Steering Query

chrisdouglas

Hey folks so I've got a little question I'm hoping everyone could help me with.

So I'm riding a 2013 Kona Hei Hei 29r. Love it, but I do have a clone main issue. That's the steering. I've found recently that as I'm railing around corners or changing direction that the front end feels a bit twitchy. A couple of times mid corner the front wheel just skips a fraction further than I want it too and provides a hit and miss moment.

Trying to determine wether it was me or the bike I've rode my friends Whyte T129s and another ones Kona Tanuki. Both bikes felt a lot more planted in the corners and never once threatened to throw me over the bars. I've looked at specs and from what I can gather the head angle on my Hei Hei is 70 degrees whilst the others are around 68. And that I have a 60mm stem with 740mm bars.

The width of the bars feels very comfortable however I feel a little stretched sometimes to the bars, I was wondering f fitting a shorter stem may help? Can anyone tell me if this will help? Or do you have any other suggestions? Cheers if you can help out guys!!

IT66T

cyd190468 wrote:

Sketchy front grip generally means you don't have enough weight on the front or you're running too much pressure in the front tyre. I run 25psi front on a 29er. To encourage you to put more weight forward you could try moving your seat forward 5mm. It makes a surprising amount of difference.

+1

I totally agree with this as to much air in the front tyre will cause a fair amount slippage or bounce and as said above that just moving the saddle forward that 5mm will make it more comfortable for you and easier to put a bit more weight over the front wheel giving you more control over the steering ..

The Rookie

What forks set at what sag and is the damping adjustable if so where is it in relation to max and min?

chrisdouglas

Thanks for the tips guys will try both suggestions for my next ride out. I am currently running around 30-32PSi so that may well be a factor.

As for suspension it's a rockshox xc32. Honestly can't tell you settings as I haven't ventured into experimenting with it yet

The Rookie

Set the fork up, too stiff or too much damping will have a similar effect to too much tyre pressure and you'll "ping" off things, too soft will make it dive through the travel effectively steepening the head angle making it twitchy.

stubs

This ^^^^^ plus tyres also make a difference. My Vitus 29er came with Maxxis Aspen tyres and the first proper ride I nearly needed a new pair of clean shorts. Swapped to an On One Smorgasbord on the front and tons better I could push the front really hard

Cqc

You should be standing up in most corners too, so moving your seat won't do much

chrisdouglas

Well I'm gonna try changing the psi I'm running and maybe try a couple of sections with the saddle forwar slightly but I feel comfortable when I'm on the bike already. I'll take it one change at the time. At some point something will click I imagine though

The Rookie

At least set the sag on the forks to the right amount!

stubs

The Rookie wrote:

At least set the sag on the forks to the right amount!

This ^^^ it will take minutes cost nothing and will probably sort it.

chrisdouglas

Apologies didn't realise I hadn't wrote that. Yeah I will be setting the sag correctly also