Speed wobble with new wheels!?

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  • smoggysteve
    smoggysteve Posts: 2,909
    Jerry185 wrote:
    SmoggySteve wrote:
    Jerry185 wrote:
    Debeli wrote:
    Jerry185 wrote:
    Definitely replace. I had a speed wobble on my first bike and never found out the cause (tyre, wheel, frame, headset). Problem continued as the LBS kept saying they thought they had fixed it.
    I, too, was at 30+ on a downhill straight when I used the brakes - out of control and on wrong side of road with a car coming up. Somehow, broadsided the bike to a stop. Car driver must have thought I was a loon. That was it for me.
    Bike supplier took it back no issues

    This is not the best advice I have ever read on a cycling (or any other) forum.

    I think it might even be a Mickey-take too subtle for me to have understood....

    I am still riding many years later on cycles that have given me moments of horror and terror on 35-40mph descents. In every case there was a tweak or an adjustment or a tightening that I either believed or imagined had cured the issue.

    Sometimes it was clear, sometimes I was guessing. But if the geometry is right, the rims are true, the spokes are twangy and the tyres at the right pressure, then ride it - do not return it.

    One of the finest feelings on a bicycle is to re-address a fast descent after having had a lane-swapping, chaotic, heart-stopping tank-slapper on it and finding the tweaked and trimmed machine goes down it like a guided missile.

    Go home, set it up right, take a deep breath and go again. You know you want to.

    Seriously, Debeli? This was a life-changing incident and the last one I would ever do. To have got back on that bike going down hill would have been reckless for me and any other poor b*gger in the way. How can preserving life and limb be 'not the best advice?'

    I will back up Debeli on this. You know when, where and how fast the wobble occured. You can go into the same descent with eyes open and be prepared if the wobble begins. No one says you have to go hell for leather and ride dangerously. A speed wobble can happen to anyone at anytime on new or old wheels. Its happened to me on rides I've done countless times before on the same setup. Only for the wobble to never manifest itself again in the same place. I would suggest doing the route again and just watching the speed to see if anything happens. If not then pick up the pace. If I stopped riding every time something unexpected happened I'dnever leave the garage.

    Sorry, guys, I'm obviously not communicating very well. My instances of SW were all on the same bike; it happened at 5 mph through to 35+ mph. It happened when the wheel hit a patch of rough tarmac, gust of cross wind or just a tap on the brakes. Apart from the really low speed occurrences, the instances were bone shaking, vision blurring wobbles of such high resonance, I thought a major crash was the only outcome. Which would have been the case had the hill been shorter, had any bend in it or had I not created a broadside stop to a halt. This wasn't a 'there, there, naughty bike!' tap on the crossbar. Bike returned asap as there was a lifetime warranty

    I take it the bike was returned without establishing the exact cause of the wobble. Could have been absolutely anything then. At least you got the bike replacement no problem. Guess you just need to test the new one out on the same run just to be sure!!

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