wibbly wobbly ?

[ian westmacott]

Hello all, got a bit of a question....
I have been riding for about 4 months. I bought a Scott scale 40 and have been pounding it around the Malvern hills in training for the mountain mayhem race ever since, banging out about 30-40 miles a week
and really enjoying it.Now that the fitness is getting better and a can manage harder longer climbs i find myself (on longer climbs ) weaving from side to side, almost to the point of snaking up the hill.Is this a normal thing will it stop when i get fitter/stronger? And if not has any body got any way of stopping it ?
ps . I tend to sit down when climbing as on the steep stuff i loose traction .

 

[Cubist]

Sometimes the weaving is an efficient way to climb. Even if you run out of gears you can still make it up the hill by zig-zagging, as it lessens the gradient a little.

Climbing technique takes a bit of learning. You need to find a balance between rear wheel traction, and keeping some weight over the front wheel to stop it lifting every pedal stroke. You need to get into a low climbing gear straight away and spin if you can. Don't mash or honk a long hill unless you're confident you can make it all the way up, as crunching gear changes and losing forward momentum means a nightmare trying to restart, especially on clipless pedals on a high BB bike.

Try to sit on the nose of the saddle, flatten your torso, pushing your chest towards the bars but flexing your elbows. Pull towards the saddle rather than upwards, it helps keep the front wheel down. If you need to pop the front wheel over roots or steps etc, then do so with little tugs upwards rather than huge manuals or wheelies. Relax and consciously try to open your chest, pushing your relaxed elbows outwards. Smooth your pedalling technique so that you don't get a massive load of torque on the downstroke which will again lift the front wheel or make the back break away on a loose surface.

 

[al-fresco]

Yeah - I notice 'snaking' can creep in when I'm getting a bit tired - as Cubist says you're essentially lessening the gradient. As you get fitter you'll find that to do it less. You'll also find that you get more traction when you don't need to use your lowest gear. There are quite a few places where I used to engage my bottom gear and now I can climb them on the 3rd or 4th cog the back wheel doesn't tend to spin out nearly as much.

 

[lulubel]

I noticed today that I tend to tug the front wheel from side to side in time with my pedal strokes, usually on steep climbs when I'm tired. I can't do it if it's too rocky, though - I need to point the front wheel exactly where I want it to go - so then I just have to concentrate and ride properly.

 

[Motozulu]

I think I climb too slowly to achieve a wibble wobble or even a weave. They had to invent a whole new term for my climbing and it's now in the official 2013 official Oxford English Dictionary. *

I 'bimble'.



* possibly

 

[al-fresco]

I noticed today that I tend to tug the front wheel from side to side in time with my pedal strokes, usually on steep climbs when I'm tired.

Funnily enough I noticed something similar today - and holding the ends of the bars seemed to smooth things out a bit - so I was wondering if wider bars would reduce the effect? (My thinking was that the wider arc would mean that any given amount of deflection would have a smaller affect on the steering...)