Bicycle Mechanics - Bike wants to go left

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.




View Full Version : Bike wants to go left


thumbwar
07-12-04, 03:24 PM
I had a bike storage failure over the weekend. I store my mountain bike and my singlespeed on a single rack that holds two bikes by their top tubes. On Friday, the rack came out of the wall after being up for over 2 years! Both bikes fell about 5 feet onto the ground. The mountain bike landed on top of the singlespeed. There was no obvious damage to the mountain bike. The singlespeed's front tire needed some light truing. No problem, fixed that up easily enough.

Of course, it doesn't seem like that is all. When I ride the singlespeed without hands, it feels like the bike wants to go left. It is undetectable when riding with hands on the bars. But pronounced when riding without hands. What's causing this? Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Owen


BiKe_GuY666
07-12-04, 07:52 PM
Is the front wheel in alignment? Is the back wheel?

Pessi
07-15-04, 12:20 AM
You have bent either your fork or your frame.


Jay_2004
07-15-04, 06:55 AM
You have bent either your fork or your frame.


Not really,

What you can check for is that your wheel is sitting properly in its dropouts, and also, that your bars / stem is inline with your front wheel. If it is not, it will give the illusion of going sideways

madpogue
07-15-04, 09:07 AM
Indeed, a stem should only be tightened so that it still "gives", and rotates wrt the steerer, when the bike falls. But that won't cause the bike to drift/veer with one's hands off the bar. From the description of the fall, it's most likely a wheel no longer straight in the dropouts. I suppose this could even be a case of the rear wheel knocked into a crooked position in the dropouts. Obviously, the positions of BOTH wheels in their respective places would be the first thing to check/eliminate. Let's cross our fingers that's all it is.