Speed Wobbles and You

[hagland]

Tight trucks, loose trucks, particular boards, particular bearings, particular wheels, phases of the moon, or sunspots. People get wobbles regardless of all of these.

What Contributes to Wobbles

Tense legs, knees, and ankles. Riding straight downhill. Speed. Crosswinds or bad pavement. Too-loose trucks. Too-tight trucks. Worn or sloppy pivot cups. Shorter wheelbases. Skitching. Standing up or crouching down suddenly.

Un-even wheels does cause wobbles, it causes ocillations=wobbles. Soo I guess you could say that wheels might cause wobbles, if they are damaged or badly casted!

[ucboarder]

I just had my first speed wobble induced fall, its definetly nerves, ive gone much faster on my setup and i was just nervous. i was thinking "cant fall cant fall" so i did.

[cuna123456]

Just got my new Comishin yesterday.

Went to try it out on a familliar hill, except this time instead of taking it nice and relaxed I went for speed. Got speed wobbles about half way down the hill but luckily enough I had the sense to relax my ankles and start controlled carves from side to side. I rode out the speed wobbles and all was well.

One thing that realy helps me deal with them, is I start consious carves back and forth which puts me in complete control of my carves.
It helped me so I thought I'd share.

Oh as a cause of wobbles, I got home and checked my trucks. Turned out they were WAY to loose. Serves me right for not checking before I went down the hill, could of been much worse.

[kookyfish]

the last time I started to get woobles I was thinking about how fast I was going and wondering if I was going to get them,. I just started to get mad ,and was like F@k this, and pushed down hard on my front foot ,while tucking more and loose-ing up my back ankle, that seemed to work lol
Its never happened since,,, maybe I need to go faster.

Its really in your head imo.

[cuna123456]

Yea I've noticed I normally only get wobbles when I'm thinking about them.

But thats not alway true, when I make a speacial effort to keep my ankles loose I don't seem to get them. Theres probably a happy medium where you don't get them. When your not thinking about it enough or your thinking about it to much.

At least that makes sense to me.

[kookyfish]

just came back from a morning skate, still dark out. I boodly got wobles aaarrrhhh
like WTF ,,see its all this talk about it,
I was coming out of a nice corner started to streighten up and was doing about 40kph
when my board starts moven around, at first Im thinking shet theres something wrong with my ride, then it clicks ...Ive got wobles,,I just carved them out ,,ended well, Things I noticed.
I didnt check my board before I went out,it was prety loose
I was still half asleep
It was cold so I was a little stiff, still am in my knees (old)
and when I kicked off my foot placement was different than normal, I picked up speed fast so I didnt bother sorting it out and just figerd Id be right,(to confident)
It was a blind corner so I was a bit tense looking for cars, and did streighten up quick. .

so theres my check list before I go out again,Talk about Murphies law

[motormetalliclash]

My first time riding (for the board and for longboards in general) my never summer eclipse with randal 180's and stock bushings i got speed wobbles (that i managed to ride out miraculously). Would stiffer, higher quality bushings help avoid this at all?

[kookyfish]

My first time riding (for the board and for longboards in general) my never summer eclipse with randal 180's and stock bushings i got speed wobbles (that i managed to ride out miraculously). Would stiffer, higher quality bushings help avoid this at all?

that set up is fine, depending on your weight you may want to try harder bushings,
or tighten your trucks a little , not to tight cos you want to be able to turn/carve.
but its more about being comfortable on you board, some boards arnt made to go fast...to much flex etc. as has been discussed theres lots of variables, just take it step be step building confidence and speed

[tsmith25]

what i have felt is that bump steer is nearly always the cause but wobbles are pilot induced oscillations correcting the original bump. they build on themselves till you technically make the board throw you off of it.

the key to riding out wobbles is to train yourself to keep going straight. instead of correcting the bump steer focus forward and keep your weight the same this will bring the board back under you with one or two twitches. i think this is what most people mean by stay loose.

i have experienced true oscillations that came solely from the rear truck. it was an odd feeling much faster and smaller than the wobbles that we are talking about. it was on a loose (not well damped) randal rll 180 with the hanger flipped. i think the reason i could feel it as i did was that is was on my vanguard that has enough flex that it didnt transfer to the front truck since i kept my body straight it damped out after a few shakes.

[cuna123456]

As for me, imperfections in the road (big ones) or sticks small rocks etc... are often the cause of my speed wobbles.

Knowing this you can anticipate them and deal with the wobbles right away. Often if you do this you won't get them.

[JayAdams007]

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.

At one stage i was realy into street skating but on the weekends me and my mates would go on adventures and find big hills and skate them together. One day there was about 5 of us and a reasonable big hill near my school. 4 of us went down one filmed. i was directly next to my friend (who was kinda ####) knowing my luck he got some major speed wobbles fell and hit his head(none of us were wearing helmets) his board shot out directly infront of mine and i jumped off and hit the ground, grazing my hip,arms and knees realy badly, ive been paranoid about hills now. although im going to by a longboard and build my confidence back up.

[RileyC]

speed wobble is a mental state... get back into your "Zen" and your good

[mcgoon]

fukin hippies....

[thokk2]

I've found that when I get wobbles the best thing to do is ignore them. If I freak out and stand up, when I get low again they come back worse. Mostly because I've scarred myself into stiffening up. But if I ignore them, loosen up, get more comfortable then they go away.
My .02 UDS.

