Does your bike track well? - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

07-17-2004, 04:50 AM

I've ridden with no hands, pedalling and just coasting frequently on
my last bike many, many years ago, cro-moly road bike, but on this
Trek hybrid (7500FX), I'm having difficulty doing it at all. I'm
barely able to coast with no hands, but if I pedal the front wheel
wobbles like crazy - iow, none of that little bit of gyroscopic
resistance to wobble to help you get going.

Does this mean my bike is not tracking straight? I just had the front
wheel trued and can't understand why.

I had read recently about a guy testing his bike by holding the back
of the seat and pushing it on a level bit of pavement and him saying
it was very stable and would track fine doing that seat push.

My thought is take it back to the LBS and have them do that test and
if it isn't tracking, fix the source of the problem.

Question is, what's the problem, or is it that some bikes just don't
track straight, and you can't ride (momentarily) with no hand and
pedalling. ISM you should definitely have that skill as part of bike
handling 101, but use it sparingly, I guess.

-B