Rear wheel floating

[hwttdz]

I was riding a pretty hard sustained effort today, ended up being about 23-24 where I noticed this problem. Anyhow it felt like my rear wheel was floating from side to side underneath me. There shouldn't have been huge side to side forces on the wheel as I wasn't using the bike like a lever like in a sprint. The pavement was wet so it could have been the tire slipping a little don't know. Could this have been caused by insufficient stiffness in the rear wheel? am I loosing speed because of it?

 

[cachehiker]

What sort of wheelset are you riding?

My Shimano R540 rear wheel seemed to wander on twisty canyon roads. My Cosmos front and rear were both like a rock. I swapped/upgraded the 540's to Ksyrium Elites, better but not quite as solid as the Cosmos.

 

[hwttdz]

Wheelset is the bontrager select.

 

[daveornee]

Wheelset is the bontrager select.

I think you had a likely guess with rain slick roads. The gear you were in "tells" me you were going up a steep slope and it would be very easy to slip the tire in that situation.
However, check to make sure the axle isn't broken, QR not sufficiently secure, or something wrong with spoke tensions.

 

[topcat]

Wheelset is the bontrager select.

I've got Bontrager select wheelset but i dont really notice any "floating"??

 

[lemond]

I've got the same wheelset, and have recently noticed quite a bit of lateral flex during sprints. Feels like the rear wheel is going to bend in half. I've got about 2,000 miles on these rims.......May be time to upgrade.

 

[hwttdz]

Sorry 23-24 was mph, not gear, I was in the middle of an hour time trial, totally flat too. So hopefully I was pretty stable over my bike and had sufficient weight on the rear wheel. The thing is that is wasn't slipping and catching as it would if I were spinning the rear wheel. It's a mystery to me, I'll go out eventually and see if I can reproduce it on dry roads.