Squid Wobbles Into A Full 360 ~ Then Grinds Away His Shoulder . . .

OUCH.......

Front tire failure of some sort perhaps , or the infamous Harley Death Wobble.
 
It sure seemed to happen fast. His left hand was off the bars when it started and when he reached up and grabbed it, that may have had something to do with it. Slightly loose neck bearings was the problem once on my 79 CBX but only the front end wobbled. When I let off the gas around 50 mph and had a loose grip on the bars the front end would wobble until I grasped the bars tightly or accelerated. I let go of the bars altogether one time and I would have crashed if I hadn't grabbed the bars back right away. It really went into a wobble with no tension on the bars. A slight twist of the top nut and it was fixed. I lost the gas in the mono shock on my 82 CBX one day running with a VRod thru the redwoods on 101 but didn't realize it until I leaned over for some high speed sweepers. Even then, only the rear began wobbling (thankfully). I think the VRod rider was more scared than I was.
 
When I first saw it, I immediately thought Harley Davidson Death Wobble. Well known and documented. Then I wondered how the individual just happened to record this ? Then I found it a day later on youtube with comments. Apparently this guy came on to the interstate and experienced this wobble a half dozen times prior to what you see.
 
I had a front tire on my old GS750 that was losing air pretty rapidly. I was hitting every other gas station to air it up just trying to get home. Then I made the mistake of slowing down on the highway to check it after my last fill up and when I got down to about 35 mph the bead broke and all hell broke loose. didnt crash but it was one heck of a tankslapper until I got it stopped. Dude ground along on his shoulder for a ways in that video, ouch!
 
When I first saw it, I immediately thought Harley Davidson Death Wobble. Well known and documented. Then I wondered how the individual just happened to record this ? Then I found it a day later on youtube with comments. Apparently this guy came on to the interstate and experienced this wobble a half dozen times prior to what you see.

And yet he was still passing with one hand on the bars...:rolleyes:
 
I'm going to guess he had the ass end way over loaded and probably lowered too.
As a Harley owner I'm familiar with the "Harley death wobble" it is related to rubber mounting the frame and swing arm along with a fork mounted windshield.
It only happens when taking corners above 75 and it is just a slow wobble and as soon as the floor boards start hitting the ground you just slow down a bit and it goes away. I also have a Race Tech kit in the front and 1-1/4" longer shocks in the back on my Road King which dampens it down some.
 
So this apparently well known problem is a factory built in piss poor design flaw that Harley can't or won't remedy?
 

He's gonna be wrapped in Saran wrap for a while .

Believe me, I know exactly what you are referring to ~ it was a few months before I could go riding again . . .

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Got caught up in a tornado on the way home from work . . .









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That is the reason I got rid of my Low Rider S. Why on earth would an engineer think its good to mount a swingarm to a rubber mounted engine/trans instead of the frame.....front and rear tires won't track the same!
 
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