Speed Wobbles and You

[juklano]

YouTube - death on longboard

So what would you do in this situation? The moment I get them all I can do is relax? And relax your legs- how can you do that if you are trying to balance from the board moving back and forth. I still don't know how to get rid of them. Can someone post their own experiences/thinking.

[slither9192]

Relax and deffinately don't stand up like him get as low as possible. Pretty much he could have avoided that if he got into a tuck.

[ucboarder]

I'm at school now so i haven't been able to get pads but i find that if you get good sliding gloves(i made my own for like 4 dollars... they're sick) and when you get wobbly tuck and put your hand on the ground and that completely solves it.

[juklano]

YouTube - Landyachtz Longboards Concrete Wave:...

At :38 is this what you mean by tuck and slide?

[Benedict68]

So what would you do in this situation? The moment I get them all I can do is relax? And relax your legs- how can you do that if you are trying to balance from the board moving back and forth. I still don't know how to get rid of them. Can someone post their own experiences/thinking.

definetly more weight on the front foot. when the wobbles started you could have stopped them by unweighting your back foot. too much weight on the back foot when wobbles start=sliding out back truck, as happened in the video

[juklano]

b.t.w. The dude in the video ain't me...I just didn't want to end up crashing like that and be scared away from the sport forever so I thought I'd ask.

the replies are helpful thnx

[nicthekid220]

its all in the ankles.

me and the "WOBBS" dont meet often, weird. i probably fall from sliding out way more than of the shimmies. hell i might fall once ever 2 months..................

[A-cuara]

latelly i have being suffering from speed wobbles, at least two times in the last month. this past weekend, we went on a 3 day trip to Panama`s high land, we were skating this stretch of road, couple of curves and some nice straights, when reaching some top speed i started carving to control the speed, all of the sudden, i got into a wobble, and a short bus showed up coming straight to us in one of the curves, we were going maybe around 65 km as the driver of the car who was following told us, luckilly i was able to skate the woble or control it out and finished the road. dont know if it could have being caused by the sudden bend, stand up from the carving but i got kind of nervous being out of control and maybe 15 meters from the upcoming bus...

i have always ridden loose trucks, and i have bombed some nice long and fast hills, but suddenly i am getting this wobbles. not the first time, but you know, they are happening to often, but i have being able to control them.

[WTF]

Ok I know i'm extremely late in this conversation but let just talk theory about the wobs from a car enthusiast perspective. Hopefully I don't blab to much as I've been known to do that.

Skateboards, just by nature are an extremely unstable platform for travel over our very imperfect roads. Look at a car: the suspension to absorb the road abnormalities is relatively independent from the drivers steering input. Where skate boards are just the opposite. Your legs are the suspension AND the steering input. Even worse the axles are tied to together so what displaces one wheel, will also upset the other. And unlike a skateboard, the car rider getting thrown around by the suspension doesn't cause more steering input (provided they have good seats).

So to sum the sketchiness of skateboards in one sentence: Skateboards have a MAJOR case of bumpsteer. While this is relatively rare in cars usually only occurring if the user modifies the suspension incompletely, but even when it occurs with cars, bumpsteer isn't even a fraction as bad as skateboards. For a skateboarder, the impact of a bump/dip on one single wheel or one side of the board effectively turns the board as it travels over the bump or dip. Adding to the bumpsteer, the impact displaces the rider (however little - it still does) which the rider has to recover from (regain balance) adding even more steering input.

Btw all of these reasons stated above are large contributors as to why skateboarding isn't considered a "safe" alternative to driving such as biking. Riders getting thrown off their boards all the time, spilling out from the bike lane on to oncoming traffic doesn't sit well with lawmakers. Not to mention that small little fact that we don't have effective brakes…

So what does all this mean? Someone needs to develop real suspension in trucks to help the rider maintain control. That way we won't need the most pristine roads to break 76mph anymore. Heh, considering how old this sport is, and the fact they still haven't developed a *good* braking mechanism for us, that doesn't sound like it's going to happen any time soon. The advice that makes the most sense to me is to stabilize the steering in put by force, similar to what enemy combatant said by stiffening the hell out of your front foot and shifting weight towards it. How can you have precision in your movement if you're all "loose".

Also, if wobs are primarily a rear truck issue, has anyone ever tried running a truck that allows leaning but doesn't steer at all. Meaning a fixed directional axle but allows the board to pivot over it so the front trucks can still steer.

[npr]

Also, if wobs are primarily a rear truck issue, has anyone ever tried running a truck that allows leaning but doesn't steer at all. Meaning a fixed directional axle but allows the board to pivot over it so the front trucks can still steer.

Interesting idea. VERY interesting idea.

[charlietidd]

Yes

I dewedged the rear of my evo further to make the rear truck a zero angle

It definitely works, but I do not like the feel of it

[nokeboarder]

i have found that wobbles are 90% mental, just don't worry about them, when you get them relax and they'll go away if not wind brake to a slower speed and keep on relaxing.

[Fishtale Boards]

keep the front turnier
slightly get up from your tuck
windbrake
and most importantly carve out of the wobble
oh and stay chill

Those pieces of advice were definitely the most important things anyone has ever said to me about longboarding and they have saved me from some really nasty wobbles.

