Front wheel lifts when climbing

ade555

I'm having a bit of problem when climbing trails that my front wheel keeps lifting , I tried with Forks locked or unlocked but don't make much difference, I belive this is down to to much weight on rear and not much body transfer on front, what can I do to solve this or get more weight on front.

Thanks

brianbee

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19738902#p19738902]ade555[/url] wrote:

I'm having a bit of problem when climbing trails that my front wheel keeps lifting , I tried with Forks locked or unlocked but don't make much difference, I belive this is down to to much weight on rear and not much body transfer on front, what can I do to solve this or get more weight on front.

Thanks

So does mine, . I just live with it, in fact its quite fun. it went from never lifting to doing it quite a lot when I put lighter forks and a shorter stem on it. So it would seem logical that heavier forks ( and you dont really want to do that) and a longer stem would relieve the issue

JodyP

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19738902#p19738902]ade555[/url] wrote:

or get more weight on front.

There is your answer. Its a fine line between having enough weight over the front to stop it lifting and enough weight over the rear to stop it spinning.

You could try longer stems etc but it depends if you are happy with how the bike rides now.

lostboysaint

Lean forward, elbows down.

kajjal

Its your weight distribution on the bike. On very steep climbs you need to hunch over the bike and constantly balance your weight between keeping the front wheel down and keeping traction on the rear wheel.

Unless you have a very unusual bike setup.

HenryTheHoover

A tip someone gave me when I first went short up front was if you needed to pull With your arms to pull backwards towards the seat rather than pulling the bar upwards. ( Pretty much like the line of force travels from your hand through your elbow and into the seat.) This helped me quite a bit.

ade555

Thanks for your answers, it makes sense about fine balance which I'm finding is a bit hard at times, my skills lvl are bit poor when you start coming down steep section just to be faced with steep climb straight after so I don't carry much speed, plus it was muddy, also soon as I struggle to get up there I think I must be pulling on front end, maybe have to go back to 3x9 setup so will have a granny gear for the hills, legs give up half way up , apart from that I like the way the bike rides apart from front shocks but I'm on lookout for one at the moment.

rockmonkeysc

Have you got spacers under the stem or more than an inch rise on the bars? Remove a spacer or two and try it.
Another cause can be if you have a long seatpost in a frame with a slack seat tube angle. It puts your weight too far back.

Angus Young

Move your seat forward on its rails.

Herdwick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkS8nzvqfPA

ade555

I have 3 spacers on stem so will remove them and see what is like, seat is all ready all the way forward position, also thanks for the video, will try and get out next Sunday and see if I can improve a bit. I can get up long type of hills that are not how should I say it "technical" but soon as it gets muddy, slippery and twisty I'm looking at pushing up half way up :shock: , but thanks for advice will try you advice and see how I get on.

Also just to mention the bike I'm riding is Kona Blast 2011 if that makes any difference

HenryTheHoover

If you feel happy with your saddle fore / aft and start experimenting with your spacers it might be worth having a look at seat angle.

Lowering the saddle nose a touch might help to shift a bit of your centre of gravity forward and will potentially get you in a better position to use a lower bar.

I recently went from having my saddle reasonably far back, level and 4 / 5 spacers under my stem to saddle quite far forward, slightly nose down and one spacer.

At first I thought I had too much weight on my arms due to tipping forward too much but as I dropped the spacers I got to a height where it suddenly clicked a felt really good. What I thought was me tipping forwards was my arms just needing a bit more room.

rockmonkeysc

Dropping the bars will improve front end grip on the fun trails as well.

paul.skibum

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/zeps-how-to-mythbusters-elbows-climbing-technical-terrain-2015.html

The Rookie

On my skills training the instructor called the arm position 'chicken wings' tuck the elbows in and back into your stomach, it pulls your upper body forward and also means you pull back and not up on the bars, also try and slide your weight forward a little on the saddle, with a little practice you can climb with the front wheel just skipping over the ground with enough grip to keep you on course while maximising the rear grip.

I'm a bit perverted and actually enjoy a nice tough climb.

Mister_g

Slide forwards on the saddle until it feels like the nose of the saddle is in danger of disappearing up your A-hole.

"Riding on the rivet" the roadies call it

Dirtydog11

Options include

Flipping stem, removing spacers from under stem, sliding saddle forward on rails, fitting lower rise bars, longer stem, wider bars or all the above.

bigmitch41

body weight forward and low, and keep the pedal strokes smooth, stabbing the peddle will cause the front to lift.

The Rookie

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19741068#p19741068]BigMitch41[/url] wrote:

body weight forward and low, and keep the pedal strokes smooth, stabbing the peddle will cause the front to lift.

It also makes spinning the rear wheel more likely, so nice smooth even torque is what you want to achieve, and why single speeders suffer when a climb gets techy as they struggle to achieve that smooth even torque.

fudgey

I had similar issues on my old Cube LTD pro, it had 3 spacers under the stem so i put 2 on top and that pretty much cured the lifting.

i would only tend to experience it when trying to climb and turn a switch back corner.

also shifting your weight forward on the saddle helps a lot as said

paul.skibum

Far to many "fix the bike" comments, not enough "fix the technique" - but at least there are some!

The Rookie wrote:

On my skills training the instructor called the arm position 'chicken wings' tuck the elbows in and back into your stomach, it pulls your upper body forward and also means you pull back and not up on the bars, also try and slide your weight forward a little on the saddle, with a little practice you can climb with the front wheel just skipping over the ground with enough grip to keep you on course while maximising the rear grip.

I'm a bit perverted and actually enjoy a nice tough climb.

Rookie - commonly stated and why I linked to that article - fine for non tech stuff but if you tuck your arms into the stomach you are going to be unbalanced in tech terrain. Same effect is achieved by elbows out but you have better mobility and balance if needed.

Angus Young

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740207#p19740207]paul.skibum[/url] wrote:

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/zeps-how-to-mythbusters-elbows-climbing-technical-terrain-2015.html

Interesting article. Thanks.

ade555

Well I give you little update

I lowered the stem by all spacers total of 17mm, lowered the seat slightly and fitted Wellgo copy flat pedals, what a different :shock: , I can transfer more power from legs to bike, lot more weight shifted forward so not straggling as much, having slight lift but no as bad, I believe this was down to my bike set up, now I can concentrate on getting better forks

Thanks everyone for your input

MilesUK

a lower stem or longer stem will love the issue you are having

The Rookie

Such incite, did you bother to read the thread first?

cooldad

Pedant mode.

Incite rebellion.

Insight - the word you wanted.

The Rookie

Damn iPad auto correct!

StinkinHippy

Sorry to jump on the thread here, but is relevant to OP's last post somewhat.

I'd recently move all my spacers to the top of my stem, and when my bike was in halfords on a warranty job, I got told headsets aren't designed to be used without at least one spacer between them and stem.

True or talking out their behind?

Thanks

The Rookie

Talking out their behind, although the stem should sit on the headset top cover, which can look like a spacer, not directly into the wedge.

Rightarmbad

Get a 29er, end of story.

The Rookie

The daftest suggestion made, well done.