My Atlantis has always had an odd, annoying and somewhat unpredictable shimmy. This topic has been discussed ad nauseum, with the suggestion that a roller bearing headset MAY increase the friction enough to damp out shimmy. Since my problem was limited to certain load conditions (heavy rear & little to no front load) that were easily adjusted (more weight up front), it was not a Red Alert. I always thought it would be a nice thing to try but never put much effort into finding one for the Atlantis. With Rivendell now handling the IRD and Grant specifically mentioning the goodness of a bit of extra stickiness, I had to give it a try. The original Ultegra was nearing 10 years old & way past 40,000 miles, so it had earned it's keep. In fact, it was still smooth & I wouldn't have been thinking about it absent the shimmy.
After a few hundred miles & a variety of loading experiments, I'm pleased to report a complete absence of shimmy. Even with 15 lbs in each rear bag, shoved as far back as possible on a Nitto big back rack, and nothing, not even my trusty Acorn, on the front, the bike is rock while sitting up-right, coasting a 20 MPH downhill. Previously, a load this squirrely would get things rocking about 12-14 MPH and be overly exciting by 18. All that drama is gone. For anyone who's got a recurring problem on this issue, give one of the IRD headsets a shot. It's a relatively quick, simple experiment and the headset looks quite nice as well. The bike otherwise handles the same so there is no downside. dougP -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/NDnWRSFdzScJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
