Tyre in combination with road camber is the most likely culprit. With road tyres, all I know is that higher pressure is better (to remedy road camber sensitivity). But Sanne may be onto something with her remark about knobby tyres. Maybe if you have high pressure in your knobby tyre, you are balancing on, say, the middle row of knobs only. They might then give way/bend to one side once they get to carry the load, hence give you an offset to one side. It would be kind of similar to riding on short-tufted carpet (which is notoriously difficult), be it that in that case the offset is caused by the carpet tufts bending to one side.
As to your rim of 39 mm being wide enough for the 2.35 (or 2.1) tyre: yes in itself that is true. The Big Apple 2.35" (and maybe the Duro too if it is a Big Apple clone like you say) is notorious for being sensitive to side slope. The problem is exacerbated when combined with a narrow rim, but it also exists with wider rims.
I tried max tire pressure today, that didn’t help. I did learn something useful though: I suck at making left turns, and I suck equally bad on both unis. So I assume that when riding on the right side of a crowned road, the slant is making the uni turn right, meaning I have to be in a constant left turn to be able to go straight. Which would explain my tending to prefer riding on the left side. In other words, I just need more practice. Thanks again Dr. Uni!
I took the liberty of quoting you with improved clarity You are correct in working on things that you feel have room for improvement, but do not let temporary difficulties like this leaning discourage you from riding! Just keep practising and suddenly one day you may find that you no longer have a leaning problem
I’ve been dealing with the same issue since I started, and now it’s mostly gone (but only mostly). I’ve found that using a handlebar has really helped, and I practice putting one hand on, then the other, and ultimately am working on both hands at once (which I can do, but still not truly comfortable with it). This practice has dramatically reduced my tendency to turn my body, even when I’m not riding with the handlebar. It’s also something that’s easy to practice while just riding, without having to devote a specific training session to it.
However, I suspect that just riding a lot is a major part of my improvement. So if you’re not interested in a handlebar, just ride more!
Once I started learning to idle on both sides I noticed that I was riding with the seat cocked under me a little bit. So I started looking for reasons. First, like you I tried to adapt my riding with only mixed success.
On my 3 Nimbus Unis not one has a level saddle side to side. Take the seat off the seat post, the post out of the frame and turn the post over putting the plate flat on a table. All 3 of mine were off in one plane or the other and none sat evenly on the 4 corners. I did some grinding and used some washers to shim the saddle it bothered me the most on. It was better but no miracle so I only did it on one of my Unis. With some more practice I could ride evenly even with the crooked seat posts.
I noticed a consistent tendency to the right during my rides, so I stopped, turned the seat 180 degrees, jumped back on, was then tending to the left!
I had a careful look at everything, what I noticed is the cheapo tire (Innova) on my uni is non-symmetric, has more tread height on the left than on the right! Hence the auto-turning…
A new tire is en-route, going to try a WTB nano-raptor for pavement and light trail use.
I’ve dealt with similiar issues. For a while I looked like some kind of ninja that was prepped to pounce with one arm behind my back and the other out front.
My solution was most of what has been listed, especially practice, and I also had a mnior back injury to deal with. In short, I’d over stretched one side so my upper body was quite literally off centre. That took a bit to get over.
Try finding “flat” spaces to ride to help rebuild your confidence. Also worth not thinking too much about it when your riding in those space. Just ride.
The easiest way to check wether the frame is OK is to turn your saddle 180 degrees.
So you will go with your uni in the other direction.
Then see if you still turn right.
You first need to what is wrong. For instance, if the shoulders are misaligned then twisting at the waist is not the best thing to work on. If you are bending to the right at the waist, then lifting the right shoulder is not the answer.
At the right times I use my shadow to give me correct feedback, rather than what I THINK is wrong.
With the sun very high in the sky, check that your shoulders are aligned across the boddy, not one leading the other.
With the sun a lot lower, and you riding EXACTLY in a line such that the shadow is immediately in front and you are riding over yourself, compare the height of your shoulders, as well as whether you are canting your body fromt he waist or hips. Of course, you can engineer this situation by heading out to a tennis court or flat parking area.
I find that I lead with my dominant (right) shoulder when I am climbing an incline. It is still a tough thing to work against except if the surface is very even and smooth.
For some, asymmetry is always gonna be an issue. So far this year I have clocked 5000km (metered) and I still work on it consciously.And I still on freemounting commonly take more than a few metres to get into symmetry.
Too true! The sun rises around 09:30 and sets at 15 here now. It’s night when I get home from work. But we finally got some snow, so that’s nice! It’s the good kind: Frosty, dry powder.
I was out in the weekend practicing left turns on the 20". No real progress yet, but I’m sure I’ll get better eventually. The fat 2.2" Maxxis tire eats the snow, no problem.
Hmmm, they will be getting longer, but at that time they will still be shorter than now.
A friend of mine loves long daylight. So you should think he is most happy around 21 June. In fact he is somewhat depressed (well, too big a word) then, because the days are getting shorter. He is the happiest just before 21 December, because he won’t have to wait much longer until the days start lengthening again. It’s a funny paradox.
I had the same problem. Turns out that my saddle was not level (side to side). I shimmed it using small washers, the problem is mostly gone!!
See this link.
In the first day I rode the uni down the beach with absolutely no problems at all. Direction and symmetry were simply non-issues. I was free to move about at will.
On the second day I fought the ride the whole way. Same beach, same direction, same uni, same everything except…
I think I was tired from the riding the day before. When the butt gets sore the brain does what it can do to relieve the pain. In doing so I’m convinced I was compansating for the pain by shifting in the saddle to one side to relieve the stress on the ischeal tuberosities.
I definitely find myself leading with one shoulder at times, but it doesn’t seem to be consistent. Sometimes it is the left… sometimes it is the right.
Part of the issue might be slight differences in foot and butt position after the free mount. After all, not all free mounts are the same, even if “successful”.
Maybe, but alternatively: was there more side wind the second day?
Adjusting your butt and feet should be doable if you need it after a less-than-perfect freemount. For the butt, increase pressure on the pedals so that you half-stand on them, if need be yank on your seat. For the feet: this is slightly more challenging. Be light on the pedal to be adjusted and wiggle your foot. E.g., if you bend your ankle sideways, you should be able to rotate your foot around the remaining contact area. Or lift your foot off the pedal, adjust position and place foot back quickly. This is best done when your foot is on the upstroke (because since you are a biped, the other foot is doing the main work ). After some more riding practice, you’ll do all of the above without thinking.
Sore muscles and different mount positions, makes sense. After getting a uni with proper handlebars I find I have zero symmetry problems on level roads. Makes it tempting to get bars for the 29er too. Both hands on the bars enforce natural symmetry, while one hand on the seat does the opposite.
One thing is still a nuisance: Roads that are tilted to the side. I think someone else here pointed out that the wheel will want to turn to the uphill side, and to compensate you have to keep the uni at 90 degrees to the road surface, and lean your body the other way to compensate for balance. This works, but looks silly and is tiring.
I remember having problems with shoulder twist. I tried every little adjustment that I could think of that may be causing the twist. Maybe my seat was a little crooked? Were my feet twisting? In the end, when I found myself twisting, I just forced myself to ride with my shoulders straight.
I think we sometimes try to overthink a problem. Some problems are a result of bad habit and not some underlying technical problem.
