wild animals

What a day!

Went with my sister and her best friend on a slow 15-mile ride out in the wetlands, and a few miles from home our friend's rear tire and tube exploded! Part of the tire hit her leg and left a red welt. It was so loud that I thought a gun had gone off.



We rode back and got her car, then picked her up! Every time she rides with us something bad happens, but at least she didn't break her arm this time!

Later I went out and tried to test recumbents, but they closed an hour earlier than I thought they did! So I got a stem riser at REI and came home, then went on another ride

There is a big hill to start, and after getting to the top, I always careen down exuberantly, but today I was hauling tail--I pedaled as hard as I could until I started to lose control of the bike. The handlebars and front wheel were flopping all over the place, and my only thought was that there was no way I was getting out of this in one piece. It got worse over a few seconds, and I held the bars gingerly and put my foot out as I turned with the road--wobble gone! THANK GOD! I was only going 30.5mph so I'm a little freaked out because I am a speed demon whenever I can be. I was afraid to go very fast for the rest of the ride.

I saw a turkey vulture up close, eating a dead skunk. It eventually flapped off and sat on a post, but it didn't leave, even though I got as close as I could, because it wanted that skunk!

Later I heard scary noises in the woods, and I looked around like WTH?! and in the woods, maybe 10 feet above me (there's a little bluff or whatever you want to call it), I thought I saw a bear. I wasn't sure what to do, and I couldn't be sure if it was a bear, and the longer I stared at it, the more uncomfortable I got, especially because I kept hearing guttural noises, so I just left. Whatever it was, it was blonde and brown in color, and really shaggy. It was huge. On the way back, I didn't see the same shapes there when I looked, but it could have been a trick of the light. Either way, I'm not sure if 7:30p.m. is the best time to ride a bike through the woods. Next time I'm there, I'm going in closer.

So I rode 27 miles today and my wrist doesn't seem so terrible?! Pretty rad.

Does anyone have advice about preventing/avoiding/stopping wheel wobble? My dad has been an off-and-on motorcyclist for like 40 years, and he's told me about having high-speed wobble at 95mph so that's why I didn't totally freak out when it happened. Tonight he told me to let the bike have its head and to gently guide it into the wobble, if the bike wants to go more one way than another. But is there anything mechanical I can do? Why did it happen now and never before?

Thanks and The End!

PS: I found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_wobble but all I'm getting is "inflate your tires more."

This says to clamp the top tube with your knees: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...l=1#post628553 A later post by the same person says that you can prevent shimmy by resting a knee on the top tube when you're in shimmy-prone conditions.

Homeyba

There are a lot of things that can cause shimmying, from poor frame design to poor maintainance. The most common problem is a loose steering head. Make sure that's tightend properly. Make sure your bike is properly maintained and your tires are properly inflated. Beyond that there isn't much you can do short of buying a better handling bike.

dscheidt

Check the headset for tightness, as suggested. Any doubt, take it apart, replace the bearings, and put it back together. You'd do well to check the hubs for excess play, and that the wheels are squarely in the dropouts. Beyond that, it's mostly a matter of luck whether it happens to a bike or not. Adjusting your position on the saddle, and loosing the grip on the bars, and pedaling will all help stop it if it happens again.

wild animals

Today we were in the middle of the country again, almost the same spot as yesterday, and my tire went flat! I didn't see any holes...so I took the wheel off, and eventually took the tire off as well. (I hadn't needed to remove the tire on this bike until today, and on my last bike I just gathered up the slack in the tire and popped it off! But that was really, really hard on this wheel, with this tire. Putting the tire levers back in my bag, dang.) Anyway, the rubber around the valve had failed. I'm wondering if that's why I had shimmy yesterday. I'm hoping so...that is something I have some control over on this bike. I also practiced unloading the saddle with my knees on the top tube! I'm getting my bike tuned up sometime soon so I'm going to mention all this to them.

Thanks guys!


PS: On the ride today, we saw a bright-red-headed woodpecker, and I rolled slowly toward it until a truck approached us, and I had to clear the road. So I scooted forward with my feet on the ground, and hit my anklebone so hard on the chainwheel that I squawked and the bird took off. haha. Augh. Totally sweet bird sighting though. And we went to look for the bear, in my car, but I couldn't get a good look at the right place, so we detoured to my crazy hill-climb. My sister kept saying "THERE'S NO WAY. I will NEVER RIDE THIS." And we saw a tiny big-head bunny rabbit! Rad.

Bone Head

If you find the bear:

Neil_B

The big, blond-looking, brown, shaggy object you thought was a bear - was it CliftonGK1?

txvintage

Dangit Neil, I had to clean up the lap top and get over very hot coffee coming out of my nose.

dscheidt

It's possible. It's a forced oscillation, so it's really a function of frame geometry and mass distribution. The trigger can be something like a wheel that's wobbling, or a load on a rear rack that's above the center of gravity of the bike, and which flops. But the basic tendency is in the geometry, and frame stiffness (the frame is twisted, and stores energy, which it returns to the systme.) It's not well understood (if anyone has done any real research on it, it's proprietary), and it's a complex problem that doesn't lend itself to a though experiement.

wild animals

Thanks Bone Head! I have pepper spray for any too-close encounters, but with big mammals my main tendency is to calmly and predictably get the heck out of Dodge. I always like to re-read those warnings, even though they all seem to say different things!

We were looking for bear-shaped items in the woods that could have fooled me and didn't really expect to see a bear. We didn't see anything bear-shaped, but everything looked different from the car and in the earlier light.

