What is this hole in lower yoke for?

[alexdecker]

Noticed this today. Running out of parts though. What goes in here?

[Oddjob]

nothing, sometimes used for a steering damper.

[nikxan1]

thats easy. used for steering damper which is rare, but available to find

[Sesman]

Show me please. I’d like one of those.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I've always associated steering dampers with a bike plus chair. If the wheels are correctly  aligned what's to wobble  that needs damping ?

[Sesman]

I can tell you Ted. I had a destructive tank slapper in 1979 of my 400 Four after hitting a pothole.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

So did it buckle a wheel ?

[Sesman]

Nope, but It was sufficiently violent to throw me off. A week before the Manx GP too. Still made it though.

[Laverda Dave]

I suffered a tank slapper on my 400/4 in the early 80’s. My bike was fully loaded with a top box and two fibreglass panniers. The bike also had a barn door of a Rickman fairing. I was traveling back from Birmingham on the M40 and overtook a car on the outside lane. As I was decelerating down from 80 back to 70 the bike went into such a violent tank slapper I went straight across three lanes and onto the hard shoulder. I managed to stay on and come to a stop but not a pleasant experience. On the bright side though it cleared my constipation 😁.

[Johnny4428]

I suffered a tank slapper on my 400/4 in the early 80’s. My bike was fully loaded with a top box and two fibreglass panniers. The bike also had a barn door of a Rickman fairing. I was traveling back from Birmingham on the M40 and overtook a car on the outside lane. As I was decelerating down from 80 back to 70 the bike went into such a violent tank slapper I went straight across three lanes and onto the hard shoulder. I managed to stay on and come to a stop but not a pleasant experience. On the bright side though it cleared my constipation 😁.

That could have been catastrophic! Luckily for you didnt need laxatives. Every cloud and all that.🤣🤣

[Spitfire]

Yep got into a tank slapper on my old 750K1 on the M53, I think it might have something to do with the speed I was going and a very strong gust of side wind, so I fitted a steering damper to the bike and never had a problem again.

Cheers

Dennis

[MrDavo]

My old CB750 K0 tried to chuck me off on the M6, at around 110mph. The combination of being sat up at speed, making the front light, plus a load of luggage on the carrier, which made it a bit wobbly at any speed, caused a huge lock to lock tank slapper, suddenly I was in two lanes at once!

I knew not to shut off or brake suddenly, that could have sent me over the bars, my only other option was to nail the throttle which stopped the wobble, then I gingerly backed off to a more legal speed.

My Z1 has a damper, I’ve not needed it yet, but I’ve only been over the ton once on it.

[Bryanj]

The original Z1 was notorious for tank slappers which is where the "hinge in the middle" came from. We had a customer whose bike slid so far down the M5 that the casing behind the points cover was ground away nearly to the cases, he slid so far he lost about 1lb of skin.
That was before they came with dampers!

[Laverda Dave]

Whilst the Jota does not suffer with tank slappers one thing I learnt very early on was to never roll off the throttle mid corner. To do so results in the bike picking itself up and going straight on! With a Jota if you go into a corner too quick you have to lean it over more, it wasn't called the fastest lorry for nothing