Buffeting

Focus-rider

Just wondering how you folks manage to stop the front wheel from buffeting about in the wind. I was out for a ride today, downhill section so was doing 38mph. There was quite a bit of a side wind hitting me but nothing to bad but the front end kept skipping all over the place and being lifted a lot. Although I was on the drops I was still putting a lot of weight over the front end to try and keep it down and planted. If it helps I ride a focus izalko pro with fulcrum racing 5 wheels so not hugely areo. Anyway just wondering if I'm doing anything wrong or how can I minimise it. How to people cope with deep section rims.
Thanks glenn

declan1

You can't minimize it, and people don't cope with deep-section rims. They just get blown off the road

Robert Windsor

My bike was fitted with Shimano deep cut rims, I saved up and replaced them mavic ksyrium sl and have done 51mph down a bank called solomans hollow near leek, staffordshire around 17% gradient and had no wheel or bike movement whatsoever.scared stiff though as in my 40's now, i have also done over 50 mph down station road mow cop on a mountain bike just wearing a pair of shorts but in my early twenties so felt invincible.

Bozman

I've got an Izalco pro and I find that bike a nightmare in cross winds, doesn't make a difference if I change wheels.

wingguy

Focus-rider wrote:

There was quite a bit of a side wind hitting me but nothing to bad but the front end kept skipping all over the place and being lifted a lot. Although I was on the drops I was still putting a lot of weight over the front end to try and keep it down and planted. If it helps I ride a focus izalko pro with fulcrum racing 5 wheels so not hugely areo. Anyway just wondering if I'm doing anything wrong or how can I minimise it. How to people cope with deep section rims.

You minimise it by relaxing. Here's why:

Fulcrum racing 5's aren't deep section so shouldn't cause any problems, and the front end 'lifting' is simply not going to happen - that's in your head.

I'd put money on your mistake being that you're too nervous and therefore too rigid, and that the 'buffeting' you're feeling is mostly from the road surface not the wind. If you have no give in your upper body you can't absorb the road surface and as the bike bounces over bumps and cracks in the road then so will you, amplifying the effect, making it particularly skittish in the corners. Make sure you have plenty of bend in your elbows, relax, and let the bike skip and move a little underneath you instead of trying to grind it into the tarmac. The result will be a much more predictable bike that holds its line much better through turns.

Anonymous

Izalco Pro too and has twitched a bit in strong winds, but no wheel lift and never been scared.
I never rode with the Fulcrums on but cannot see that making a difference.
I think saying its a 'nightmare' is a bit OTT. Does not seem any different to friends non Focus bikes on windy days.
Maybe I am just too fat and heavy for it to have been a problem.

Am looking forward to seeing if my deep section carbon tubular wheels improve my time trial times, and how much they are affected by a summers evening breeze.
That's if I live to tell the tale of course