Front wheel wobble at speed

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
I can't think why a recumbent shouldn't suffer shimmy. I don't have even a rough frame construction of one in my head, but if the front wheel (via the fork of course) is attached to a sort of beam or truss that's not a space-frame, it will also shimmy.

Yes, and there must be some sort of equivalent of the "knee-on-the-top-tube" trick.
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
I can't think why a recumbent shouldn't suffer shimmy. I don't have even a rough frame construction of one in my head, but if the front wheel (via the fork of course) is attached to a sort of beam or truss that's not a space-frame, it will also shimmy.

No one said certain recumbent designs can’t suffer shimmy. What you can’t do is put a knee against a tube tube.
 
Location
Loch side.
Steering dampers on bicycles don't work as a remedy against shimmy. All that will do is make you feel like you cannot cycle in a straight line as every steering action will feel like an over-reaction. On an upright, it feels like the back wheel is fish-tailing or that the tyre is flat and moves side-to-side. I don't speak for recumbents but I doubvt there's a solution other than a vast increase in frame stiffness in the right places. A shimmy moves the front wheel out of plane with the rear wheel through twisting flex in the frame.
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
Buy a cruzbike.

Stops any shimmy through crashing 😆
 

a.twiddler

Veteran
Buy a cruzbike.

Doesn't solve the balance issues though. A cruztrike? I think they exist, but not seen one. I could imagine one of those being a real challenge what with mastering the pedal steer and the waywardness of an upright-derived three wheeler all in one machine. But then again, some riders master a two wheeled cruzbike quite easily, so why not? Perhaps the very direct drive train more than compensates for other shortcomings.
 
Built myself a FWD MBB a few years back, managed to ride it about half a mile, and decided it wasn't for me.
Front wheel drive is definitely one to try yourself before making a purchase. A short test ride was enough to convince me I'd never enjoy the pedal steer aspect, and if I continued there was a good chance of serious injury. I'll stick with less adventurous forms of pedal power :laugh:
 
How to stop a shimmy on a recumbent will vary widely from model to model because there are so many different frame geometries and steering configurations out there. Resonance occurs because of a chance interaction between vibration and flexing in wheel, frame and forks. Changing components may help -a wider, stiffer wheel, different length or more rigid forks. Maybe even a different tyre. if there is a degree of adjustment available, even the riders seating position could influence things. Experimenting with these factors may produce a permanent solution.
 

grldtnr

Veteran
A lot of steering damping comes from the weight of your hands on the grips. Some bikes will shimmy if you take a hand off, even if all the bearing adjustnents are right. If you have a folding stem, would it be feasible to adjust it so your bars come back a fraction (if it can be done without upsetting the fit)? This would have the effect of fractionally increasing the tiller effect, and might reduce or stop the shimmy. It might not, but could be worth trying. Even slightly wider bars, if yours are particularly narrow, could help. You also could try riding with your hands further out on the grips at times that you think the shimmy will occur, to see if that has an affect, before spending money on changes.

A bit of lateral thinking. A few years ago I fitted a sidecar to a motorbike I had, and the steering damper that came with it was shot. With standard bars the front wheel would shimmy alarmingly at low speeds. I tried fitting wider bars and the shimmy disappeared as if by magic, and I was able to dispense with the steering damper. It seemed to be due to the leverage and weight of my hands on the wider bars, and involved no effort on my part. It just ...worked!

So it might just be that a simple, seemingly insignificant adjustment might do the trick, no matter how illogical it might seem, before you get into taking things apart, fitting O rings, etc.

I think Twiddles is barking up the right fork here, many motorcycles have bar weights fitted to the bars,
Yo could try the same approach,but how much weight you add is anyone's guess, on a previous Motorcycle I fitted bar end mirrors, which I had to remove the bar weights, I didn't think it would matter, but it certainly did, I put the bar weights back on, and the bar end mirrors to my recumbent.
It could be the single pannier, try fitting the other bag with similar weight in both, again too much weight on the rear of a motorbike can induce harmonic resonance, far that reason I load my Scoot with as much weight as I can understand the seat or within the wheel base.
It will be trial and error to eliminate this, especially as it happens and other speeds.
 
Location
Loch side.
I think Twiddles is barking up the right fork here, many motorcycles have bar weights fitted to the bars,
Yo could try the same approach,but how much weight you add is anyone's guess, on a previous Motorcycle I fitted bar end mirrors, which I had to remove the bar weights, I didn't think it would matter, but it certainly did, I put the bar weights back on, and the bar end mirrors to my recumbent.
It could be the single pannier, try fitting the other bag with similar weight in both, again too much weight on the rear of a motorbike can induce harmonic resonance, far that reason I load my Scoot with as much weight as I can understand the seat or within the wheel base.
It will be trial and error to eliminate this, especially as it happens and other speeds.

Bar weights (those at the ends of the bars) are there to shift the node of the vibraion further inwards on the bars so that the ends don't vibrate as much. It has nothing to do with shimmy.
 
Top Bottom