that was odd, a little scary too...

[Anonymous]

Im a pretty new rider on a 82 750tz and i was coming back home tonight and it was a tad chile out and my tires were still pretty cold. I go through this right turn and as im coming out of my lean i got on it and that rear tire just flew out and back around once or twice and then straightend out. First time ive fishtailed on a bike. Kinda scary but went pretty well. Seems like just keeping your calm is the most important part. Anyway just though id share my newbie experience.

[Anonymous]

Please slow down and someday become and old goat

[Anonymous]

Just wait until the first time you drag some hardware around a corner!

[Anonymous]

ya, ill definately be easier on it out of corners in limited traction situations (i.e. cold tires, wet roads). On a seperate note im really enjoying riding my bike, so much better than driving a car

[Hoomgar]

Worse is having the front tire slide on you. Makes your entire body pucker up and it is amaising how fast the leg comes down to assist. I had a really hard compound on one year and after doing that to me about 6 or 7 times maybe more that riding season I took it in and had the softest Dunlop you can put on my rims put on and have used nothing since. I have to admit that I have never fish tailed the rear of a street bike. Only dirt bikes.

[Anonymous]

well i just got back from a little 3 hour ride and every time i was coming out of a turn i watched not to give it too much juice. I guess its been a lesson learned.

[Anonymous]

Hi all! I'm on to a GS again after many years away from the sweetest marque out of the land of the rising sun. I had a GS850 heavy in the early half of the 80's and had a lot of fun and a number of very close calls as one is want to do when one is young and stupid. The beauty of the GS is that it is imensly strong. By comparison, I took a CB900FA for a test ride once and came off at slow speed in the dry while turning into a side road. I don't know why or how I came off; the best I can imagine is that the *@%^$*@%^$*@%^$*@%^$ heap tripped over itself. I sat unscathed on the road and watched in disbelief as the Honda completly dismantaled itself. The engine crash bar pushed itself throught the egg shell crankcase the cast handle bar snapped off taking the instruments with it, the head light and tail light assembly followed suit. I had two similar falls off the GS in situations that any bike would have struggled in (white line in the wet and a surprise sprinkling of tiny stones around a blind corner) on both occasions the GS withstood the impact with barely a scratch. The repairs were carried out with a 2lb club hammer. On another occasion I was travelling the white line with my future wife on the back in heavy 2 way traffic around a long sweeper. I could see the cars way ahead getting closer and closer to the centre line and knew with dread that I needed to join the flow of traffic quickly. I spotted a gap 6 cars ahead and was scraping wing mirrors on both sides when the impact came. The GS shuddered once and then it felt as if a sledge hammer hit my foot. I took the gap I was aiming for moments later and pulled over to the side of the road. My pillion was not a happy chappy. The bike had taken the oncoming car bumper on the engine bar and bent it back enough to protect my leg. The remnants of bumper connected with my foot and my foot smashed my pillions foot. I rode us both to hospital got a wheel chair and got us up to the ramp of the emergency ward before I ran out of adrenalin. Fortuneately a fellow biker was coming down the ramp with his foot in a cast and together we got to the waiting room. The repairs to the GS amounted to putting the foot peg assembly in a bench vice and hitting it with a club hammer. The engine bar was grazed but fine and the bike was otherwise undamaged. We both were bed ridden for three weeks none the worse and wiser.

[Dink]

Thejared it sounds very much like you havent been riding very long?!!
A street compound tyre DOES NOT need to "warned up" to work. Are the tyres on the bike they same tyres as you purchased it with? if so replace them !! they are age hardened and will continue to let go on you generally at very unpredictable times with very predictable results.
Dink

[Anonymous]

Please slow down and someday become and old goat

Yeah.....what the other old goat said Seriously get some decent tyres and take it easy.

Like Hoomgar said the front letting go is a real nasty surprise. I had an XS650 do that once on a wet corner and my guts were sore for several weeks due to the instinctive reaction in keeping it upright.

[argonsagas]

thejared...I notice no one has offered you a solution for the fishtail action....Since you were upright after your turn, you were mostly safe anyway

Back off a bit on the throttle (NOT fully off....you do NOT want to close the throttle completely). Hold that for just long enough to let the tire gain tractionm then get back on the throttle, but do it moderately. As long as you do not overpower it, the bike will usually straighten itself out.


Best advice above is to get out and buy some new tires. It seems almost certain yours are old and/or weather beaten.....which is about the same thing....and they have hardened.

Look for check marks in the sidewall.....you already know the tires are not the best, so if you see them scrap the tires NOW.


There is absolutely NO excuse for not riding on safe tires. They are the most important, and vital, safety features you have .

[Anonymous]

Just wait until the first time you drag some hardware around a corner!

Been there. heart stops for a second and you have the the thought, "did that really just happen?"

[Anonymous]

Dominic Dude! Seriously you need to trade that in on a Vespa! You got more lives than a cat dude! 8O

[mdole]

Dominic Dude! Seriously you need to trade that in on a Vespa! You got more lives than a cat dude! 8O

Dominic tires are the fix for the fishtailing and you need tires for the way you ride as they come in various compounds and tread designs. The softer of the sport touring tires offer a lot of stick but suffer short lives and the harder touring oriented tires don't stick as well. But they are much better than old hardened tires.

If you want to really see some wild rear end action get a Vespa up to about 65 and then hit a rock on an edge of the rear tire. 8O

Mike

[earlfor]

Jared, I believe you need to get some new tires. Old ones harden and dont provide good traction. You might also try not to press too hard until you have ridden enough to have a instinctive feel for how far you can push it before things go to hell in a handbasket. :-) The tires will normally hang on beyond the point most riders are comfortable. I put a scrape on the right leg of my centerstand last week that proves that statement. :-)

Earl

[Anonymous]

You also have to watch that you do not put your foot down on the pavement to compensate. That is asking to break your leg. It is always better to take the backslide and release the bike. You want your bike and your body nowhere near each other if you had the worst case scenario of an all out slide. I have had the experiance myself of having my front end hit which naturally caused the front end to tree over. The bike flipped in the air. I was sliding underneath watching it flip hoping i wasn't the soft target it would pick to land on. Luckily it missed me however the kickstand broke off and shot into my elbow. Got a cool scar and neat story and a new appreciation of the idiocy of my fellow drivers. However to not get too far off the tangent a friend of my family was riding his Harley and experianced the same thing as you, unfortunately he tried putting his foot down to save his bike. His bike was fine, however he now has a wooden block installed in all his shoes to compensate for where the ball of his foot was shaved off. With that said have fun on your bike!