Bike twitchy at speed, any remedy?

Questions about bike hire abroad and everything light bike related. No off-topic chat please

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thisisatest
Shop Owner
Posts: 1980
Joined: Sat Jun 13, 2009 4:02 am
Location: NoVA/DC

by thisisatest

not to beat a dead horse, but rake is the distance the front axle is from the steering axis. just because the fork legs are "straight" or "curved" means nothing. what matters is where the axle ends up.
trail is the distance the tire contact patch is from the steering axis.
please look at eric's diagram again. note that, even though the fork pictured is curved, one could draw a straight line from the head tube to the axle and it would still have the same rake (and trail)

jwb96
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 3:21 pm

by jwb96

It could be worth going over to the VeloNews archives for Lenard Zinn's tech articles - he's covered this topic, and is a bit of an expert on big frames.

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bikerjulio
Posts: 1900
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:38 pm
Location: Welland, Ontario

by bikerjulio

Judging by that video there must be different kinds of shimmy.

The violent shaking that I've experienced would not be cured by hands on bars like that.

The last time it happened to me was with my Supersix, on which previously I'd had no problems decending at all. Then I'm on a descent when buffeting crosswinds hit, and sure enough the whole bike's shaking. I'm in the drops, relaxed. All I can do is hang on and try to slow down.
There's sometimes a buggy.
How many drivers does a buggy have?

One.

So let's just say I'm drivin' this buggy...
and if you fix your attitude you can ride along with me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GekiIMh4ZkM

mjduct
Posts: 657
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 2:19 pm

by mjduct

slow down :smartass:

HillRPete
Posts: 2284
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:08 am
Location: Pedal Square

by HillRPete

thisisatest wrote:if you actually are looking to make the steering more stable and more resistant to changing directions, you want MORE trail, which means LESS rake, all else being equal.
im curious what bike in an XL has 48mm rake. must be a pretty slack bike to begin with. im also curious how upright your position is. a very high handlebar position does increase the possibility of shimmy (anecdotal)


I have tweaked my position over time, and like it a lot now. Also tried most of the points brought up so far, unfortunately to no avail.

My bike is a Kuota Kharma Ultralite edition, which has a 73° HT angle, and an 48mm rake. Could it be that the 3mm extra rake over the standard edition make it (so much more) twitchy?.

Here's a picture, please ignore the fact that I'm testing a non-matching saddle at the moment ...

IMG_2029-small.JPG

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