Flutterby™! : jitter 2005-06-03 22:49:04.508934+00

jitter

2005-06-03 22:49:04.508934+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

The saga of the $20 bike continues: I noticed a little bit of instability at high speeds on my shakeout ride last weekend. Today at lunch I took it over White's Hill and into San Anselmo and back. On the way down White's Hill I started to kick it up to speed and had it go all unstable, oscillating back and forth in that "oh crap maybe I can find some soft brush on the side of the road" sort of way. Managed to drop the speed and it stabilized out.

I had to drop in at the bike store to get a new seat pack anyway (and oogle the current crop of road bikes, "Reduced! Only $5,250!"), so I asked, and one of the guys said he had the problem when he was too far back. So on the descent down the west side on the way home I tried different positions, and I think it starts to wobble when I get too far forward and put too much weight on the bars. But I'm still not comfortable on the bike much over probably 40MPH, so obviously I've got some chops to get back.

Must. Refrain. From. Believing. That. Carbon. Fiber. And. Modern. Drop. Bars. And. Brifters. Will. Solve. All. My. Stability. Problems...

Double check the 'true' of the wheels.. UNDER LOAD. The tire tru-er stand at Suck Creek has a roller (and a tension adjustment screw) to simulate a weighted bike.. they claim it makes a big difference at speed. (I don't go so fast, on a bike... high speed is for skateboards. ;) ). Also the rake/angle of the front fork is crucial.. set your bike next to a high speed stable one and compare angles.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-06-04 02:09:14.2905+00 by: meuon [edit history]

Okay, I've got to giggle a little bit, just because of random product ordering. As of right now, the page also contains:

But... oooh: pretty. I think, however, I need to spend some time riding a bunch of different things to figure out what makes a bike work for me. I changed my technique on the downhill on another ride this evening (cut short by a flat tire that lead to me discovering my pump was busted) and held a much higher speed quite comfortably; I think the key is that I need to move the seat back an inch or two, which will let me take a little more weight off the bars.

Charlene's sister is also visiting this week, and she brought with her a bike that their brother outfitted and is more of a racing configuration. It's an old chromoly frame, but a decent one with his cast-off components, so it's better outfitted than my touring bike. So I'm going to take that one out and see how it performs.

One of the other things I'm really conscious of now is that I'm going to need to start riding socially. This evening I got in behind two guys who were really in shape who were racing each other enough to be changing the lead every half mile or so, and was pretty amazed at the pace I could hold. Must find a pack to ride with.

And as much as I'd like to have that delivered, one of the reasons to buy a bike from a bike store is that they then provide you with local service; Sunshine Bicycle has done amazing things for me on short notice when I've had to be back up and running fast, enough that I'm willing to pay quite the premium. But I'm also quite aware that there are a number of folks out here who upgrade regularly, and this is really a "wait for the right used bike" thing.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-06-04 05:42:09.028831+00 by: meuon [edit history]

Yeahh.. some of the yuppies (and some good serious riders) seem to be on the 'upgrade trail', hang around the bike shop because the good stuff goes in and out quick, often via word of mouth. Speedy says: "If I could get $1000 for my current bike.. " and Speedy2 says "Sold!". - as for the odd pairing on his site, Mike's just getting started.. he's doing his own product inventory and not much real is up yet. He blew his budget on custom graphics, not the 3 p's: Product Info, Pictures and Prices.