Bike pulling to left

Garybee

I can't seem to ride my training bike (Dawes Giro 400) in a straight line with no hands. I have no trouble on my other bikes so there must be something wrong with this one. My back also gets sore on the left hand side if i ride it for much over an hour, which i suspect is related.

I have not crashed the bike and the frame appears to be straight, as i have swapped rear wheels between bikes and they look the same in each frame. Does anybody have any ideas what else i should be looking at?

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Hypocrisy is only a bad thing in other people.

Greenbank

Slightly too tight headset?

Loosen it all off, give it a waggle to free things up and tighten it up properly.

If that fixes the problem the hurrah. If it makes it better, or worse, you may have a problem with your headset and the bearings/races contained within.

--
If I had a baby elephant signature, I'd use that.

Unknown

Some bikes are much easier to ride no hands than others I find. But if coupled with one-side-only back pain, then yes probably something wrong mechanically (and hence your position on the bike).

d.j.
"The Angels have my 'phone box."
"Better than The Angels have got your Harley."

Greenbank

Is your saddle straight and level?

A slightly off kilter saddle could easily explain both the imbalance and the nagging pains.

--
If I had a baby elephant signature, I'd use that.

pbiggs

Perhaps the cables are tigher on the left, or there may be a slight imperfection with the forks or frame. Either way it doesn't really matter as long as the bike handles fine with one hand on the bars.

Another theory is that it's caused by the crown on the road, but UK roads seem to be pretty flat these days, plus I guess you've tried no-hands in the middle of the road as well as the edge [:)]

<i>~Pete</i>

Bon

The same problem occurred on a steel bike of mine. It turned out the forks were not symmetrical, to check, remove the forks and look at them from the front with the steerer vertical. They shouldn't appear to splay more to one side than the other. It will be obvious if this is the cause of the problem.

When it was fixed I steered to the other side for a while because I was subconsciously correcting the fault but I could go straight with no hands! [:o)]

rustychisel

How did you fix it. Turn the forks around?

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I'm only escaping to here because the office is having a conniption

Asterixcp

Why would you get back-ache from this problem? Do you have to put any real effort into keeping it straight?

One of my bikes (1987) tends to pull left a bit. I have checked every aspect of alignment, replaced the headset bearings (it's lovely and smooth), had the wheels trued, you name it. It has a steepish head, is very quick on the steering either way and hard to ride no hands except at a good speed.

I have done long rides on it and it is excellent on twisty descents (no shimmy) and I don't get the back-ache you mention, so I just let it alone now.



Pour vivre heureux, vivons le v‚lo..

pw1brown

You'd probably have noticed if this was the case...but could your stem be angled to the left (handlebars not at 90 degrees)? I had this once and didn't notice for several days, believe it or not.

The Mechanic

Some bikes are easier to ride no handed and this is mainly down to the geometry. Wheelbase and trail have a lot to do with it. Having said that, my mate Cyclemonkey can take jackets on and off, take photos, cook dinner, hoover and get showered whilst riding no handed. Flash git[8D]

Don't worry the man said, things could be worse. And sure enough, they got worse

Garybee

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, i'll try them all tonight when i get home.

To answer some of the queries:-

Greenbank- saddle is definately straight and level, i have also changed the saddle and the problem persists.

PBiggs- i don't get a sore back on any of my other bikes and i don't want to cause myself a back problem by putting up with something that isn't quite right. I have also tried riding on different parts of the road to rule out camber. I like to ride with no hands occasionally to take off jackets/armwarmers etc. so this is another reason i can't just put up with it.

Asterix- i am not putting in any noticeable effort into steering it straight, but this is the only bike i own that i get back pain on. It is also the only bike i own that i can't ride no-handed easily and it always pulls the same way. This makes me pretty certain that they are linked.

PW1brown- i am pretty sure the bars are set straight ahead but i don't think this would cause it to pull to either side when riding no-handed anyway. Although it could be causing the back pain if this were the case.

The Mechanic- it's definately not a geometry thing, i can ride no-handed by contorting myself onto one side of the saddle. It also always pulls the same way.

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Hypocrisy is only a bad thing in other people.

pbiggs

I suspect the back ache is unrelated unless the problem is unusually severe. Usually with this problem, only a tiny amount of extra force is needed to correct it.

Still, I appreciate that you want to fix the problem.

Check the cables. Also check there's no problem with the front wheel - itself and the way it's fitted. Try different forks if nothing else works.

<i>~Pete</i>

Cyclistm

Try getting someone else to ride it no hands and see how they get on, you might just be concentrating to hard. Or the frame is bent.

Garybee

Took the forks off this evening and they are slightly out of allignment. The centre of the steerer tube points about 6mm closer to the r/h dropout than the left. So it looks like i need to buy a new fork, not to bothered about this as the current one is very hard to get a mudguard on to.

Any suggestions where i can fnd a carbon fork with mudguard clearance/eyelets for a sensible price?

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Hypocrisy is only a bad thing in other people.

Anonymous

Is it not worth trying to correct the misalignment by eye using the cold setting technique?

Garybee

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by xroads</i>

Is it not worth trying to correct the misalignment by eye using the cold setting technique?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

My bad, forgot to mention it's a carbon fork...although a crappy one apparantly.

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Hypocrisy is only a bad thing in other people.

pbiggs

1": Tifosi CKF8 from St John Street. (Were cheaper from Dotbike but they don't seem to have them any more).

1 1/8": ITM 4ever Carbon Winter Fork from HighonBikes or Wiggle. Will work with normal as well as integrated headset.