bladderhead
Zen MBB Master
benphyr said:
I always thought so.
Steering damper/stabilizer
- Thread starter Mwhwsmith
- Start date
I always thought so.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
I venture a guess that most of the veterans get twitchy when someone says commute on v20 which implies a lot of traffic, and rider has < 500 miles logged because we recall the difference before and after. That's probably what you are sensing in the advice/tips/guidance.
Balor
Zen MBB Master
I hope you realise that this advice is about as useful as "Just cheer up!" to someone who is depressed?
Some things are just in your nature. Essetially, you are asking him to change his personality by a force of will alone. Does NOT work. Not without psychofarmacology at the very least.
Not to mention, millons of people are fine withot riding bikes at all. It does not make them bad people.
The fact that his obsessiveness ruin his enjoyment of the bike is an issue indeed, but simply "riding more" might as well lead to mounting frustation and yet an other barely ridden Vendetta in the classifields.
Remember, people tend to do things that give them joy, not vice versa.
If his tinkering eases his fears, EVEN if this is merely placebo (but it is not), this is what he should be doing... and THAN riding more.
Black Hawk Down
Senior Rookie
They have a right to get "twitchy". My commute involves fast moving highways and is scary even when on my trusty DF. I only have about 150 miles on the odometer, which went on after I started riding on the road. It's startling to me how much improvement I've seen over the last 100 miles. I feel very confident now, at all speeds and traffic conditions. I feel compelled to do the commute with this bike in order to continue to develop competence, otherwise, I'm limited to one ride per weekend. That's too slow a pace for me. I'm willing to take the risk. At this point, I'm ready to clean up and sell my DF.
Black Hawk Down
Senior Rookie
I have to admit, I'm getting a lot more stable at speed. At first, 20 mph was my upper limit. With the bungie stabilizer and a little more riding, the limit moved to 31 mph, a little shaky but ok. A week later and I've been up to 38 mph feeling pretty good. With each ride, I am noticeably better and more confident. I'm climbing steep hills that challenged me on my DF. It's no longer a question that I will be able to ride with the same confidence as with my DF, only faster. Not long ago, I wouldn't have believed it. I was committed to the task, but I didn't believe the bike would get so much easier to ride in so little time. I'm very happy with this bike. Now I need to remove the stabilizer and see what happens. Maybe this weekend. Thanks everyone for the advice and encouragement.
Glad to see your improvement on the bike. Very interested to see if any change after "destabilizing" the bike. My advice is to be wary of loose gravel and flat tire. The bike seems to go down very fast on either especially with semi experienced rider. Had mine about a year and still learning and adjusting but getting there.
Black Hawk Down
Senior Rookie
I know what you mean. It seems if you start to go out of control, it's harder to recover on the V20 than on my DF. I've had some near misses, but I'm sure there will be a major spill in my future. It's a matter of statistics.
Balor
Zen MBB Master
It is quite likely that a stabilising spring will help with that, because unlike trail force - it does not depend on traction.
I'm testing my "reverse angle" mbb right now and it is leaps and bounds better behaved in loose conditions.
Balor
Zen MBB Master
I've updated my thread in 'Workshop' thread:
http://cruzbike.com/forum/threads/f...-angle-and-negative-offset.11164/#post-138401
Let's not get offtopic here.
Black Hawk Down
Senior Rookie
Stability continues to improve. Did a 65 miler today with lots of tough hills. On the toughest, I was able to maintain 5 mph with out swaying out into traffic. I could never comfortably get below 7 previously. I could do 5 all day today. Also, I noticed that coming up to a stoplight, I am able to slow down and creep at 3-4 mph waiting for the light to change. I'd say at this point I'm very close to having the same capability on my V20 as I do on my DF, with the one exception that on the DF I can balance at a light or negotiate difficult handling at very low speed by standing up. My odometer is 267 miles at this point. Can't wait to see how things are at 1000 miles. I still have the stabilizer on. Didn't want to remove it for such a challenging ride. I'll take it off this week for one or more of my shorter commute rides.
RojoRacing
Donut Powered Wise-guy
You may be making faster progress then even I did because it wasn't until at least 500 mile where I was willing to climb a local steep hill with traffic wizzing past my elbow. It had to be 1000 miles before I felt confident it could do so with no chance of swerving into traffic on my own.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
It probably should be noted here that absolute certainty that you can master a thing is as important as the doing and drilling....
Child #5 at our house made the leap from glider to pedals this weekend. She finally believed and then off she went.
Black Hawk Down
Senior Rookie
Post damper removal report:
I finally removed the home made damper/bungie and did my usual weekend 65 mile loop. I noticed absolutely no change. I don't know if it is because I have become better at controlling the steering so that the subtle help of the damper is no longer of any help, or whether the damper never really helped. It was nice for flop control, but I'm not putting it back on just for that.