Hahaha
You tell me! Here is the dramatization of my bike ride: https://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008...e_bear1024.jpg


Yeah, I find myself not wanting to experiment with it either I have a rack trunk that probably doesn't help, and the frame is steel. At least now I have a little better idea of what to do. And I won't be hammering down that hill again any time soon. Thanks!

Neil_B

No, it's not Cliftongk1. He wears a helmet.

wild animals

Yeah, my bear had a whiff of irresponsibility about him.

wild animals

Last time we rode here, we heard this grunting noise all over and thought someone was practicing hunting calls. Frogs! Bullfrogs. I got out my binoculars and we got a good look at them. They were huge and green and invasive! But hard not to love. Today we heard fewer but they were still hilarious. We also saw a lot of kestrels, at least one heron, and a couple of giant turkey vultures that were gliding in the crazy headwind we had. We lost over 1mph from our average.

Awhile back I learned how to whistle with four fingers, on youtube, and we practiced whistling out in the middle of the country. I could hear my whistle bounce back from the hills, five seconds later! So cool! I can sometimes whistle w/two fingers, but it didn't work today.

Unfortunately my precious newish bike needs a tune-up that is beyond my skill, because I heard new noises today and I didn't like it one little bit. I sort of wonder if something happened to it.

PS: I went looking for my tire levers among my bike tools and supplies, and for the life of me could not find them. I thought I must have gotten rid of them. I got a new tube and put it in my trunk, and as I put it away I saw three tire levers in the bottom of my bag, where they've been since I got my bike and put them in there, knowing that I might need them since the tires are so stiff. They were in the bag the whole time we were struggling to remove and replace the tire!

TrojanHorse

I had the same thing happen to me Sunday morning! Just went for a quick ride down the MUP to get the blood flowing, and got a slow leak of some sort... for the life of me, I couldn't get the damn tire off and had to go buy new tire levers. Bought one of those little high pressure inflater things too with a spare cannister because I don't like listening to my frame pump rattle as I ride (and it was a PITA to use)

Had to call the SAG wagon to come pick me up, glad I was reasonably close to home.

Pinyon

I can stop wheel shimmy going down big hills by either putting one or both knees on the top tube, or schooching back on the saddle a bit. If it gets really bad while riding someone else's bike, I drop my butt behind the saddle. All of those work great for me.

It is most pronounced for me on bikes that are much too small for me. It also happens, to a lesser extent, on bikes that "fit" me. I think, because of how my body weight is distributed on the bike due to the combination of short arms and long legs that I inherited from my father (he look like a T-rex).

wild animals

Gotta love the SAG wagon! All of our mishaps have been on duo or trio rides, so usually one person just rides home and drives back But if I know I'm going out into the woods, I try to plan it so someone is in town. I have AAA though, and AAA Oregon/Idaho does bike calls! Just in case I need it (and my cell phone gets reception).

Hahaha, I love T-rex arm jokes.

Do you get a lot of shimmy?! Is it usually downhill, pedaling, not pedaling? I was pedaling when it hit, and people said pedaling makes it stop, so I'm afraid to pedal or not pedal.



So today.....
Rode my new favorite way again (first or second time on this route since I thought I saw the bear) and I looked at every place that could have been the one I was thinking of. I FOUND IT! ! And I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but when I thought there was a bear, I thought to myself, "These people have put a bear statue in their front yard. They are laughing hysterically right now because someone finally fell for their bear joke." But there was nothing bear-like there at all. Haha. Nothing brown, nothing blonde, nothing shaggy, nothing bear-shaped. Just trees. So that means I saw something actual! I thought later that it could have been an elk, but it wasn't. Elk have those spindly legs.

Today I saw a mom and baby deer, and I went through a big display of turning around, turning off my music, pulling out my Canon camera and pulling in close, only to read the display on my camera: "No memory device." There was no SD card in the camera; the card was attached to my computer because it was so important for me to upload this:


(Rabid clyde squirrel)
(Also here is an illuminating look into my distant past: )

So here's the cameraphone photo of Mom and Baby Deer, today:



:/

Here is what a giant river-like creek looks like in my phone:






I was pretty spooked about making my bike shimmy, so I went down almost every hill with my knee on the top tube. I'm concerned about what to do when I get a recumbent, if I get a bike, because--what top tube? Anyway I didn't shimmy today! I didn't get up to 30mph (only 26 or so) but that's okay. But I did go 20mph over many of the little hills I went up, without getting lots of momentum from downhill segments. I was going 17 or so on the flats and slight uphills without struggling. It would have been harder for me last year, after 3 months or more of riding. And I weigh more than I did last year!

PS: Listened to Grizzly Bear almost the whole ride

wild animals

Spectator!



A car scared her, she took off--fast





There are 3 best places on this ride, and this is one of them

Big Oregon high-five!



Near a big pond, I heard a smoke-monster screeching, and flung my head around to see what it was. It was a giant heron that soon flew over the pond! Otherwise I didn't see so much wildlife today, and at the end of the road there were bros leaning on a truck and I didn't hang out, but I DID pace a car going 30mph! They flew by me like it was going out of style, but then ... they didn't get any further away. For awhile anyhow

Lots of rude driving today. Someone cut me off while I had taken the lane and was making a left. They made a left to my left and hit the gas as hard as they could. Tut tut. I probably could have been more courteous, too, though. I guess. I left at about 5:30 which is a terrible time and I'll try not to do that again.

wild animals

HA! I didn't see too much wildlife on my bike ride, but look what I found in my front room:



It got loose in my bedroom, but I found it again, thank goodness.