slightly better chance of getting away with it. I believe it's because we can brace against the footrests without causing the bike to steer. On a "normal" bike that causes more steering the wrong direction.

Also on the Diversion - I had the front end wash out on dead leaves as I entered a tree tunnel. Mid summer so I wasn't looking for such things but entirely my fault. The wheel slid left, I pulled the right handlebar and the bike simply stood up. No drama. No fuss. It wasn't a tank slapper and never would have been.
 
Seems to me its a good job you ride what you think is a superior machine, you seem to have a lot of near misses. Still believe its bollocks that the BMW GS saved the day.
 
Two near misses in 13 years is not too many TBH. The front end slide recovery was just good bike control. ;)
 
I would agree.
I thought TC was overrated by the bike press but:
5am heading to the Rosslare ferry on the 2016 Garmisch trip.
Going through a village in very heavy rain, hit some off camber slippy stuff.
Both wheels lost traction, my 2016 GSA was fully loaded and 2 up.
This felt like a bad one I could feel the bike was gone out of my control.
It did a little squirm and righted itself.
A combination of electronics and the excellent balance \ riding position of the GSA .

The GSA is an exceptional handling motorcycle, I could barrel along diving into corners without much pre-planning.
Get in and sort it out as you go around. The RT is different due to the front end weight. I set myself up for the corner.
 
Towards the end of its time with me the old Diversion became quite scary at speed. Side winds and motorway over-banding really upset it. The combination of over-soft forks and below par rear shock were (very) not good. The GSA with worn out shocks (60K on front well over 30K on back) was still handling ok. I fitted some low mikes GS units and the handling was certainly better but in terms of how it affected the bike really not anything like as much as I expected.

What am I saying - the GSA even on knackered shocks still handles amazingly well.

To give a measure of how bad the front shock really was - the front tyre had a badly scalloped wear pattern in a sort of two up - two down wave. New shock, new tyre and tread wear is perfectly even. I'd been running on F all damping but it still cornered well enough to have >5mm chicken strips on the back.
 
Wreford Miles said:
...But.... A back end slide is not a tank slapper,
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DING-DONG said:
agree, it's a rapid side-to-side oscillation of the front wheel of a motorcycle, where the handlebars literally 'slap' the tank ....
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Ive only ever had one proper tank slapper - on the infamous Pan 1300's at about 130 mph :D and it was literally lock stop to lock stop :eek:

I remember thinking 'Ahhhh ..... so thats what all the fuss is about ... ' !!
 
adventuredon said:
Bendy, I reckon it was those mismatched tyres that had you...
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Nahaa...........loads of grip on these yet?

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James
 
adventuredon said:
Bendy, I reckon it was those mismatched tyres that had you...
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Ive regularly used mismatched tyres of a similar spec. Never ever had a problem. I don't of course use knobbies on one end with a sports bike slick on the other. ATM, front is a half worn Trail Attack 2 (Road Attack with wider grooves) and a nearly new Mitas road tyre on back. The Mitas did most of the slipping.

The other night had to be oil on the road otherwise the bike would not have slipped so violently or self corrected. Weather was too warm for ice.
 
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