Question for all you whiz heads ... What does it mean when I'm riding and I have no movement in the front ... Like if I go to try and turn the front wheel at all it is like fighting with me ... I think it has something to do with the forks or shocks ... I'm stumped ... When I'm just sitting there I can move it back and forth but when riding I can't turn the bars at all they stay straight and won't move ... any idea?

Ask questions if I am not explain this right ...

 

By moving it back and forth, do you rather mean left and right? Sounds perfectly normal to me dude. When a wheel is moving, the Gyro force of the spinning wheel makes it difficult to turn the handlebars, but that is normal. As an experiment, take off a bicycle wheel and hold both sides of the axel with each hand. Spin the wheel as fast as you can (or ask someone to spin while you hold it). Now try to turn the wheel on a flat plane, by moving one hand towards you and the other away from you (simulating the way a fork holds and turns the wheel). Kinda tough right? Thats the Gyro force holding you back of the spinning wheel. Now together with the Gyro force of the back wheel keeping the frame straight, it makes it very hard to turn the handlebars at high speed, which in a sense it what we want.

The forward rake angle of the forks help it stay straight as well. Thats the same reason if you push a bicycle with nobody on it it will go straight and only start to turn and wobble when it slows down. How fast are you going when you try to turn the wheel?

I know that if I go above 60km/h the steering becomes hard for us to turn but that is what keeps us on our bikes, cuz if we could turn the same way that if we are standing still (at high speed) then we would be high-siding on every bend.

Thats the way the physics works of bikes. Thats why when we have to turn the higher the speed, the less we can turn the handlebars but the more we have to lean the bike with the help of countersteering, because our weight is much less than a bike we have to use our weight a little but mostly countersteer to throw the bike in the direction we want (you probably know and do this already but I thought I'd throw it into the explanation).

Dont worry dude, your bikes handling it working as it should.

 

NOW who's the expert? [sm=exactly.gif][sm=icon_cheers.gif]

 

Cheers for the expert!! [sm=icon_cheers.gif]

 

Thanks ... I understand what you're getting @ it just felt weird to me for some reason ... Maybe I'm just stupid haha ... Thanks for the lesson though ... You do learn something new everyday.