As a new dad (6 weeks), I have been taking Baby McAwesome out for walks in a Thule Urban Glide. The stroller cruises like butter with the wheel locked, but when it is free to swivel, I tend to get a nasty speed wobble that’s kicked off by hitting a bump in the road.
I followed the big bike speed wobble thread, but I was curious if anyone experienced or fixed something similar.
The fixed wheel is great for straight stretches, but for running around the neighborhood, it is more convenient to have the wheel able to swivel. I did come across the video below of a guy solving a wobble and was wondering if anyone has done something similar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpdAHzOxHl8
Thanks for any input/advice. Mrs McAwesome doesn’t like it when the baby gets bounced around.
I have the Bob stroller and have the same problem. I leave it locked and just raise the front wheel for sharper corners.
Like you, the wobble is only really bad when I hit a pot hole, or speed bump or slight rise in the sidewalk. But it has been bad enough that the entire wheel started to spin around and get caught sideways. I’m pretty sure my wife would stop all my “training” if the baby came back with road rash.
You shouldn’t run with Baby McAwesome until they’re able to hold their neck solidly ( 6 months old).
Looks like that guy’s fix will easily work…It’ll just take some trial and error to get the tension right.
It looks like the wheel needs to trail the pivot point a little farther, that will help stabilize it. I can’t think of a simple fix, other than getting someone to bend the fork. He’s just adding friction/making it harder to for the wheel to turn which should work or atleast dampen the problem.
As a new dad (6 weeks), I have been taking Baby McAwesome out for walks in a Thule Urban Glide. The stroller cruises like butter with the wheel locked, but when it is free to swivel, I tend to get a nasty speed wobble that’s kicked off by hitting a bump in the road.
I followed the big bike speed wobble thread, but I was curious if anyone experienced or fixed something similar.
The fixed wheel is great for straight stretches, but for running around the neighborhood, it is more convenient to have the wheel able to swivel. I did come across the video below of a guy solving a wobble and was wondering if anyone has done something similar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpdAHzOxHl8
Thanks for any input/advice. Mrs McAwesome doesn’t like it when the baby gets bounced around.
I have that same stroller (the Thule Blue is sweet), but have never experienced the speed wobble effect. Most likely because I waited until the kid was 6+ mo’s old and heavy enough to weight up the front wheel. Also, if you’re running, try to keep the front wheel fixed. The wobble isn’t a major issue, but if you do hit a hole where the wheel turns sideways and flips the stroller, you will never live it down. I have enough trouble calming down the wife every time my little guy runs into something with his head, and that’s 100% his fault. If it were mine, I’m certain I’d no longer have the privilege of pushing my kid around. Fact of the matter is, wait a few more months to run with your child. 1) so they can control their head better and not get jostled around too much, and 2) to allow him/her to fatten up a bit and help stabilize the front wheel.
Welcome to the club, I use a City Jogger XC which is pretty much the same setup, and get the “speed wobbles” all the time. Annoying as shit, and haven’t found anything that works particularly well to deal with it. I usually just lift up the front end when it starts happening so that the front wheel calms down a bit before touching back down. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. Tried varying the weight distribution and that doesn’t seem to help much.
If you can get the locked-wheel setup going that’s good, but personally I haven’t been able to get it to the point where it tracks straight, so if I’m going to be always correcting for drift, may as well have the front wheel do steering.