Help,i nearly shat myself

beckster · Post by **beckster** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:12 pm

Hi all,was out for a run this evening on the storm and was having a bit of sport with an evo.We were coming up a hill which is full switches left and right and i decided it was time to leave the evo so i went under the evo and accelerating out of the bend i got an almighty tankslapper,thank god i have a steering damper fitted or i would be picking myself out of a row of hedges.

Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing and is this the sort of thing that happens when you ride the storm hard?

Seeker 77 · Post by **Seeker 77** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:07 am

Only when racing cars mate, don't bother. I will try and upload a picture of waht happened when i raced a 3 litre Merc tank. He threw it into the corner in front of me, collected a transit and somewhere near 100mph and i somehow threaded between them through the smashed glass and oil/fluids.

I love a spirited ride as much as the next man but as soon as anyone starts trying to race each other on the roads you quickly reach the limits of your bike. The storm is not a racer, if you start throwing it around under very hard load, it will always throw something untoward at you.

I usually read things like what i have just written and think "piss off mate, i'll ride however i like". Well that is true but don't be surprised when your storm dumps you on your butt!!!

All the best mate

alan · Post by **alan** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:18 pm

Remember you are running 929 front end so your probably pushing the vtr even harder now with your plush suspenders compared to the standard setup.

VTRbob · Post by **VTRbob** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:34 pm

both mine do it,ive only to nudge a catseye & they slap to the point where the front wheel is skipping of the floor

the yellow one has stiffer springs & its worse than black one on stock springs.

beckster · Post by **beckster** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:42 pm

didn't really feel i was pushing the storm that hard,having a think about it today i have come to the conclusion that as i flicked from right to left the front wheel must have lifted and come down without me realising while i was nudging the bars.

Never had this sort of problem on the zxr and at times i really did push it to its limits.In the right conditions on track you could get some really cool slides on,but never any scary head shakes.

ps. i do not consider myself a riding god by any stretch of the imagination!

Post by **sirch345** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 8:20 am

VTRbob wrote:both mine do it,ive only to nudge a catseye & they slap to the point where the front wheel is skipping of the floor the yellow one has stiffer springs & its worse than black one on stock springs.

Hi Bob,
You've just backed up Roger Ditchfield's advice, when I rang him just before Christmas 06 to purchase new fork springs

I was going to fit weight related springs (stiffer ooh err) and new oil, but his advice was without modifying the rest of the forks you'll only be making the forks worse, not better

Cheers,

Chris.

KarlosVTR · Post by **KarlosVTR** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:17 am

i love it when it starts to buck and get uncomfortable with itself

like riding a tramp with an itchy arsehole

Post by **sirch345** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:32 pm

Beckster,

Unless you've already checked this out,
I think you need to be looking at the Steering Geometry you have now

considering you have fitted different forks. Things like rake, trail and wheel base all have different effects on handling

Another point worth considering is fork length (when fully extended) compared to the original Firestorm forks

See link:-

http://www.vtwo.demon.co.uk/firestorm/steering.htm

Cheers,

Chris.

beckster · Post by **beckster** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:12 pm

sirch345 wrote:Beckster,

Unless you've already checked this out,
I think you need to be looking at the Steering Geometry you have now considering you have fitted different forks. Things like rake, trail and wheel base all have different effects on handling Another point worth considering is fork length (when fully extended) compared to the original Firestorm forks

See link:-

http://www.vtwo.demon.co.uk/firestorm/steering.htm

Cheers,

Chris.

Had a look at this before sirch but i think the only thing i can adjust now really is my preload/compression/rebound settings as i have already taken the 6 mm spacer out of the rear shock mount.

I'm not sure whether i've discovered a vtr trait or whether its down to my settings but the other day when i was trying to keep up with gixer thou's and blades when i was rolling off the throttle going into fast corners the back end would start to weave and even moreso under heavy braking.

I've only had the bike 8 months and only had it out 3 or 4 times since doing my rebuild but i think i must be getting close to what the storm is capable of and to be honest with a 7 month old son in the house i think i really should be backing off!

rowingdude · Post by **rowingdude** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:35 pm

I have never had the "tank slapper" but Merc owners think their cars are faster than anything

Jaglifter · Post by **Jaglifter** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:00 pm

I've had tank slappers on both my Storm and the SP1 (but the storm does it better!)

I have a Merc E300 and I probably wouldn't notice if a bike slid into me!

(And it is very quick around corners - for a two ton car)

Post by **sirch345** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:53 pm

beckster wrote:
sirch345 wrote:Beckster,

Unless you've already checked this out,
I think you need to be looking at the Steering Geometry you have now considering you have fitted different forks. Things like rake, trail and wheel base all have different effects on handling Another point worth considering is fork length (when fully extended) compared to the original Firestorm forks

See link:-

http://www.vtwo.demon.co.uk/firestorm/steering.htm

Cheers,

Chris.
Had a look at this before sirch but i think the only thing i can adjust now really is my preload/compression/rebound settings as i have already taken the 6 mm spacer out of the rear shock mount.

I'm not sure whether i've discovered a vtr trait or whether its down to my settings but the other day when i was trying to keep up with gixer thou's and blades when i was rolling off the throttle going into fast corners the back end would start to weave and even moreso under heavy braking.

I've only had the bike 8 months and only had it out 3 or 4 times since doing my rebuild but i think i must be getting close to what the storm is capable of and to be honest with a 7 month old son in the house i think i really should be backing off!

Not meaning to sound like a boring old so and so, but I think your last few words are going to be your best route to take, now you are a Dad

rather than working out how to go faster

Cheers,

Chris.

beckster · Post by **beckster** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:17 pm

Not at all chris,the old saying is true.

The old bikers are the good ones.............'cause they're the ones that have survived.

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:23 pm

You'll be wanting them new Draggin Jeans....

You know, the ones made in conjunction with Pampers.