I know what causes the shimmy’s but does anyone know a) how to prevent them (if you can) b) if you do get them how do you get out of it…someone told me droping it into a higher gear and peddaling like hell, but if you’ve actually got the shimmys seems like it would be a hard thing to do. I’ve lost a lot of confidence riding downhill and am doing IM Austria soon and need to get it back!
I’ve never experienced it bit I read somewhere (this site?) that if you clamp your knees to the top tube, it helps.
acrew, the classic on-the-fly-fix is to unweight the saddle; just lift up your butt. Others will be able to fill in the blanks in my knowledge as to why this works.
you can add a fork with more offset if other measures fail.
Grumpy’s suggestion has worked for me in the past, even at IM France in 2002! The descents at Austria tend to be long but not the type that drop you into frefall, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
Did IM Austria last year and don’t remember any decents that were hair raising. grumpy’s suggestion is the one I have heard of helping most people. There may be an issue with your bike setup or frame.