On Sat, 2010-12-11 at 20:18 -0800, james black wrote: > On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 04:59, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: > > Knee to top tube is a highly effective and well known (in my experience) > > way to stop /speed wobble/ -- as distinguished from "shimmy". And speed > > wobble happens with hands on the bars, in fact can be caused by those > > hands on the bar (death grip or shivering). > > In discussions about shimmy (of which there have been many over the > years on this and other lists) I have often described a distinction > between what I call "speed wobble" and what I call "shimmy". Knee to > top tube is effective on "shimmy" (meaning the oscillation one > encounters riding no hands at normal cruising speeds of 15-20 mph), > but it's hard to put a knee to top tube while pedaling, so this is of > limited application (especially on a fixed gear bike).
My 1972 P-15 Paramount had a terrifying speed wobble back when it was new. Clamping the top tube between my knees and trying my best to squeeze the bejeezus out of the tube did in fact stop the shaking. I subsequently changed the stem length and the speed wobble permanently stopped. The bike always felt marginally unstable on fast descents, though -- I used to describe it as "holding my life in a little goldfish bowl by the fingertips, arms outstretched". -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
