Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

Hi all

Question,

When I jump into a sprint I sometimes find (once I get going) my back wheel jumps around as I power pedal out of the saddle. Up hill sprinting, pulling through corners and sometimes old flat ground sprints it doesn't matter. Does this happen because its a carbon bike, is it a technique problem, incorrect tyres or is it just a fact of life?

Thanks,
Taylor

Too many horses. You just have to learn to tame the wild best.

You might have your weight too far forward on the bike, you need to keep a bit of weight over the back wheel. Shift your weight back and see what happens.

Yes I thought that was probably the case. I tend to get right up front and go go go go. Will experiment with new positions with weight back.

Taming wild beasts sounds very meditative I was never good at that. I hate incense.

Thank you.

I read this earlier and haven't really had this happen that I remember, though I don't really do a lot of road sprinting, I always have trouble working out which gear to be in for the sprint, too high, verses too small, to which I have been told that I should start lower into a pretty high top gear etc! but yeah, different topic.

But yeah, on the track we seem to get a lot of this skidding out thing happening among newer riders, and there are only really two options that I can see, is the bike going left and right in the skid? or is it just skidding straight backwards?

If it is going straight back, then it could possibly be from leaning too far forward, or too low a gear? though the thing about leaning down and forward, is that it can be more aero, and Cavendish etc seem to be pretty low etc, so I will leave that to you all.

if it is skidding side to side slightly, on the track that means that you need to keep a straighter bike up and down, not leaning it over as much, which we practice in our starts etc. In theory this gets more power through the bike. On the road they seem to throw them left and right a heap though!

If you are getting this skidding sideways early on, maybe keep a straighter bike for the kick, then it will ease out once you have the original bit out of the way.

so yeah, gearing, straightness, or lean? I am no expert on this sort of thing :S so just guesses, not really an experienced bit of advice compared to a cycling coach etc, but yeah, just things to think about