Tank Slapper

Anyone who has ridden a motorcycle fast before can attest to having to deal with unwanted head shake at one time or another. It is when this head shake gets out of control that we call it a tank slapper.

Keith Code, author of the book, A Twist of the Wrist II explains it as ‘The process of head shake begins when the tire hits a ripple and along with the suspension, compresses. This throws the wheel slightly off-center. When the suspension and tire release, the wheel is light and flicks back toward a centered position, but again, slightly off-center. Still off-center when it loads again from the next ripple, again it is flicked past its centered position. The cycle of flicking back and forth repeats as the front-end seeks to stabilize through this automatic and necessary self-correcting process. Any bike will do it, and what most riders fail to realize is that this shake is a necessary part of the bike s suspension system.”