New bike is "squirrelly

[Horace Goes Skiing]

'ning all.

I just took my new bike (trek 1.7) out for a spin round a familiar route. Conditions were good, tyres pumped up to 100psi and everything felt great...

...until I got up a bit of speed. The bike felt "squirrelly" for want of a better description, almost like the tyres were a bit flat. The bike seemed to gently squirm whenever I put the slightest sideways force through them. It just didn't feel safe, as if the wheels were about to lose grip and fling me down.

Tyres are Bontrager Race Lite (slicks) and wheelset is Bontrager SSR.

Is it normal for new tyres to feel this way?

 

[fossyant]

New tyres are a bit dodgy until the manufacturing chemicals/lube has been worn off. Be very careful in the wet at first.....

 

[Horace Goes Skiing]

Thanks fossyant, that's re-assuring. I'll take it easy until I have a few miles on the tyres.

Phew!

 

[jiggerypokery]

Agree with Fossy, I found my new bike to be very twitchy for a while until the tyres had bedded in and then everything was fine.

Compact frames can also make things feel twitchy as every correction/move you make is more pronounced. Takes me a little while to get used to my Tri bike if I havent ridden it for a while as this has a steeper geometry to allow for a more stretched out position and hates being taken round corners.

 

[Mr Pig]

Are the wheels sitting right into the drop-outs? One of the wheels sitting at a slight angle will make the bike feel pretty unstable at speed.

 

[yenrod]

Sure the wheels (spokes) arent a bit loose ?