What's going on here.................?

realdean said:

Recently I was in a road race when all of a sudden my bike began to shake as if it was falling
apart. Slowing down resolved the problem. I've seen this happen to another rider once before. In
my case my wheels were true and every nut and bolt was tight with no play in the headset. It was
not really windy and if there was any, it was sligtly coming from behind. At the time the pace was
fast (approx 30mph) and the road was slighly rough. Can anyone explain the phenomenon? Thanks.

From the faq pointer just posted by Mike Iglesias, see draco.acs.uci.edu8h.5.htmlOpen ↗

--
Tony Rall

Ask yourself this question: Was I really tense? When you are tense and hanging onto the bars tightly
a thump on the wheel from a bump or even a bump on your elbow can start the front end wobbling.
Since this oscillation is at the same frequency as your muscle reaction time it can appear to be a
speed wobble. When it occurs aside from the usual means to stop the wobble - laying a knee against
the top tube or standing on the pedals, you might try to completely relax your upper arms.

BTW, I just saw this happen to someone last week. They insisted that there was something wrong with
the bike but their dealer couldn't find anything and they have been riding since with no problems.

"realdean" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Recently I was in a road race when all of a sudden my bike began to shake as if it was falling
apart. Slowing down resolved the

problem.

Quoted message said:

I've seen this happen to another rider once before. In my case my wheels were true and every nut
and bolt was tight with no play in

the

Quoted message said:

headset. It was not really windy and if there was any, it was

sligtly

Quoted message said:

coming from behind. At the time the pace was fast (approx 30mph) and the road was slighly rough.
Can anyone explain the phenomenon? Thanks.

In article said:

Recently I was in a road race when all of a sudden my bike began to shake as if it was falling
apart. Slowing down resolved the problem. I've seen this happen to another rider once before. In
my case my wheels were true and every nut and bolt was tight with no play in the headset. It was
not really windy and if there was any, it was sligtly coming from behind. At the time the pace was
fast (approx 30mph) and the road was slighly rough. Can anyone explain the phenomenon? Thanks.

Was there a rattling noise? The other day my bike was rattling and I thought it was going to fall
apart with me on it! It turns out it was the lock-ring spacer, a tiny little metal ring, that caused
all that chaos. They cost about 2 bucks to replace.

shiimmmmy. can be caused by many things could be a loose headset, bent fork, bad combination of fork
rake and headtube angle...... Whatever the cause it's reallly scary.

Marlene Blanshay said:

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden]

(realdean) said:

Recently I was in a road race when all of a sudden my bike began to shake as if it was falling
apart. Slowing down resolved the problem. I've seen this happen to another rider once before. In
my case my wheels were true and every nut and bolt was tight with no play in the headset. It was
not really windy and if there was any, it was sligtly coming from behind. At the time the pace was
fast (approx 30mph) and the road was slighly rough. Can anyone explain the phenomenon? Thanks.

Was there a rattling noise? The other day my bike was rattling and I thought it was going to fall
apart with me on it! It turns out it was the lock-ring spacer, a tiny little metal ring, that
caused all that chaos. They cost about 2 bucks to replace.

Thanks for all the replies> > Having read all the advice I can tell you that knowing a solid way to
RESOLVE the problem has made all the difference. As suggested, placing the knee against the top tube
when going fast (or even slow) prevents and/or eliminates the problem. Apparently as technology has
enabled bikes to become lighter and flexible the phenomenon of speed wobble is more common than I
was evere aware. dean