Ive seen it happen on a metric bike, back in the day. My riding bud in front of me went down in a similar fashion without the 360. Lucky guy got away with road rash.

 

well.... hate to admit it, but i was a victim of the infamous Harley Death Wobble in March. Hit the deck doing around 90 on my ultra. Totaled the bike.

As to what causes it, opinions run wild, but most will suggest some type of mechanical error such as tires. Fork Fluid. engine mounts, balancing ect.....

I still dont really know what caused mine, but I did have new tires fairly recently... i was not overly packed in any of the 3 bags......(wasnt traveling)


as to getting out of it. I'd agree with pushing on the bars to try and keep them straight. Cant agree at all with relaxing them.
From what I've read, many will actually say to accelerate. This is the belief that your taking weight off the front tire by accelerating.


As for me......i was extremely lucky with my injuries. I had two broken fingers, and have had work on both knees and obviously lots of rash. None of which will ever be the same again. it was cool so i had a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie on. Full face probably saved me as it's scarred 360*.
all in all, I figure I STUCK the landing.

 

were you on a straight stretch like the dude in the vid? do you remember hitting a bump or any other road anomaly just before the wobble? were both hands on the bars? as an Ultra owner that has experienced said wobble but didn't go down, I'd like to know more about any circumstances you can recall leading to your crash. TIA

 

saw this the other day, wouldn't he have been better off accelerating. I want to say that might have helped. I mean I could be wrong but...

 

As I've said before, that's one of the big problems with collecting useful data on motorcycle accidents. The majority of the time, the bike is trashed and it would be really difficult even for a crash investigation lab to go back and try to determine if the incident was caused by a mechanical failure or design defect. In most cases, regardless of how bad the crash was, the bike is simply written off and the crash isn't reported to the manufacturer, so there's very little data out there and no reason for the manufacturer to suspect a design issue.

One of the things I learned in the military was the importance of doing a thorough "after action" assessment after an accident in order to learn and do better next time. But without more information or a video, it would be next to impossible to try to figure out what might have happened in your accident.

In a case like this, it must be aggravating because you don't know what went wrong, whether it was you or the bike, so it's in the back of your mind that it could happen again.

How are your knees? Did you require surgery?

I've had a bad knee injury myself and that's not an experience I have any interest in repeating.

 

you joined the forum just so you could tell us what we already know?

life is all about choices, and i'm pretty sure that everyone of us on this forum can make a reasonable assumption about what the consequences of our choices could be.

but hey, thanks for playing.....

 

straight streatch of highway (toll road) the wobble was occurring after going over bumps or uneven surfaces.
yes both hands on the bars.

 

I experienced a high speed wobble like you did but I didn't crash. This occurred many years ago on a CB450 Honda. The cause was worn swing arm bushings.
I've also experienced wobbles caused by worn/loose steering head bearings.

 

Damn there are some stubborn *** foolish people in this thread.