Romulus death shake

[Rick Urbanowski]

Does anyone else get the frame wobble at high speeds on smooth surfaces with their Romulus? I only get it if I try to go no hands. And even the smallest amount of pressure on one of the grips will stop it. 

[Yankeebird]

Do you have a front rack installed?

[Pat Smith]

Unrelated, but it's the same on my Black Mountain Road+ with any sort of a front load. The thing has Mark's rack mounts, low rider mounts, and 3 pack mounts on the fork, so you would think it could handle a front load better :(

Pat in DC

[Ted Durant]

On Wednesday, September 1, 2021 at 9:28:26 AM UTC-4 rickur...@gmail.com wrote:

Does anyone else get the frame wobble at high speeds on smooth surfaces with their Romulus? I only get it if I try to go no hands. And even the smallest amount of pressure on one of the grips will stop it. 

My Heron road bikes (very similar geometry!) would do a no-hands shimmy with both a handlebar bag and a saddle bag in use, and only under that specific circumstance. 

Typical shimmy solutions include checking the headset adjustment (which didn't change anything in my case). 

A light touch to the top tube with a knee will also settle the vibrations.

Ted Durant

Milwaukee, WI USA

[Rick Urbanowski]

No, no front rack.

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 1, 2021, at 10:04 AM, Ted Durant <tedd...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Jon Richardson]

Check the front wheel hub for play and check for wheel hop (out of round).  

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[Michael Monti]

It could also be that the front fork is out of alignment.  If your front wheel is sits to more to one side than the other, lets say to the left, and you flip it around so the tread is opposite, and the wheel still sits to the left it is your fork that needs to be realigned, if your wheel ends up too far to the right when you flip it around, the wheel is likely dished (trued out of center) and is still not tracking in line with the rear wheel) causing a shimmy.  

I have a protovelo that I had crashed, which the fork ended up, and may still be slightly out of alignment.   I was having a major shimmy with no hands, dangerous i would say!  Once I identified the problem using the wheel flipping technique, I found a solution on Sheldon Brown's website, which basically says to lay a towel or piece of cardboard on the ground and lay bike on top. With the front wheel removed, hold the the side of the fork in your hand that you would like to adjust and brace the opposing fork blade with a soft rubber surface, such as your shoe. Pull blade of fork in the correcting direction, repeat until wheel sits centered, LOL.  Hey, it worked for me, albeit taking all the strength I had and a fair amount of patience.

I think some LBS also have a fork alignment tool that will accomplish this same task if not feeling up to being a brute.

Best of luck,

MIke 

[ascpgh]

What tires?

I had it on my unloaded Rambouillet and I got rid of it in the moment with the knees on the top tube. A bad plan for such events if only on big downhills, requires relenting of muscle groups necessary for keeping shorts unsoiled in those exact seconds.

I ditched my whatever-was-my-size-sale-bin-tires-at-REI/Performance and went with a high quality Continental model (IDK). Careful tire pressure adjustment with focus on each wheel separately snuffed even the hint of wobble. Currently and still shimmy free when unloaded using RH Stampede Pass ELs. 

I've also come to appreciate the physical event of oscillation and let myself move about on the bike more as I ride at varying speeds and degrees of steering and maneuvering. The oscillations requires the distribution of mass to be steady for a bit before whatever initiation subtly gets the wave going. Not if you're moving about. 

Andy Cheatham 

Pittsburgh

[spencer robinson]

I had a Romulus (57cm) and I currently have a Heron Road….

Yes under the right conditions both of these bikes would develop a high speed wobble if no hands.

I was able to solve the problem by keeping at least one hand on the bars…problem solved for me anyway.

Unless the bike is running for the ditch or the centerline, I would not start bending on the forks. Sheldon’s method does work very well for correcting the front fork alignment but the rom is such a beautiful bike, I would not unless it is really bad. 

On Wednesday, September 1, 2021 at 9:28:26 AM UTC-4 rickur...@gmail.com wrote:

[Scott McLain]

I get it on my older AHH.  I believe the larger tires make it a lot less of a death shake than old steal roadbikes used to give folks.  Mine is more of a comfortable wobble.  It only happens going down hill.  It does not result in loss of control in any manner.  I have a Marks rack up front but it wasn't loaded.