Hi there... new to the forum... Very nice by the way, really high quality forum.
First, introductions... I've been riding MTBs for 15 years. Racing XC for the last several. I consider myself a fair cyclist, and a fair bike mechanic. I have 5 bikes in the garage, 2 Roadies (one carbon, one steel) a 29" SS hardtal MTB, a 29" Full suspension XC race rig, and 26" hardtail. I'm new to road cycling, as I'm using it for cross training for the MTB season. haven't thrown my leg over a road bike since 1995 (the steel road bike mentioned above).
So, on with the high speed shimmy/wobble topic.
Last night I went on a group ride with hundreds of participants. I got in a group of fast racer guys and was just hanging on for dear life. We hit a short steep hill and got up to 40mph or so when I noticed my bars starting to shake. It was a little unnerving so I backed it off with a little rear brake, and didn't think anything of it. After about 2 hours of pedal pounding and hanging on to the back of the group I lost contact a little bit. So I used a long descent to try to get back on... In a fog of lactic acid, I had forgotten about the earlier shimmy experience. All was well until I hit about 56mph... I was still gaining speed in a tuck when I noticed the bars start to wobble again. The wobble started small but got worse and worse until I actually started to feel unstable, not a good feeling at highway speeds. First I tried steadying the bars by force, no good, then I tried relaxing... no good. So I started to scrub speed by feathering the rear brake, bringing the speed down to about 30-35. Wobble went away, but I'll never forget it. Just before I got on the brake I felt like I might actually lose control of the bike.
I know people regularly hit these kinds of speeds so this must either be a problem with the bike or with me (the bike I was riding is this: http://quintanarootri.com/QR_bikes/split/split.html), how do I avoid this type of thing happening again. I don't think I'll be able to take my bike up to speed like this again unless I'm certain I can avoid this frightening sensation.
First, introductions... I've been riding MTBs for 15 years. Racing XC for the last several. I consider myself a fair cyclist, and a fair bike mechanic. I have 5 bikes in the garage, 2 Roadies (one carbon, one steel) a 29" SS hardtal MTB, a 29" Full suspension XC race rig, and 26" hardtail. I'm new to road cycling, as I'm using it for cross training for the MTB season. haven't thrown my leg over a road bike since 1995 (the steel road bike mentioned above).
So, on with the high speed shimmy/wobble topic.
Last night I went on a group ride with hundreds of participants. I got in a group of fast racer guys and was just hanging on for dear life. We hit a short steep hill and got up to 40mph or so when I noticed my bars starting to shake. It was a little unnerving so I backed it off with a little rear brake, and didn't think anything of it. After about 2 hours of pedal pounding and hanging on to the back of the group I lost contact a little bit. So I used a long descent to try to get back on... In a fog of lactic acid, I had forgotten about the earlier shimmy experience. All was well until I hit about 56mph... I was still gaining speed in a tuck when I noticed the bars start to wobble again. The wobble started small but got worse and worse until I actually started to feel unstable, not a good feeling at highway speeds. First I tried steadying the bars by force, no good, then I tried relaxing... no good. So I started to scrub speed by feathering the rear brake, bringing the speed down to about 30-35. Wobble went away, but I'll never forget it. Just before I got on the brake I felt like I might actually lose control of the bike.
I know people regularly hit these kinds of speeds so this must either be a problem with the bike or with me (the bike I was riding is this: http://quintanarootri.com/QR_bikes/split/split.html), how do I avoid this type of thing happening again. I don't think I'll be able to take my bike up to speed like this again unless I'm certain I can avoid this frightening sensation.