High speed wobble under braking
craigus89
Posts: 887
I was descending yesterday down a hill that is fairly long and steep so picking up speed is very easy, I was doing about 45mph and needed to take off a bit of speed for a fairly easy corner when I started to wobble, not a huge amount but enough to give me the willies. Fortunately I stopped braking and took the corner a bit faster than I wanted, then managed to slow down steadily.
I assume this wobble was induced by rider error rather than anything wrong with the bike. I usually sit fairly far back on the saddle and get very low on the drops at high speed. I can't remember how much pressure I put on which brakes, but I usually use the front more as you should?
Any ideas what I did wrong? Although it wasn't that bad this time, I'd rather it not happen again.
I assume this wobble was induced by rider error rather than anything wrong with the bike. I usually sit fairly far back on the saddle and get very low on the drops at high speed. I can't remember how much pressure I put on which brakes, but I usually use the front more as you should?
Any ideas what I did wrong? Although it wasn't that bad this time, I'd rather it not happen again.
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Comments
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Probably you did nothing wrong.
Wobble while braking is normally introduced by a sloppy fork and and/or rim/brakepad combination which is sensitive under certain circumstances.
Even cleaning the pad/rims can improve this sometimes ....otherwise you have to exchange parts.0 -
Hmm, not had the problem before and have done quite a few miles on the bike. I'll have a look at the pads and rims.0
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umpteen possibilities, holding bars too tight and/or tensing up is possible, the way it works is the body can't react fast enough to correct a slight deviation, the lag results in the attempted correction amplifying the deviation, things get worse, fast
the trigger for wobble may be cross wind, speed, road surface, etc., once it starts you need to resist the reflex attempt to correct by turning the bars
things to do if you feel wobble developing, stay relaxed, try one or more of...
firmly press knee(s) against the top tube
unload weight from saddle
gently apply rear brake
if a wobble starts, avoid using the front brake, that can make things much worse, start with the rear to shave off speed, get under control, then you can use frontmy bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
I hard a couple of instances of hairy frame wobble. One was on a local hill, riding a cheap steel training frame with poor rear end tracking. The second was on a long Majorcan descent, riding an Pinarello FP5. With the FP5, it turned out to be dirt ingress into the headset bearing, resulting in micro-lockouts of the steering.To err is human, but to make a real balls up takes a super computer.0
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Are you Thibaut Pinot?Job: Job, n,. A frustratingly long period of time separating two shorter than usual training rides0
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[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19661561#p19661561]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Are you Thibaut Pinot?
No, Pinot is on a Lapierre and I didn't crash.To err is human, but to make a real balls up takes a super computer.0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19661561#p19661561]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Are you Thibaut Pinot?
No, Pinot is on a Lapierre and I didn't crash.
Meant the OP! Though I know he didn't crash either...Job: Job, n,. A frustratingly long period of time separating two shorter than usual training rides0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19661984#p19661984]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19661561#p19661561]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Are you Thibaut Pinot?
No, Pinot is on a Lapierre and I didn't crash.
Meant the OP! Though I know he didn't crash either...
Pinot crashed through grounding his pedal, not speed wobble.To err is human, but to make a real balls up takes a super computer.0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19661984#p19661984]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19661561#p19661561]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Are you Thibaut Pinot?
No, Pinot is on a Lapierre and I didn't crash.
Meant the OP! Though I know he didn't crash either...
Pinot crashed through grounding his pedal, not speed wobble.
You must be a lot of fun to have around every time someone makes an off-the-cuff quip...Job: Job, n,. A frustratingly long period of time separating two shorter than usual training rides0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19662630#p19662630]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19661984#p19661984]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19661561#p19661561]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Are you Thibaut Pinot?
No, Pinot is on a Lapierre and I didn't crash.
Meant the OP! Though I know he didn't crash either...
Pinot crashed through grounding his pedal, not speed wobble.
You must be a lot of fun to have around every time someone makes an off-the-cuff quip...
Everyone I know is wearing t-shirts right now.To err is human, but to make a real balls up takes a super computer.0
