Hi,

Been pushing the speed up on the road bike recently but find that when I am at about 22+MPH it feels a bit wobbly. It is an aluminium framed Orbea with a carbon fork with 25 GP4000s on and the road surfaces are generally ok. Any advice on how to cure this or is just something I have to live with?

Cheers,

Richard

you won’t be getting ‘speed wobble*’ at 22 mph

Have you checked your wheels are true, tyres seated properly etc?

* Speed wobble, skip to about 55 seconds
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMNFS2ap3fU[/video]

I had a tyre wobble recently that was really noticable at particular speeds and on very smooth tarmac. turns out the bead hadn’t seated properly. took some persuasion and soapy water but sorted in after a couple of attempts.

Assuming the head and wheel bearings aren’t loose and the spokes are all tight and the wheels true, a change of tyre might help. I’m using Veloflex Open Corsas and will never go back to another tyre as they feel superbly “planted” and grippy.

Also make sure the rear tyre is straight in the frame, I had an issue a couple of years ago where the QR wasn’t tight enough and the wheel would twist. Sounds odd but sh*t scary getting a tank slap on down the back side of the Stang

1st check I’d do would be headset.

Test against the brakes at -90, 0 and +90 degrees.

tracking ? i.e. is the front wheel in line with the back one?

this is usually found on secondhand bikes that have had a bump so less likely than the above causes

Or was it just your moobs getting a flap on and beer gut wobbling in the wind? 😆

What length is your stem?
Short stems on road bikes tend to cause very excitable steering and become unstable the faster you go.

Thanks all – looked at the bike last night and it would appear that the stem was off centre a touch so I repositioned it and when I went out it seemed to be somewhat better but of course this could all be in my mind!!

Also make sure you’re getting enough weight over the front wheel, a lot of people (myself included) coming from MTB have a tendency to shift weight too far backwards as the speed increases.

I had scary shimmy on the road. Seemed to be fixed with stiffer wheels. I was using Stans Alpha rims with Hutchison Fusion tyres had nasty shimmy. Same bike with Dura Ace 9000 wheels and Schwalbe Ultremos and no problems since. I am no 20 stone roadie so not sure why the big difference when switching.

Just remember to grab the top tube with your knees if you can if/when shimmy starts – difficult to remember when you are terrified!