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Touring frame (Nashbar) for commute w/ panniers vs. road bike frame

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Touring frame (Nashbar) for commute w/ panniers vs. road bike frame

Old 10-22-11, 09:47 AM
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Touring frame (Nashbar) for commute w/ panniers vs. road bike frame

Well, the title almost says it all. I have a Scattante R330 road bike that I've been using to commute for the last several months. I recently got panniers and I have some heel clearance issues since my heels come right even with the seat stays as I'm pedaling. A Jandd Expedition rack solved that issue by allowing me to kick the panniers back far enough to be out of the way of my heels. However, what's bothering me, is when I've got a lot of gear in the panniers, the front end of the bike gets wiggly. I ride with my stem/bars pretty even with the saddle height. Unless I really lean into the bars and put a bit more weight on them, the front will shimmy, especially if I ride with my hands on the flats versus the hoods. So, I was looking at touring frames since (correct me if I'm wrong), the longer wheel base will eliminate some of this shimmying issue? I've read some reviews and I know a lot of guys like the Nashbar double butted aluminum touring frame combined with the cro-moly touring fork. Plus it's really inexpensive. I'm on an extremely tight budget and though I would like to be able to just buy a Surly LHT frame, that is simply out of the question. So, would going to a touring frame help stabilize the ride somewhat? I'm also wanting a touring bike anyway since the wife and I would like to get into doing some shorter distance rails-to-trails type touring rides and such. Nothing necessarily like a month long tour or anything, but we'd both like to be able to do some long weekend kind of rides and I figure touring bikes are best for that sort of thing anyway. So, should I go for it? Will this type of frame be more stable when loaded like I'm doing now?
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Old 10-22-11, 10:29 AM
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Hey there KiltedCelt!

Have you tried adding a front rack and packing an item or two onto the front rack, for balance?

If you are in a financial bind right now, it might be best to try the front rack idea, first. That is, unless you're going to be touring or riding with loads, anytime soon.
Of course, ideally it would be more advantageous to have a touring bike that's built for carrying loads. It will quite naturally, have a longer wheel base, as all tourers typically do. However, unless you're planning a tour or plan to carry a load soon, I would resort to temporary fixes. Leastwise, until you're more financially prepared to absorb the extra cost. Besides, you can always add the front rack to your tourer after its purchase, in the future.

- Slim

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Old 10-22-11, 01:52 PM
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With the rear rack (especially the JandD Expedition, which is 3" longer than std racks) you're now carrying weight behind the rear axle. The rear wheel acts as a fulcrum, the rack and frame act as a lever, and weight you add to the panniers will unweight the bike in front of the fulcrum. Since this is a road bike, you've probably got the panniers mounted all the way back for heel clearance, so any cargo is producing maximum leverage.

Although this may not seem like much force to counter your body weight, consider your position/posture on the bike is placing most of the weight on the rear wheel, yielding a weight distribution of at least 40:60 F:R, and possibly as much as 20:80 F:R. Your relatively high handlebar position puts your weight further back. You can actually measure the weight distribution with 2 bathroom scales and a helper to read the scale while you maintain riding position.

On some of my bikes, with real skinny tires mounted, I can induce temporary shimmy by just sliding all the way to the back of the saddle. These bikes also have setback seatposts, and no rear rack or any bags.

So, adding that long rear rack and a load is what's causing your shimmy, as you've already surmised. Lots of folks, when they get shimmy, start looking at their headset, handlebars, front wheel and tire, while ignoring their rack and load, which makes for entertaining content in the forums.

A bike frame with long chainstays would help reduce shimmy. You'd be able to locate the load more forward, without your heels striking the panniers. A frame with longer wheel base would help a little too. Some panniers are very square or rectangular, so that you have to push them back so you don't hit them. Others have thoughtfully "cut off" the lower forward corner to eliminate this conflict. Take a look at your panniers, they may be worsening the situation.

A proper touring frameset could help you with shimmy. Longer chainstays plus the capability to load the front of the bike should solve the problem.

As a lower cost measure, you could also try relocating the load to the front wheel via rack/panniers, as suggested by SlimRider.

I learned this lesson once hauling a big cube of bricks in a pickup truck, which shimmied like mad for the 2 mile trip home. The bricks should have been pushed forward all the way to the cab, instead of centered over the rear axle, but the fork truck didn't have enough reach.
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Old 10-22-11, 06:00 PM
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Shorter road bike geometry does get more wiggly. I'd agree yuo can add a front bag and distribute the load. Heavy item up front and lighter stuff in rear. or if you really have the need for the touring frame go ahead and get it. Like you said, its inexpensive, will work with all your stuff and its nice to have the right bike for the right job. Full bevy of eyelets is a beautiful thing ona frame... As are fatter tires, fenders and racks when you need them.
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Old 10-22-11, 07:34 PM
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seeker333

Thanks for the long and informative reply. My panniers are Axiom Monsoon panniers and were a good deal at $62 for a pair of completely waterproof roll top style bags. They are however rectangular in shape, meaning they don't have that slope to the forward edge. However, I went ahead and bought the Nashbar frame and fork. I figure the longer chainstays will allow me to get the panniers farther forward on the rack and thus closer to over the rear axle versus behind it. My current frame has no way to mount a front rack, so I'd have to settle for a handlebar bag. The new frame however will have plenty of mounting points so I could put a front rack on if desired. Or, I could just go with a bar bag and take a little weight out of the panniers. I carry my U-lock in my panniers because there's nowhere to mount it on my frame. That beastly thing probably adds at least three pounds of extra weight right there. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the new frame, it'll be nice to have a real touring frame.
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