I concur with your opinion on the Paramount. I, too, have a few of the 26" bikes, all 531 , and find they are rock steady. Is this a 27" wheel thing maybe?
Sent from my iPad On Dec 12, 2010, at 12:43 PM, Jim Cloud <cloud...@aol.com> wrote: > Your experience with a 1972 Paramount is interesting. I have a 1977 > P-15 Paramount, that I'm still riding, and I've never experienced any > problems with speed wobbles. It's a 26" frame bike with a 110mm > extension on the stem. It's rock steady descending on steep roads > with speeds attained of 45-55mph.. > > The only bike, that I've ridden, that exhibited a tendency toward > speed wobbles was a 63 cm Pogliaghi Italcorse bike I purchased in > 1974. It would occasionally develop a speed wobble riding on a level > road, that I could dampen fairly easily by pressing one knee against > the top tube. For some reason, it never developed a speed wobble > while descending (and this was while I lived in Boulder, CO where > there were many opportunities for fast descents!). > > It would interesting to know what combination of factors are > attributable to a bike having a tendency for speed wobbles. > > Jim Cloud > Tucson, AZ > > On Dec 12, 10:08 am, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: >> On Sat, 2010-12-11 at 20:18 -0800, james black wrote: >>> On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 04:59, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: >>>> Knee to top tube is a highly effective and well known (in my experience) >>>> way to stop /speed wobble/ -- as distinguished from "shimmy". And speed >>>> wobble happens with hands on the bars, in fact can be caused by those >>>> hands on the bar (death grip or shivering). >> >>> In discussions about shimmy (of which there have been many over the >>> years on this and other lists) I have often described a distinction >>> between what I call "speed wobble" and what I call "shimmy". Knee to >>> top tube is effective on "shimmy" (meaning the oscillation one >>> encounters riding no hands at normal cruising speeds of 15-20 mph), >>> but it's hard to put a knee to top tube while pedaling, so this is of >>> limited application (especially on a fixed gear bike). >> >> My 1972 P-15 Paramount had a terrifying speed wobble back when it was >> new. Clamping the top tube between my knees and trying my best to >> squeeze the bejeezus out of the tube did in fact stop the shaking. I >> subsequently changed the stem length and the speed wobble permanently >> stopped. >> >> The bike always felt marginally unstable on fast descents, though -- I >> used to describe it as "holding my life in a little goldfish bowl by the >> fingertips, arms outstretched". > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
