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How to ride with the wobble


Goblyhoo

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Hi fellow riders. I have been getting more comfortable on my euc and I was going faster than usual and I was wobbly and almost fell off my euc. I am wondering if there are any tips. I've looked online and people suggest carving out of it. I'm not sure what this entails and am trying to learn more. This was jarring and I was sure I was about to eat the road. I slowed down enough to stop it but now am wondering if there is any preventative measures and or ways to get out of the wobble.

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27 minutes ago, Goblyhoo said:

But what is carving? Is it just turning.

Basically, yes, it's just turning. Think about a skier coming down a hill, easy turns side to side. It's glorious in my opinion, one of the primary joys of riding!

 

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9 hours ago, Paul A said:

Has anyone been able to induce wobbles at will?

If I'm going a bit too fast, a bump can want to start a wobble... wheel wants to sneak right then left very quickly. Experience I think allows my feet and legs to fix it before it builds into a proper wobble.

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11 hours ago, Paul A said:

Has anyone been able to induce wobbles at will?

Yup, very easily done. All you have to do is get some speed and then lean a little on one pedal too much. Immediately lean on the other, but not for so long the wheel actually turns. Similar to how you can get a car to start overcorrecting and into a slide. Also similar to a good ole tank slapper on a motorcycle.

@Goblyhoo carving is simply riding around and turning back and forth. Think slalom skier or how those long board riders build speed. Snowboarding also is similar how you carve back and forth.

Edited by ShanesPlanet
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My advise, Slolom.  Either practice slolom on center lines of bike paths or set up some cones. Start off slow with some good distance between cones or do every other line increasing your speed as you get comfortable. Then move on to shorter distances/gaps in between or while at a comfortable speed try to slolom as tight as possible between the gaps.

This has helped me in recognizing the start of a wobble and how to correct them.  

You'll also find that if you are not relaxed and or are fatigued, wobbles seem to occur more often. Foot placement can also affect wobbles. 

Edited by 5Cauac
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14 hours ago, Paul A said:

Has anyone been able to induce wobbles at will?

I spent a good amount of time doing this when I first started to become more comfortable with wobbles and to have a strategy out. If I extend my calves (bow-legged cowboy style) away from the shell of the wheel at most any speed which induces wobbles. Squeezing my legs back to the wheel tends to eliminate the wobbles. I have even played around with how to dismount extreme wobbles on grass. I can say that training was helpful with being able to remain calm once the wobbles or peddle dipping kicks in because essentially one just needs to stay calm and ride it out.

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I just started riding this week. I saw a video that said keep your chest up when you ride. And squeeze your knees together to hold the cycle firm. Chest up keeps the weight over the wheel. 

 

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3 hours ago, MP3 said:

I saw a video that said keep your chest up when you ride

Posture is very important when you ride, for control but also it's easier on your body. There's a coolness factor too, early videos of me riding showed an old coot all hunched over... I am an old geezer but jeepers, the costume is embarrassing enough.

3 hours ago, MP3 said:

And squeeze your knees together to hold the cycle firm.

I personally don't agree with clenching the wheel... when a wobble gets going it's happening because a self sustaining mechanical oscillation has developed a la the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. To some extent you may be able to deal with it by clenching, but if clenching doesn't work it provides another leverage point for the wheel's oscillation to literally toss you off. Tension in your legs plays a part in wobbles, and adding tension by clenching seems counterproductive.

I find it 'better' to ride loose so that your feet and legs figure out what to do to kill the oscillation before it gets too bad, ultimately I believe the feet and legs learn this correction with experience. At least that's how I learned... ride gently up to where speed wobbles just start, then back off or carve. Make small adjustments to foot position, speed up, wobble, correct, and repeat. Eventually they just stopped happening irrespective of where my feet are on the pedals, but it took time.

4 hours ago, MP3 said:

I just started riding this week.

Welcome to the hothouse BTW!

Edited by Tawpie
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1 minute ago, rcgldr said:

trying to carve will just make it worse, as the side loads on the tire from turning will oscillate as it goes over bumps and dips. 

You would think so, right? But I can attest that a bit of a carve does help. I read somewhere that for speed wobbles the oscillation has something to do with the wheel being perfectly or near perfectly balanced and that carving unbalances things in such a way as to disrupt the feedback loop that's causing the oscillation. It's just a gentle change, but it was helpful. Now that I have more miles under my wheel and basically don't speed wobble anymore, I totally believe that in the end avoiding wobbles comes down entirely to getting enough experience. When they do start though, my reaction is to back off a tiny bit and carve gently.

It's important to remember that what works for me or any other rider may work differently for you. Riding seems to be one of those things that is exceptional personal, and you do have to experiment.

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Probably some repetition here

Wobbles generally occur when learning a wheel, getting used to it.   As one gains experience, wobbles happen less.   I guess that when a rider begins they ride more defensively with more weight back, ready to brake.  As a rider gains experience they will naturally posture with more weight forward, riding more aggressively - I'm not certain this has anything to do with it, but it does track - because...

when a wobble begins, if one brakes straight backwards, I call that doubling down on the wobble, and the wobble will increase - often resulting in a pedal clipping the ground and the rider getting thrown off back of wheel.  When a wobble first begins, if the rider *accelerates slightly, the wobble will vanish almost by magic.  But that isn't always an option, sometime a rider has to stop.  If this is the case (one has no choice but to stop, and a wobble begins during braking) - I have had success digging one leg into side of wheel, and brake/turning at the same time.  There will be some fussing with the wheel during this process, but the leverage of turning at the same time as breaking is better than trying to brake straight backwards, in my experience.

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On 2/22/2022 at 8:43 AM, rcgldr said:

If wobbles are induced by a bumpy surface, trying to carve will just make it worse, as the side loads on the tire from turning will oscillate as it goes over bumps and dips. 

 

On 2/22/2022 at 8:51 AM, Tawpie said:

But I can attest that a bit of a carve does help.

My point was about a bumpy surface. On a smooth surface carving helps. On a bumpy surface, the extreme case being where the wheel is bouncing a bit or nearly bouncing, turning can aggravate or induce a wobble. If it's just a single bump or dip that induced the wobble, but the rest of the surface is smooth, then carving will help. Bending at the knees more to get more suspension effect can help with bumpy surfaces.

Edited by rcgldr
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