I've been having a strange problem with my bicycle that has the guys at the bike shop stumped. It is getting to be very irritating. If anyone can offer any ideas I would like hear them.
When I moved here I bought a good quality bike since that was going to be my primary transportation for a while. It is a mountain bike with a dual shock variable front suspension. It has good quality Shimano components and a well build aluminum composite frame. It is a nice bike.
However when I ride a medium to high speeds without my hands on the handle bars the wheel/handle assembly starts to vibrate and wobble every so slightly. This wobbling gets progressively worse with each oscillation until the front wheel is going left and right to quickly that it will pitch me over the handlebars.
They guys at the shop have tried everything. New tires, wheels, tighten the headset, check alignments and balance. The bike is perfect. They have never seen or heard of this before and they can't seem to re-produce the problem when they ride. It is just me.
What is odd to me is that it seems to me like the front forks seem to be acting like a tuning fork that you use to tune a piano. There seems to be a certain frequency when an every so slight vibration starts to build on it self and then compounds itself. Have you every seen the video of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge twisting itself to destruction in the wind back in the 60's? It feels just like that. When I ride, I can keep one finger lightly on the handle bar to absorb this vibration and will be ensure the front wheel tracks perfectly and the problem won't occur.
I hate having to keep part of my body on the handle bars at all times to keep this from happening. Sometime I want to simply sit up straight and ride hands free like I am used to.
No comments:
Post a Comment