[Fishtale Boards]

Also, if wobs are primarily a rear truck issue, has anyone ever tried running a truck that allows leaning but doesn't steer at all. Meaning a fixed directional axle but allows the board to pivot over it so the front trucks can still steer.

So basically a carve truck but mounted straight up and not on and type of kick or riser?? It would obviously cut down on steering alot, but would make you a little stabler i would think (so long as its not overly tippy). Really cool idea that should totally be tested.

[flyboy8824]

worst speed wobble moment of my LIFE
i didnt know what speed wobbles were cuz i was just an idiot, so i was bombin this hill that was around this steep / haha no but its the steepest hill ive seen in a while (boise idaho the one on glennwood by capital high)

i had been skating regular short boards forever and my friend was saying "mann i could TOTALLY go down that hill" so i got a new shortboard and it was my day to christen it its weird cuz it rides almost like a longboard even though its SHORTER then a regular skateboard, its KINDA like an old school board, anyway it was soo small i could barely fit my feet on it,

and the trucks were SOOOOOOOO loose cuz thats how i always ride them, (again i was a n00b so i didnt know to tighten them)

so it was lunch so i grabbed my board and got a big crowd to come watch, well not big like 10-15 people so i started goin down the sidewalk and i was doin alright and i wasnt rly scared i was just really excited, and all of a sudden i felt myself loosing control looked down and saw my board shaking soo much i was moving across the ENDTIRE width of the sidewalk

now i was in a sticky situation cuz i didnt know what was happenin, i couldnt bail left cuz theres a chainlink fence there, goes straight from sidewalk to fence, if i bailed left i would have been HIT BY A CAR so i just jumped forward and hit the ground runnin as FAST AS I COULD, andi dont know how i didnt die anyway i was fine my board was fine rly lucky

but ever since i have a phobia of ANY speed at all, if im getting ANYWHERE near as fast as i can sprint im probably crying

same thing happened to me earlier this year. it was my first time on a longboard and i was just gonna go chill with some of my friends. anyway someone gave me this shitty old board and being a dumb ass i went straight down a pretty steep hill. hit about 25 and started to get the wobbles. didn't know what do so i jumped off wearing flip flops. BAD IDEA, fell on my face and slid. my face was fine but got the worst rash of my life on my arm, knee, and hip. happened in august and i still have rocks pushing out of my right arm. a couple weeks later i bought my first board, a dervish with 180 chargers and big zigs. took it down a hill and got the wobbles, still terrified of any kind of speed over 30, cant seem to carve right either but i have been getting a bit better. its tough to get over but it can be done and going that fast is probably one of the most exhilarating experience of your life.

[DELETED]

i have always ridden loose trucks, and i have bombed some nice long and fast hills, but suddenly i am getting this wobbles. not the first time, but you know, they are happening to often, but i have being able to control them.

How are your bushings? If they're worn out then the trucks could keep getting sloppier

[NJ Joe]

I usually keep my trucks at the point where I seriously need to shift my weight to carve. It keeps speed wobbles in check while making carving more dynamic. Additionally, my back trucks are a bit tighter than my front trucks. Only time I ever got wobbles was doing about 30 down a hill on a sidewalk, and the cracks were slightly uneven (risen at an angle), which threw off my balance and nearly sent me into the concrete.

[bAdger555]

YouTube - death on longboard

So what would you do in this situation? The moment I get them all I can do is relax? And relax your legs- how can you do that if you are trying to balance from the board moving back and forth. I still don't know how to get rid of them. Can someone post their own experiences/thinking.

Before the crash, you can see the board shake a little bit; instability. I think he could have easily saved it by carving, and sticking weight to one side then the other/vice versa.

[BoMbHiLlS92]

Dont really get wobbles with my EVO

[jmasta]

....

A Theory of Speed Wobbles

....

Speed wobbles begin small. Something (a pebble, the wind, uneven road) causes your board/trucks to turn just slightly. Say it turns the board to your toeside. If you initiated the turn yourself, you'd already be leaning into the turn to counteract the centrifugal force that's going to be pushing you heel-side. But you didn't anticipate the turn, so your body is suddenly, unexpectedly pushed backwards.

You instinctively try to balance by pushing down on your heels. But by pushing on your heels you make the board turn to your heel-side. As you start turning heel-side, the centrifugal force pushes you onto your toes (just as you'd gotten straightened up!). Now you press down on your toes to balance, turning your board toe-side, and the cycle repeats and amplifies.
....

Nice write-up! I feel you have a good grasp on this very complex subject

however, there's one part that didn't fly with my physics-orientated brain..... "centrifugal" forces do not exist. centripetal yes, centrifugal no.

example: you take a ride hand turn quickly in your car and are forced up against the left door. the common misconception is that the "centrifugal" force pushes you into the left side of the car and away from the center of the turn. in reality, your body wants to continue going straight, but the center-seeking centripetal force from the car is actually pushing into you to the right... thus the force points radially inward to the center of the turn

centrifugal = bad bad bad