Death Wobble - Causes and Prevention

got wobble this week on Mt writer let's talk about it hey my name is Kevin and I were at least a weekly video here on MC rider focused on road skills or Road strategy to help make you a better writer don't forget what we have in our first ever MC rider meet up at the MotoGP race in Austin Texas this year you can get complete details at MC rider comm slash meetup 2020 I hope to see you there before we get into this week's video I wanted to share with you what happened last night it was the end of the day I was in my dad chair with the remote in hand and was watching a few youtube videos on TV I see a video pop up and the title is pre-loading shifter and false neutrals I thought hey I have a video on that topic let's see what this guy has to say on the subject so I'm watching the video mostly paying attention and chatting with my wife and girls videos good the guy's got an easy way of presenting himself and he's easy to listen to and then then about a minute and a half into the video he says this and just the other day I was watching a video by MC rider and he was talking about pre loading the shifter with your foot and that solves the problem of false neutrals it totally takes care of that well at this point in the video I realized that I wasn't dealing with your run-of-the-mill motorcycle youtuber this was a highly intelligent writer all of a sudden this guy was talking about some important stuff so I watched till the end of the video and I went to his YouTube homepage and was greeted with this video all right I got my MC Rider reflective decals from Dallas Texas see you on the road Kevin nice you actually personally autographed the envelope and I put one of the stickers on the back of my helmet because that's what they are actually for and you know it's actually made to go on the back of your helmet and it's reflective that's the whole point I really appreciate your channel and I watch it every Friday so thanks again and I'll see you on the road so this guy is not only a highly intelligent writer but he's also a person of in question integrity as well and he knows how to increase the safety factor of that schuberth helmet and tenfold with that MC write a reflective decal that Schuberth immediately went from your run-of-the-mill d-o-t helmet to passing the highest standards of safety that Snell could possibly throw at it now really got Dave thank you for the shout out to MC rider and helping your viewers find MC rider and promoting the channel also thanks for buying some reflective decals I really do appreciate it if you guys want something you can buy some right here I want to return the favor to Dave and I want you to help me with it I look this morning and got dave has 850 subscribers and believe me I know how hard it can be to gain subscribers so I want to help him out with that I want you all to help me boost his numbers so here's the thing pause this video go to MC rider dot-com slash got Dave that will Forge you directly to his channel and provide an easy way to subscribe to got Dave's channel so go do that right now pause this video and go subscribe leave a comment below and let me know that you subscribe to got Dave's channel and let's help another MC writer follower out and help increase his subscriber base a motorcycle is most stable traveling on the level surface at a constant speed in a straight line in fact if you let go of the handlebars you'll continue to travel in a straight line unless some other factors interrupt that a motorcycle is engineered to stay upright at speed our jobs not to balance the bike but to provide direction to the bike just point it where we want it to go years ago I had a Yamaha fgr and I was in the market for a new set of tires I went to a local shop that I trusted and I purchased a new set of Shenko tires for the fgr now this was my first experience with Shenko and I was trying to save a few bucks and on the ride home I was decelerating from highway speed down to a slower speed when I hit about 40 miles per hour to about 35 miles per hour the handlebars began to shimmy back and forth and I actually had a video that I did for this four rider groups calm that demonstrated that shimmy that I was getting from the fgr in this case it was a defective tire and in fact we put three different front tires all from Shenko that proved to be defective and caused this shimmy in the fgr so at least during the time of this video was produced Shing Co was having some issues on the production line and they were releasing defective tires well the shop worked with me and we eventually put some michelin tires on the fgr and the problem was completely solved but there can be all kinds of reasons other than defective tires that can cause this type of reaction from the motorcycle so we'll break this down into two different types of issues mechanical and road surface first let's address mechanical so what are some of the mechanical issues that can cause this well we already talked about the defective tires that I was riding on from Chicco they actually had a flat spot molded into the tire on the rim that was causing the tire to get out of balance causing that shim improper tire pressure can also cause this and this can't be stated enough you have to maintain the tire pressure on your motorcycle at the recommended spec not only will you get more life from the tire but they'll also handle like they were designed to worn tires can also affect this if tires are worn from use and in particular if they're run frequently at incorrect tire pressure you can develop a tire that wears them evenly and this has an effect on the handling of the motorcycle as well other mechanical issues might be an improperly loaded motorcycle so too much weight on the rear or the front or an imbalanced weight on the motorcycle loose boats can cause this or a dented rim may be the rear tire is not in alignment with the front so when you adjust the chain you didn't get that rear tire squared up with the front worn bearings and there's a whole host of mechanical