Weird Wheel Wobble

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    • #110030

      On Tuesday night I had a potentially disastrous crash off a short retaining wall. I managed to stay upright but the bike took a couple hits -one to the bars and another to the rear wheel. My tubeless Specialized Captain Control tire blew off the back rim which was an easy fix with a tube.

      [flash=600,400:15nwmywi]http://www.youtube.com/v/wtZHESaS38s[/flash:15nwmywi]

      After several miles of riding I noticed a pretty serious wobble from the rear wheel. I was worried I might’ve broken some spokes or tweaked the rim but everything checked out ok. It seemed the tire (or tube) was to blame. The replacement tube I pulled out of my pack was really twisted up so I thought maybe it went in the tire wrong in the dark.

      Next day I removed the tube, added new Stans, and aired up but the same weird wobble was still there. Today I took the bike to my LBS and the mechanic said the tire was definitely the issue – not the wheel itself (phew).

      His theory (which I like) is that some of the internal threads in the tire were either stretched or possibly even snapped on one side, causing one side of the tire to pull harder than the other. Everything was seated correctly – it just looks like the tread zig-zags in one spot. I slapped a different tire on after I shot the video and the wobble is gone.

      Anyone else ever had this happen? I’ve been riding this tire for about a year so it’s probably time to retire it anyway (no pun intended).

    • #110031

      Have had it happen on a set of UST Larsen TTs from Maxxis. I just lived with the wobble for a while until I replaced them from lack of tread.

    • #110032

      Yeah, this was a pretty serious wobble – it was like rolling over a small root every rotation. It may have worked itself out a litte before I made the video but at one point it was shaking itself out of the bike stand when I let it spin.

    • #110033

      Have had several do that, think the cords are breaking in the tire. That’s what happened a few weeks ago when I blew a tire off the rim when trying to mount it, of course the wobble was so bad the tire could not rotate between the seat stays. Think that is the price we are paying for light weight tires.

    • #110034

      Had the same thing happen to a Specialized Fast Trak. Made me think I was going crazy for a while.

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