This exactly my experience with bikes of different trail. All of mine can be ridden no-hands with ease once the frames are aligned. When I first got my Masi GC I couldn't ride it no-handed, and I assumed it was because my skills had atrophied. I finally decided to have the bike checked (I was seeking Rich Gangl but I ended up at Schwab Cycles), and it was found to need correction. After realignment and since it has been a stable steerer with quick and precise response. BTW, the trail is around 6.1 cm and the wheelbase is very short, 97 cm.
My Woodrup has a 102 cm wheelbase and trail around 4.6 cm, and it will also no-hand readily.
So if trail is a factor, I need to see an explanation.
Ken Freeman
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of John Wood Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 6:52 PM To: Morgan Fletcher Cc: Emily O'Brien; classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR]Re: thread on change in styles
I have. I have an early 80's trek with 4.6cm of trail, and my early 70's Braxton has 6.4cm of trail. Both ride very well no hands. As did my off topic, 5.6cm trail Cannondale Six13. I've also owned and ridden many bikes that were downright scary no hands. I can tell you that in the situation described in my earlier post, when I'm hurtling down a mountain pass at 50+ mph and hit something unseen/unexpected, I definitely prefer the stability of longer trail.
John Wood Red Lodge, MT
On Feb 1, 2008 2:41 PM, Morgan Fletcher <morgan@hahaha.org> wrote:
> John Wood wrote:
> > For what it's worth (not much), my opinion has always been that ease
> > or difficulty of hands free riding is mostly due to frame alignment.
> > I
> have
> > had both new and old bikes that were either hard or easy to ride no
> hands,
> > and I have not been able to correlate it to a specific geometry trait.
>
> Consider fork trail;
> http://www.phred.org/
> h/bike/trail.html>
>
> Morgan Fletcher
> Oakland, CA