I'm currently able to coast to 40 mph down hill before freaking out and hitting the brakes. I'm much more comfortable at 35 - 38 mph. At 40, I have visions of suddenly going out of control and sliding down the road (shutter...).
This info is a little off topic for this thread, but I promise to circle back to the current topic at the end. I currently ride 25C tubeless tires. I had a flat on the drive wheel tire, but didn't know it before heading home on my commute this week. I got about 3-4 pedal strokes before the bike just sort of flipped onto it's right side with me on it. Luckily, I was only going about 5 mph. I looked pretty silly trying to squirm out of the bike while laying on my side. These are so hard to get out of when on the ground. I looked at the tire and saw no issues. Nothing to cause a leak or anything else, so I decided to catch a ride home and fix it there. I tried pumping up the tire with my special pump that puts out 260 PSI, but no luck. All the air just blows out the side walls. I previously had the same problem using air cylinders. I had to originally have the tires pumped up at a local bike shop. They struggled with this task, but succeeded in the end. At this point, I'm done with tubeless and decided to put a tube in the tire. My rims can do either.
So.. After all the tire issues, I decided to purchase new 28C tires (Continental Gator Hardshell Road Bike Tyre, Black, 700c, 28c, Folding Bead) in the hope of having better stability at high speeds. I'm also adding puncture resistant strips, which will add additional weight and inertia. I'm not racing so I'm not worried about my speed (except, maybe when going down hill). Just don't want flats and I do want stability. I get the tires this week and will install them, with tubes, before my next weekend ride. Will report back on stability improvements.
Side comment: I just went over 500 miles on the bike and I'm really happy with it. I'm giving my $5.5K custom DF away to a friend for his kid. I'm never going back. Life's too short.
I finally removed the home made damper/bungie and did my usual weekend 65 mile loop. I noticed absolutely no change. I don't know if it is because I have become better at controlling the steering so that the subtle help of the damper is no longer of any help, or whether the damper never really helped. It was nice for flop control, but I'm not putting it back on just for that.
I'm currently able to coast to 40 mph down hill before freaking out and hitting the brakes. I'm much more comfortable at 35 - 38 mph. At 40, I have visions of suddenly going out of control and sliding down the road (shutter...).
This info is a little off topic for this thread, but I promise to circle back to the current topic at the end. I currently ride 25C tubeless tires. I had a flat on the drive wheel tire, but didn't know it before heading home on my commute this week. I got about 3-4 pedal strokes before the bike just sort of flipped onto it's right side with me on it. Luckily, I was only going about 5 mph. I looked pretty silly trying to squirm out of the bike while laying on my side. These are so hard to get out of when on the ground. I looked at the tire and saw no issues. Nothing to cause a leak or anything else, so I decided to catch a ride home and fix it there. I tried pumping up the tire with my special pump that puts out 260 PSI, but no luck. All the air just blows out the side walls. I previously had the same problem using air cylinders. I had to originally have the tires pumped up at a local bike shop. They struggled with this task, but succeeded in the end. At this point, I'm done with tubeless and decided to put a tube in the tire. My rims can do either.
So.. After all the tire issues, I decided to purchase new 28C tires (Continental Gator Hardshell Road Bike Tyre, Black, 700c, 28c, Folding Bead) in the hope of having better stability at high speeds. I'm also adding puncture resistant strips, which will add additional weight and inertia. I'm not racing so I'm not worried about my speed (except, maybe when going down hill). Just don't want flats and I do want stability. I get the tires this week and will install them, with tubes, before my next weekend ride. Will report back on stability improvements.
Side comment: I just went over 500 miles on the bike and I'm really happy with it. I'm giving my $5.5K custom DF away to a friend for his kid. I'm never going back. Life's too short.
RojoRacing
Donut Powered Wise-guy
Dude that's the only reason I've still got mine on the bike :lol of course my system is a bit more refined then what you had.
Tubelss sucks when it doesn't work, tubes suck when they don't work and tubulars suck when they don't work. Funny thing is they are all great when they do work so pick the one you like and can maintain.
RojoRacing
Donut Powered Wise-guy
I've had two from flats at over 40 mph in the last two weeks. The tubeless sealant kept the leak slower then it would have been with a tube and by the time it leaked down to 30 psi it sealed so no chance of my crashing due to the leak. Also the greatest danger with front tire flats is not the fast load leak you can hear, its the slow leak you can't hear and don't notice till mid corner when you're sliding across the floor. In this case tubeless is great because if it were a small enough leak to go unnoticed then the sealant will seal it up 100% of the time.
