---
title: "This Motorcycle Rider Surviving the Death Wobbles at 130 MPH Is the Save of the Year"
description: "A motorcyclist in Texas is lucky to be alive after losing control of his sportbike while speeding through traffic at almost 130 mph and somehow managing to overcome the death wobbles to stay upright—and the dramatic save was captured on his riding partner's helmet camera."
date: "2018-04-16"
modified: "2018-04-16"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/20139/this-motorcycle-rider-surviving-the-death-wobbles-at-130-mph-is-the-save-of-the-year"
categories:
  - "News"
  - "Watch This"
tags:
  - "bad driving"
  - "Kawasaki"
  - "motorcycle"
  - "riding"
  - "speeding"
  - "sportbike"
  - "Texas"
---

# This Motorcycle Rider Surviving the Death Wobbles at 130 MPH Is the Save of the Year

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2018/04/moto-wobble.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

A motorcyclist in Texas is lucky to be alive after losing control of his sportbike while speeding through traffic at almost 130 mph and somehow managing to overcome the death wobbles to stay upright—and the dramatic save was [captured on video](<https://youtu.be/TFov6yoeH0E>) by his riding partner's helmet camera.

Really, it's impossible to overstate just how lucky (and stupid) this man is. Setting aside the obvious danger of pulling a high-speed run like this on a public road in the middle of the day, he's dressed in a T-shirt, athletic pants, and sneakers. His sole piece of protective gear for riding a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R is a helmet. [No jacket, no gloves, no pads.](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/13151/russian-woman-known-as-sexiest-motorcyclist-on-instagram-killed-in-high-speed-crash>) An accident at those speeds would have resulted in catastrophic injuries and a big mess for rescue workers.

And while there are [plenty of visible dangers](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/18849/watch-this-biker-narrowly-avoid-becoming-a-human-pancake-under-a-truck>) to motorcycle riding, the death wobbles—also known as speed wobbles or a tank slapper—are both less obvious and more serious than most. It's a sudden, violent oscillation of a bike's front wheel and handlebars caused by a few different mechanical and aerodynamic factors, but it's hard to recover from and often leads to a bad crash. How that didn't happen here, we honestly have no clue.

https://youtube.com/embed/TFov6yoeH0E

The video shows the bikers [flying down the highway](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/17282/181-in-a-75-here-are-the-20-fastest-speeding-tickets-in-texas-in-2017>) and preparing to zip through a patch of traffic. But as the cameraman glances over at his friend, you can see his motorcycle start to wobble; a second later, it's clear he's in serious trouble as he saws away at the handlebars and struggles to stay vertical at 125 mph.

For ten long seconds—covering well over 1000 feet at those speeds—he fights for control as his panicked friend watches helplessly. Against all odds, he's eventually able to reel it back in and pull over to collect himself and, hopefully, reflect on the fleeting nature of life.

Whatever the balance of luck and skill that went into whipping those wobbles, it's still an impressive save. That's the only commendable part about this whole video, though, which should be stamped with a big red DO NOT DO and shown as part of the motorcycle license test.

## Author
Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/kylecheromcha.bsky.social>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/kylecheromcha>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-cheromcha-1550248a/>)