kill my road buzz !

limoneboy

Really quick one , i have a burls titanium frame which is comfy at the back end but the front end is as hard a nails so defeats the object of me going for a titanium frame in the first place , using easton ec90 forks with easton ec90 bars and 3t team stem , i know its not the bars as they are on other bikes and work great , any ideas on stems and forks
the forks are tapered .

ugo.santalucia

Materials don't have any specific behaviour, frame design make them stiffer or less so. So buying titanium for comfort and then getting big tubes is a bit nonsense.
That said, maybe your wheels are overly harsh? Thick bladed radial spokes?

mfin

How heavy are you? What tyre pressures are you inflating to? Which tyres/tubes are you running (tyre size too as this relates to pressure too). Those are the first things.

Then, bar tape, what are you running, any pads underneath it, double-wrapped etc?

After those have been addressed or discounted from the equation then it might be worth looking at bar choice as a further avenue to explore.

Ugo's also right about materials, I've had Carbon bikes that transfer way more road buzz than aluminium ones for instance, the material itself is no guarantee of smoothness even thought that is what most people get suckered into by the constant clichés in bike marketing.

drjohnson84

tyre choice and pressure make more difference to road buzz and ride quality than any other factor. The whole frame material guff pedalled by the cycling industry is just a mechanism to get people to buy more stuff.

After tyre pressure/choice I would look at how the wheels you are ridign are built - do they have radial, bladed spokes? Or maybe they're just overbuilt for your weight - high spoke count wheels with lots of tension in are strong, but can be quote harsh.

limoneboy

thakns for all your replys , i will look at the tyre pressure first i think as a have new track pump and may have been a bit too generous. weight wise 72kg on AM Argents, i am using inner tubes at the moment so changing to tubeless may help a little (if the advertising is correct !!). i must say that i have had many carbon frames from Dolans , bh g5 , Oltres ,trigons etc etc and this has the most comfy back end , hence why i questioned the front end forks bars etc, using lizard skin tape which is excellent and soft.

GrantTaylor

I found tyre pressures to be the biggest difference I could make. I found the worst surface to be that cheap rubbish chippings they just throw down on a bed of tar, which is lethal for a cyclist when first put down. It seems to send just the right resonance through the bike to create 'road buzz'. I was very much in the 'more must be better' camp when it came to tyre pressures, but have been experimenting as I have lost 20 kgs and finally seem to have found front/rear tyre pressures that have all but eleimated road buzz, but still maintain a resonable rolling resistance and durability. I have reduced 15 psi in the rear and around the same in the front, so running 105 rear/95 front on Zipp 404's and a carbon framed Giant TCR SL. At 75kg this works for me. Of course multiple variables/preferences which means these figures will be of no interest to you.

northpole

Agree with comments on tyre pressures - thankfully there is less load on the front tyre which can therefore run on a bit lower pressure than the rear. Another factor can be the wheels themselves, albeit I would expect buzz to come through both if this was a significant issue. I certainly noticed an increase in buzz when I switched back to Fulcrum Zero's for the winter months - they are a very rigid wheel. If you have a spare set or can borrow a front for a ride, it may be interesting to see if you notice much difference from your current wheels.

Peter

limoneboy

northpole wrote:

Agree with comments on tyre pressures - thankfully there is less load on the front tyre which can therefore run on a bit lower pressure than the rear. Another factor can be the wheels themselves, albeit I would expect buzz to come through both if this was a significant issue. I certainly noticed an increase in buzz when I switched back to Fulcrum Zero's for the winter months - they are a very rigid wheel. If you have a spare set or can borrow a front for a ride, it may be interesting to see if you notice much difference from your current wheels.

Peter

Good idea , i will try a different wheel on the front , hope its not that though , just got these wheels !

mfin

If those tyres are 23 and you weigh 72kg, try putting about 90psi in. If you're running 120psi or something daft like that then that would contribute to road buzz. You can always double wrap your tape (don't bother with overly padded gel-type gloves).

This has got to be very good advice solely because I managed to type 'like that then that' and it made sense.

Crozza

also try latex innertubes - I find them noticeably smoother

on-yer-bike

What is road buzz?

imposter2.0

on-yer-bike wrote:

What is road buzz?

Road buzz is something you get when there is too much air in your tyres...

Father Faff

I recently swapped from some cheapish Bontrager RaceLite tyres to Conti 4 Seasons, both 23mm, and now get more road buzz, Tyre pressures I run are usually 110 front/120 rear in the dry (less if wet) but I weigh 87kg. I think the Contis have less volume from appearances.

Bar Shaker

Imposter wrote:

on-yer-bike wrote:

What is road buzz?

Road buzz is something you get when there is too much air in your tyres...

Its the high frequency vibration transferred through the frame from the tyres rolling over the texture of the road (as opposed to rolling over holes etc).

If you flick the frame and it makes a 'ting' sound, it will transfer high frequencies very well. Think of a tuning fork. If it makes a 'thuck' sound then it won't transfer high frequencies well. The problem is as much about harmonics as it is the materials used for parts of the frame. A really bendy metal frame may lose some of the vibration where as a stiff frame will transfer it. Carbon, which is predominately resin, is very poor at transmitting high frequencies, despite its stiffness. Some people don't believe that bit.

The high frequency vibration is to be avoided as it will have the same effect on your body as sitting on a bike that is itself on a Power Plate, albeit to a lesser intensity.

Lowering tyre pressures is a good way of stopping the vibration at source.