issues that can cause this shimmy that you fill in the front the handlebars of the motorcycle if you experience a wobble in the front of your motorcycle and the road surface is not to blame you need to diagnose the problem and have the motorcycle checked by a qualified mechanic it's not something that will fix itself and if it's not something that you can fix yourself you need to get it addressed in addition to mechanical issues the road can also cause feedback through the handlebars and it's not to be confused with a mechanical defect on the motorcycle this is probably the one that most writers have experienced grooved roads from construction or bridges that have a graded surface gravel or slick patches on the road can cause the handlebars to either suddenly or consistently depending on the surface shimmy back and forth so if he hit a piece of gravel sometimes you'll feel the handlebars shift before the motorcycle regains its composure particularly on grooved surfaces that shifting may last the whole time that you're on the grooves surface the feedback that you're getting through the handlebars due to the road surface is usually not a big deal however we make it worse by our reaction to it so here are the things that you don't want to do if the road surface is causing some feedback through the handlebars you don't want to tighten up on the handlebars the more you tighten up the more that feedback is going to go through you and you're gonna keep the motorcycle from doing what it needs to do to travel in a straight path you don't want to look down at the surface so the first thing we do we hit a graded patch of road first thing we do is we look down at that surface and now it's okay to take a quick glance down and think how that road is graded that's what's causing that feedback but you don't want to look consistently down you want to get those head and eyes up and you want to look where you want the motorcycle to go so here are some things that you do want to do you want to let the motorcycle move and find its path remember you're not what's keeping the motorcycle upright the motorcycle will correct itself as long as you don't do something to mess it up you want to stay loose and look where you want to go so don't tighten up on those handlebars stay loose let the handlebars move let the motorcycle find its path and it's going to keep you going down the road if you ride with a loose posture with some flex in your arms and maintain maintaining a relaxed upper body the motorcycle will correct itself over small issues with the road so stay loose if you feel like you need to hold onto the motorcycle use your legs to do so by squeezing on the tank but keep your upper body loose some riders feel that a motorcycle is inherently unstable and it's the writers responsibility to provide balance when in reality we're often the problem with the motorcycles ability to stay upright it will correct itself over minor road issues as long as we don't interfere and keep it from doing this job when it comes to mechanical issues cousins shake or vibration it can get a little bit more complicated and in fact these can get really violent it's called the death wobble and those situation you want to maintain your grip on the handlebar while gently rolling off the throttle if it's a violent shake you're not going to be able to overcome it with your strength so don't grab hold of the handlebars and try to wrestle it straight you're not going to be able to do it but maintain your grip on the handlebars but don't grab the front brake now this is our normal response we grab that front brake you can gently use the rear brake to help scrub off some speed and as your speed decreases slowly that shimmy will likely go away it may help to also lean forward over the tank as that'll help the motorcycle get out of the wobble or shimmy as well once you have the motorcycle under control the next thing you want to do is find out what caused the problem and fix it if the motorcycle gets itself in a death wobble or a violent shake it's important to find the cause and correct it because it's a mechanical issue it will happen again have you ever had a crash because of a death wobble this is where the motorcycle shakes violently from side to side it's almost always the result of a mechanical issue with the motorcycle and it can also be caused by writing it too high of a speed particularly for the tires the rating of the tires that you've got this is why you need to be very careful when making changes to the motorcycle particularly changes to the front end of the bike if you do make changes make sure the changes that you make don't have an impact on the right ability or the stability of the motorcycle and if you don't know what you're doing find someone who does to work on your motorcycle I would say that death wobbles are most often caused by excessive speed or some mechanical issues like mentioned above if you have experience with this leave a comment or join us on the forums or will be discussing this video until next week guys that's kevin with MC rider stay out of those wobbles and I'll see you on the road oh yeah don't forget subscribe got Dave go do it right now if you didn't do it earlier I want to see those comments below and I want to boost that subscriber rate up forgotten Dave so go do that right now subscribe Dave NC writer comm slash got Dave there are multiple ways to support the channel you can become a member on youtube at MC writer comm slash member or support the channel through patreon at MC writer dot-com slash support either way you'll get full access to the forum and the field guides which will further the training that we release here on a weekly basis

Channel: MCrider - Motorcycle Training

Views: 658,132

Keywords: MCrider, motorcycle, motorcycle class, motorcycle training, motorcycle skills, learn to ride a motorcycle, how to ride a motorcycle, ride a motorcycle, beginner motorcycle tips, advanced motorcycle tips, motorcycle tips

Id: WN3vwvp7GN8

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 21 2020