Is it a certain type of female army officer or something?

I only heard this for the first time at Bedford after Cem came off the circuit?

 

Borrowed from the biking world, where it's used to describe a massive wobble / slide / hairy moment at speed ... a wobble so big that the handlebars are going from lock-stop to lock-stop and "slapping" the petrol tank.

 

Tank Slapper is related to the bike world, as you are coming out of a bend abd give the throttle a touch too much the rear end slides out and then grabs back causing the bike to twitch violently (in most cases) throwing the rider about left to right, imagine hanging on for dear life as the bike beneath your twists about, invariably you the rider will be bouncing about on the tank, hence tank slapper, great fun, has since been incorporated into gaming (well by us anyway) when you lose a car and it starts stepping out all over the place its just like a tank slapper.
FM

 

dont you hate it when someone replies the same time as you

 

A favourite trick of my GSXR600. Hard acceleration over cats eyes and it's all over the shop, makes for some scary leather soiling moments. Not sure how it applies to cars though?

 

Yep - well said.

Tends to happen when the front end of a powerfull bike gets light (often over a brow of hill or bump). Bars start wiggling violently from side to side - hard enough that you simply cant hold on in some cases. Often leads to either a crash or very brown pants

Modern sports bikes tend to have steering dampers to prevent this happening.

Be VERY VERY glad you dont get slappers in cars (apart from essex girls)

Jza

 

and if your really unlucky bashing your wrists into the petrol tank and wripping out the wiring for your headlights and clocks.

As happened to a mate of mine on hi RC30, i was following along the gatwick straight on my zx6.

We were progressing a little quickly, hit some ripplies and he started twitching in front of me as if he was having a fit!

He held it, then stopped for a *** (and to calm down hehe) and we had to ride slowly home as his wrists were ballooning and half his wiring hanging down!

 

Cars do slap - my dads Talbot Solara did anyway.
Lock to lock to lock to lock to field....... hehe

 

tankslapping := fishtailing

 

Hardest part is trying to convince your brain to keep it nailed.....

Then pull over for a smoke, definitely..

 

That bird off you've been framed ?

 

Yea lisa riley is another type of tank slapper........!

But on cars people say it when some part of the bottom of the car hits the floor (after being airborne usually, or accelerating hard in a v.powerful rwd or 4x4 with low(ish), soft(ish) suspension). Usually its the sump if airborne (hence a sump guard on rally cars), or the fuel tank if accelerating hard.

There you go- TBO i didnt know it was ever used in that bike way...

steve

 

never knew it came from the bike world. I always thought that it was due to the fact that when the back end fishtails and you try and catch it and fail and overcorrect that this sets up a motion whereby the fuel in the tank sloshes violently from one side to the other, and sets up a kind of horizontal pendulum effect, which is none to easy to recover from, thus leading to you ending up as a beached whale on shingle beach or a lawnmover.

 

Tank slappers aren't generally caused by the back end sliding coming out of a turn - that's a highside recipe. The bike slides then grips and tries to spit you over the top. Very painful. If you're lucky you'll catch it and get away with the bike bucking around beneath you.

Tankslappers tend to be caused by the front going light, as has been said above, usually when gassing it over bumpy roads. The front wheel gets stuck in an oscillating motion where each time it makes contact with tarmac it's at an extreme angle of lock. I was unlucky enough to have quite a severe tankslapper at Darley Moor when I was run off the track onto bumpy grass at around 60mph. I managed to get it back on the tarmac without stacking it and fortunately remembered to pump the brakes a few times before reaching the next turn. Tankslappers are severe enough to push the brake pistons back into the calipers y'see. I also later discovered my rear axle had come loose while grasstracking...

All good fun.

Whip

 

Hmm. We're getting slightly confused.

What Funki Munki describes is probaly more akin to a "high side", where the back breaks away, then grips again, throwing (or attempting to) the rider, quite a violent single movement.

A tank slapper is a high speed oscillation of the handlebars, usually acceleration/front end load (geommetry) related.

A steering damper is a bodge usually used to mask the problems brought on by 'over agressive' steering geometry used to sharpen the bike up.


There was an excellent article in one of the bike mags a few months back that explained all the technical why's and wherefores about it.


Avoid both at all costs.

Mike.