H3 'death wobble" reprise-which forks do/don't?

Triathlon Forum
1

OK! If H3’s somtimes wobble and with some forks.(?) Who has experienced this and with what fork?

I have a sprint this weekend with some steep downhills and only my second time on H3’s. Curious which forks are associated with this.

2

As I understand it, a death wobble can be caused by a couple different things. I used to get them (with both training and racing wheels) until a savvy mech tightened up my headset. Now I can bomb downhill as fast as my balls will allow me…

3

I don’t think that is a valid exercise. Death wobble has more factors involved than fork and wheel, even if everything is perfect mechanically.

4

Thanks guys. I"ll cross my cheeks, and tighten my fingers.

5

Make sure you know what to do in case of a wobble. The following method always worked for me:

Assuming your bike has a top tube (e.g., it’s not a Softride or other beam bike), sit down when the bike begins wobbling and clench the top tube between your knees. (Your body has greater mass than the bike, so it will prevent the bike from shaking.) GENTLY get on the brakes and slow down to a speed below the point at which the wobble began. Unclench your knees and keep going, wobble free.

Good luck this weekend!

6

I have a SoftRide so I’m gonna have to try the lift your butt off the saddle method. We’ll see…!!!

7

I stuck a fork on my softride that had an offset of 1 degree more than the oem. No wobbles since.

8

I believe that the H3 has a forward and backward to the foil and this can cause some of the problems you are refering to.

9

I’ll let y’all* know if I have the WOBBLE. If I do (and live) I might try a different fork. I wonder what Tom D and the Slowman have to say about any of this. ???

(*Yes, I’m from Texas too. Married a California girl who didn’t want to live in Texas.)

10

doc there is an article somewhere on slowtwitch about stability and fork rakes. If I remember correctly longer wheel bases were less likely to wobble.

11

I had a wobble on my H3/Cervelo. I determined that the H3 was a tad unbalanced - kinda heavy at one point. I sent it back to Hed and they fixed it (great support). Haven’t had a wobble since. Make sure that you do indeed have an unbalanced wheel before you send it back. No sense in putting Hed thru all that trouble for no reason.

12

Thanks,

I’ll see if I can deteremine that.

13

Sprint Tri yesterday.

On one stretch I hit 40.5 mph. No wobble, even on my SoftRide.