Hi guys, I was travelling on my Brutale the other day doing about 160km/h straight line and hit a ridge in the road. Next thing is that there was a massive tankslapper (front tyre screeching for grip) and I thought I was going to get flung.

Has anybody experienced this before?? is this a problem or just a fluke never to be repeated?? Has anybody fitted a steering damper or am I just panicking?

Cheers for any help.

-- Gary Turner (skunkworks3459@hotmail.com), September 22, 2004

Answers

I'm not sure I follow what happened. Are you saying that you were nearly catapulted over the handlebars by hitting a ridge in the road? How big or deep a ridge? I've never had a front end or front tire situation on my Brutale in 2,200 miles of riding.

-- Tom Solimine (Tsolimine@amph.com), September 22, 2004.

I have about 2k miles on my Brutale, and the front has never done anything weird on me. I did find the front suspension a little skittish over bumps in corners out of the box, and I was tempted to soften it. However after about 1k miles, the forks seem to have 'settled', and now I have no problems. I've never on any motorcycle had a front tire screeching for grip while going in a straight line (or at any point for that matter). Did your front tire come off the ground a little bit?

-- Josh (eatenbyagrue@gmail.com), September 22, 2004.

Hi Gary, Have you checked your fork settings.Suspension setting is very important especially on the front end.Try and soften it a little bit.Have someone experienced to do this. Hope this helps.

-- Iskandar (yojo@tm.net.my), September 22, 2004.

In 4000k's I personally havent had any tankslapper problems with my Brutale, BUT a mate of mine had a ride on my bike at the local racetrack, and coming out of a corner, with a lot of power in a low gear he had a whopper of a tankslapper, thought he was going to come off. We attributed it to the front wheel being mostly off the ground and hitting a bit of a bump. Caused me to wonder about steering dampers too.

I have never had a moments concern with my Brutale in a straight line though.. but way back, years ago, my BMW's used to get a bit snakey if the tyres were worn. Could that be the case?

-- Ian Sylvester (sylvesterian@hotmail.com), September 23, 2004.