Your experience with a 1972 Paramount is interesting. I have a 1977 P-15 Paramount, that I'm still riding, and I've never experienced any problems with speed wobbles. It's a 26" frame bike with a 110mm extension on the stem. It's rock steady descending on steep roads with speeds attained of 45-55mph..
The only bike, that I've ridden, that exhibited a tendency toward speed wobbles was a 63 cm Pogliaghi Italcorse bike I purchased in 1974. It would occasionally develop a speed wobble riding on a level road, that I could dampen fairly easily by pressing one knee against the top tube. For some reason, it never developed a speed wobble while descending (and this was while I lived in Boulder, CO where there were many opportunities for fast descents!). It would interesting to know what combination of factors are attributable to a bike having a tendency for speed wobbles. Jim Cloud Tucson, AZ On Dec 12, 10:08 am, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: > 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.
