I came a cropper

Last Sunday I was riding up Kuranda Range North of Cairns, a mildly hilly
curvy sealed road and as I came into a curve, I decided to brake, for the
curve.

I was not going very fast, and did not brake hard (back brake only),
suddenly the back wheel started to wobble and I lost control and went off
the road, and up the side of the hill.

Nothing all that serious happened to the bike, a few scratches, I faired a
little worse, a cracked rib.

Now I was riding a 3 year old Kawasaki Ninja, ZX12R which has Michelin Pilot
Sportsman tyres, the rear tyre being a 200/50/ZR17

The road was dry and clear at the time I crashed, the people behind me
stopped and said they noticed the back wheel starting to wobble and that I
was not going fast.

A few days after my problem I checked the road surface, and found it had
been patched some time back and that there was a seam in the middle of my
side of the road about 3 or 4 mil (1/4 of an inch) high, not a sharp ridge,
I suppose with a 45 degree angle, this ridge ran for some 20 or 30 metres
right down the centre of my side of the road.

Currently I have the bike in the shop getting it checked out, as I do not
want to have this happen again.

I have been riding for quite a number of years, and this sudden wobble took
me by surprise, and because I was already in the curve had no time to do
anything about it.

I have had the Ninja for a year now.

Oh yes and on checking the tyre pressure after the event it was 28 PSI, I
pumped it up to 40 PSI and road the bike home with no problems.

Anyone had problems like this?

 

yeah...yer froze and fell orf

next time taketh the handlebars into thine hands, setteth thine attitude
to 'solid, stout and forthright' and proceed in an orderly fashion

YTC

 

No

I brake with the front brake and I check my tyre pressures before I ride.

You are either a tool or a troll

ck

 

Harsh Week still going?

 

Gotta be with this one doesn't it?

A "Michelin Pilot Sportsman"?

ck

 

ck wrote:

Probably both.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

I was hoping for some answers that might help. but obviously you do not have
the intelligence to do that, thank you for your comments.

Perhaps someone else had this sort of problem with either the bike or tyres.

 

There is the old saying, "It is better to let people think you are a fool
than open your mouth and prove it'

It seems that you have nothing to say, but insist on talking anyway.

Now back to the problem in hand, anyone had this problem with this bike or
tyre before.

I do not consider 28 PSI to be so low as to cause the wobble, but I could be
wrong, and I did not think that the patch in the road bad enough to cause it
either, hence I am wondering if anyone else had this problem.

As for the tyre pressure, I rounded many bends before this one with no
problems.

 

Welcome to aus.motorcycles, Rod. I had similar responses from some of the
"more illustrious" (in their own minds at least) users of this group, when I
posted a question a few weeks back.

I've learnt since to talk softly 'n carry a large mallet - with which to
delete the usually 70% of messages entirely unrelated to the topic, but
borne apparently of malice induced by boredom.

Stick in there, there're many decent people here.

- Bob.

 

Why is it the bike or the tyre's fault?

ck

 

yu back brake only? why?

 

careful mate, he'll say you have no intellegence as
well.....................

 

Me neither. They make themselves apparent within a few meters
-- the handling of the bike changes dramatically, especially
with the front tyre.

-----sharks

 

28 psi on your bike is too low and will cause that wobble
serves you right

 

You have no respect for Usenet tradition, do you?

You can't just say "I stuffed it into the corner, paniced
and locked the rear solid, and it came round and said hello
and dumped me on my arse". It's just not _done_.

-----sharks (except by Clem, obviously)

 

Hey I mostly use the foot brake only. Gives me 75% front, 25% rear.

Theo

 

When I first got my L's when I was nearly 17 I had a Suzuki Hustler that had
front breaks that if you touched them would try and throw you over the
handle bars. So I just used the back brakes and even have decades of not
having a bike it was a hard to shake that bad habit when I returned to two
wheels.

 

Expensive to fix the Hustler front?


Johno


Beer mate?

 

I'm surprised that the tyre didn't make the back of the bike feel
lethargic with only 28psi in it. I've used Michelin Hi-Sport, Pilot
Sport, Pilot Race, Pilot Race 2, Pilot Power and, currently, Power Race
(the most bestest tyre in the history of the world ever), and they've
all been fairly sensitive to pressure; the Pilot Race I ran on my R1 4-5
years ago would, quite literally, have "day pressures" and "night
pressures", for example. I'd go for a ride up the Old Rd, then another
ride that night, and the tyres would need another 1-2psi put into them
to get them feeling right.

Did the bike really feel as it should have on that ride?

When you say the bike went into a "wobble", what do you really mean? Did
it slip out to the side at all? If so, did it do it once, did it do it
repeatedly?

You're, really, not telling us much...
How fast were you, actually going, in kph?
How hard did you brake?
How sharp was the corner?
How far were you leant over?
etc, etc...

Whatever else happened, chances are what really caused the bike to go
down is that you got freaked out when it got out of shape.

All the stuff about refraining from using just the rear brake to slow
you down for a corner, however shrill, is not far off the mark, though.
You've got 1200cc of engine braking there. If a corner doesn't need any
braking from the front, chances are it doesn't need any from the back,
either.

 

Low tyre pressure & a ridge in the road surface can throw you well offline.
This combined with your rear brake application would have compounded the
handling problem.
My K series BMW handles like a drunken pig under those conditions...almost
as bad as riding a HD~~~~~~,
Grump.