yoav

Most recent activity

• Speed Wobble when Touring on old Dawes Super Galaxy

  in Mechanics & Fixin' • 1 week, 3 days

  

  The physics of bicycles and motorcycles are essentially the same but with more speed and power in the latter, the effects are going to be magnified. You can counter-steer on a bicycle but if you try it, do it gently.

• Speed Wobble when Touring on old Dawes Super Galaxy

  in Mechanics & Fixin' • 1 week, 3 days

  

  There isn’t really a straightforward answer as to why speed wobbles (also called tankslappers in the motorcycling world) occur. Essentially something knocks the front wheel off line and the self-correcting nature of the front wheel in the fork moves the wheel back towards the midline but overcorrects and the wheel goes the other way where the reverse happens, thus setting off a to and fro motion.

  There are many factors that can lead to this including speed, road surface, frame material and geometry and weight distribution. How the various factors interact is not well studied but certainly situations where the front wheel is unloaded and has less traction seem to make wobbles more likely. In your case, having loaded rear panniers plus one or more of the other factors could cause it.

  Personally, I’ve never experienced it on any of my bikes in 50 years of cycling but there is always a first time.

  If you fancy seeing a really good speed wobble:
  https://youtu.be/G7Lw0x0vnGA
  
  

• Looking for a silver a-head stem, preferably with an angle downwards

  in General • 1 week, 4 days

  

  Just get a stem with an appropriate upwards angle and turn it upside down. No?

• Columbus Genius

  in Bikes & Bits • 1 week, 6 days

  

  I wonder if Columbus Genius tubes are related to Columbus Brain tubes?

• Classic bike fork replacement

  in Bikes & Bits • 3 weeks, 6 days

  

  Most 1” forks are threaded and most 1 1/8” are threadless but there was an overlap period when some manufacturers produced 1” threadless and 1 1/8” threaded.

• Road bike gear ratio?

  in Mechanics & Fixin' • 4 weeks, 1 day

  

  A cassette with a lower bottom gear as mentioned above is the simplest and cheapest first step. Depends on the capacity of your rear mech.

• Road bike gear ratio?

  in Mechanics & Fixin' • 4 weeks, 1 day

  

  Are you needing lower gears? Are you finding yourself always changing gear to find a comfortable cadence? If the answer is no to both then why bother changing the gearing.
  Or are you just looking to get whatever is in fashion at the moment?

• Post Covid lockdown track cycling

  in Track Cycling and Velodromes • 1 month, 2 weeks

  

  Fair enough. Thanks.

• Post Covid lockdown track cycling

  in Track Cycling and Velodromes • 1 month, 2 weeks

  

  Question for M_V; any updates on the Glasgow velodrome?
  Thanks.

• 'Half the Road'--movement for equality between men's and women's road racing

  in General • 1 month, 3 weeks

  

  I am not in the least bit surprised that Sky and Dave Brailsford never showed any interest in forming a women’s team. Sky are a marketing company and the only publicity they cared about was winning the Tour de France. Brailsford has always been more concerned with winning than doing the right thing. If Ineos’ billionaire owner wants a women’s team then I guess we’ll get one but so far, there seems to be no interest from him or Brailsford.