> > Sam built a bike for me in the early '80s. It was gorgeous. It had the
>> front and rear racks, Mafac cantis, brake and stay bridges that pierced the
>> stays, and excellent workmanship. The equipment was top-line French with
>> Phil hubs as in the eBay offering. Thing is, though, I never liked the way
>> it rode. It was nearly impossible to ride with hands off the bars. The front
>> wheel would fall to the side, even when the bike was unloaded. I theorized
>> that the bad handling was due to the very shallow head angle. Do you have a
>> similar problem with your Braxtons?
>>
>
>I'm not Derek, and I only have one Braxton, but mine handles very nicely.
>In fact I like it so much I had a custom Waterford made based on the
>Braxton's geometry. Do you know what the head angle on your bike was? Mine
>measures out at 70.5 degrees. While that does produce a bike with a high
>wheel flop factor, I only notice it at very low speeds (under 5 mph with
>hands on bars, under 10mph hands free), or when I stand to climb.
A bike with lots of trail and a shallow head angle will have lots of wheel flop - the bike lowers a lot as the handlebars and fork turn. This means that the rider's weight tends to reinforce steering movements away from center. Some wheel flop is good - it acts like power steering - but too much makes the bike veer off course.
However, wheel flop also depends on how much weight you have on the front. If you shift the weight distribution to the rear - for example, by raising the stem and installing swept-back handlebars - you decrease the tendency to flop.
Jan Heine Editor Bicycle Quarterly 2116 Western Ave. Seattle WA 98121 http://www.bikequarterly.com
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