"jcb1973" wrote:

I've recently had a Roberts hybrid built - it's suffering from frame
wobble/shimmy. It's a custom built Reynolds 725 hybrid, based on the
Audax Compact (see http://www.robertscycles.com/products.html). FWIW,
I'm 5'11", 84kg. Wheels are 36 spoke XTR hubs with Mavic T520 rims,
Conti Travel Contact tyres.

My question is - is frame wobble acceptable on an expensive custom
built bike? Roberts have tried adjusting the headset (which didn't
help). Is this just bad luck - am I stuck with it? How far should
Roberts go in trying to put this right?

Thanks for any advice - I genuinely don't know what I should expect
from the framebuilder on this.

Did you spec the geometry and/or tubing? I've had customers make some
fairly outrageous requests in terms of geometry, and have made clear
that if there are problems with the handling as a result, it's not a
"warranty issue".

Normally a customer will just know what they want in terms of the
bike's "mission statement", and I'll figure out how to optimize the
handling around the necessary "fit points" (the saddle, crank and
bars). If I did that and the bike had a significant handling issue,
I'd stand behind it 100%. If the customer laid out an odd geometry
(against my advice) and it didn't work, that'd be another thing.

I couldn't find anything about the Roberts geometry on their website,
so it's hard to say if there's anything odd about their "standard"
geometry.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $695 ti frame