First I don't consider myself a stunter, nor do I claim to be one. But I can do some pretty good endos and I can wheelie for miles. Not that I feel the need to explain myself, but I noticed a large percentage of "beginners" on this site, and if you're going to give advise, I don't want you to think I crashed doing my first wheelie. Now to the matter at hand.

I was doing a wheelie on my almost brand new Aprilia SXV 550 supermoto. I had brought it up in 2nd and had shifted to 3rd, 4th, and then 5th. By now I had gone for probably around a mile or so, and was doing somewhere around 80 MPH. At the end of the long straight, there's a slight turn to the left, and I had wheelied through the turn. I then noticed a few cars up ahead on my lane, and decided to put it down. As soon as the front wheel touched down, the bars went into a violent tank slapper. I have experienced a slight shake at the end of long wheelies, but this was beyond saving. A few stop to stop shakes, and I'm over the handlebars. Bike fair pretty well, considering, and I had full leathers, so just a few bumps and bruises.

I'm not sure if my handlebars were slightly turned when I put the front down, but since I had just went through the turn, I'm thinking that I never got the handlebars straight again. My question is, do you guys think that the problem was that the handlebars were not straight, or is the fact that the front wheel had stopped turning and now is going from fully stopped to 80 MPH enough to cause the front end to go into a wobble? And, do you think a steering damper would of saved me? I have a damper on my KTM and have only experienced slight front end shakes at the end of long wheelies.

 

its happened to me before while doin a third gear wheelie but at like half the speed you were goin my handle bars werent straight so i just fell to the side...but in your case it's hard to decide what caused your crash

 

You need a stearing stabilizer or something.

 

damm man that sucks...im guessin ur handlebars were slightly turned...happened to me too on the 150 in a 5th gear wheelie..

 

:YEAH LUCKY!

 

Im not the expert here but my $.02 is that you need a steering damper....

 

Yep...you just need a damper.

The wheel being completely stopped and coming down at 80mph shouldnt cause the violent head shake.

 

damper for sure... damn that's a sweet bike too. glad u're ok man.. no more going 80.. just cruise around 50 n use rear brake... tank slaps are soo fvckin scary.

 

im with him...

 

whats a tank slapper?

 

you need a steering damper!!!!!!!!!!!!!! duh

 

Tough break dude, I'm glad you're okay. As said before a stiff steering damper will take care of most head shakes.

 

Yeah probably didn't set it down straight.. Good thing you're okay

 

A tank slapper usually occurs when you set a high speed wheelie down with the front wheel at an angle. The momentum of the bike going straight tries to over correct the front wheel throwing it in the opposite direction which translates to your handle bars violently "slapping" the sides of your tank, hence the term...tank slapper. Nasty ****

 

Damn man, thank god you're okay. I came down at 65 m.p.h. on my 600rr and did the same ****, i wasn't as lucky as you though. Put a steering dampner on and that **** never happened again. :YEAH

 

Then it's settled.....steering damper it is. I figured that would fix the problem, but just thought that I'd ask the experts. Thanks for all the replies.