[my-surfing-substitute]

Just searching for these annoying speed wobbles to see how to fight it. This is what happened to me yesterday: I'm riding elsewhere from work on an alternate route. This involved this fun little hill to bomb...nothing scary, just looked fun and safe to do. So I get going, start enjoying the speed I got (I'm sure I was probably somewhere near 20 mph, not sure) and sure enough as the ground levels out that's when the wobble session begins. Debating whether to ride towards someone's lawn and bail out or ride it out, I went with that second option as I knew I was only on flat land now. Luckily it was a success and I rode off with adrenaline going and proud I didn't wipe out. On the other hand, I ride down a much 'higher' hill, that's more gradual every day from work, but I don't get wobbles. And I'm on a bumpy sidewalk. Not sure why my ride down a short little hill.

I know possible factors that definitely contributed to this was loose turning randals, and a flexdex c29. This thing is insane when it comes to tight turning so I'm sure the 1 little bump in the ground had the ripple effect. Atleast I rode off in 1 piece, remaining on my board still. And lastly, I wasn't the slightest bit nervous when coming down the hill so I wouldn't say that I got nervous from it.

Hello! This will be my first post on here!

O.K. my theory is that since the small hill was steeper, you gained speed faster, making harder to "adjust" to you're newly gained speed. Whereas the big is more gradual there aren't many "speed surprises" because you accelerate slower. I guess it's like you're in a car, and you drive quickly from 0 - 50 in, let's say, 4 seconds. You feel a jolt. But if you get to 50 over a span of like a minute, it's good. You feel acceleration, not speed. You see speed. So when you kinda get surprised and then the speed wobbles catch you off-guard. Again, this is just my theory.

[Dimm]

I don't want to be provoke any bad reactions here but whenever I hear this talk about wobbles being just a state of mind I can't help but think that it's a bunch of hippie bullshit. The funny thing about people that say that "wobbles are just a state of mind" is that they are usually the same people that bomb hills with a drop-deck with khiro black bushings and 35 degree baseplates. Yeah? Just a state of mind? Try bombing a hill with your little brothers wall-mart shortboard and I doubt you'll be saying "it's a state of mind" much longer because you'll fall and break your jaw once you get up to 30mph. Speed wobbles are a product of a mechanical system. It has to do with wave interference and oscillation resonance and lots of other fun scientific terms. Cars, and buses, and motorcycles all get speed-wobbles too and in those situations it has little to do with the people operating them and more to do with the suspension and steering system. The thing that separates those systems from the the system of a longboard is that a human is actually a part of the mechanical system of a longboard. But it is not the only part of it. The actual longboard largely affects the speed wobbles. So, in conclusion, yes your mind and body do have an affect on the speed wobbles you get because both your mind and body are part of the system, however, to say that it is allin your mind and only your mind is a ridiculously stupid over-simplification.

[AngryGumball]

Hello! This will be my first post on here!

O.K. my theory is that since the small hill was steeper, you gained speed faster, making harder to "adjust" to you're newly gained speed. Whereas the big is more gradual there aren't many "speed surprises" because you accelerate slower. I guess it's like you're in a car, and you drive quickly from 0 - 50 in, let's say, 4 seconds. You feel a jolt. But if you get to 50 over a span of like a minute, it's good. You feel acceleration, not speed. You see speed. So when you kinda get surprised and then the speed wobbles catch you off-guard. Again, this is just my theory.

Seeing that you quoted an old post that I did, I've actually been thinking of re-riding this hill with more 'proper' fitting Randals. I previously had the old version 180's running on it. I think that a lot had to do with setup, where the board had this mechanical twitchy feeling to it. I could barely curl the toes and the board would feel like a jolt rather than a fluid turn that my 125mm Randals produce. I think that once I leveled out (which was still a slight slope, more gradual) I may have hit some weird lumpy thing in the road, which may have triggered the initial 'jerk.'

So yes, back to your theory, this hill was much steeper, yet much shorter. I just described this hill to my brother the other day and pretty much felt like cruising, then a yank to high speeds. My next thing it to just keep doing some light carves to maybe keep the wobbles from going. I feel so noobish getting wobb's off that small of a hill.

[FoxRiderar77]

QUOTE=tsmith25;1297050399]what i have felt is that bump steer is nearly always the cause but wobbles are pilot induced oscillations correcting the original bump. they build on themselves till you technically make the board throw you off of it.

the key to riding out wobbles is to train yourself to keep going straight. instead of correcting the bump steer focus forward and keep your weight the same this will bring the board back under you with one or two twitches. i think this is what most people mean by stay loose.

i have experienced true oscillations that came solely from the rear truck. it was an odd feeling much faster and smaller than the wobbles that we are talking about. it was on a loose (not well damped) randal rll 180 with the hanger flipped. i think the reason i could feel it as i did was that is was on my vanguard that has enough flex that it didnt transfer to the front truck since i kept my body straight it damped out after a few shakes.[/QUOTE]

I agree with this 100% It gets to a point eventually where wobbles are only produced by imperfections in the road for example, manhole covers, crosswalk paint, sealed cracks, small pebbles etc. If you have a good setup wobbles will not be created at speed. I think as you get more comfortable at speed and get your brain used to not thinking about the consequences of falling, you get much more wobble-prone.

[Shellshock14]

From my experience, all of my speed wobbles were cause by nerves.

I have a landy drop hammer coming in, but my first and for right now, only board is a flexdex C-29. I intended to only ride city and cruise but I got a need for speed. I take it down a hill with my friends whove all got a board that can handle speed. Evo, Chinook, Bomb hills. We go from the top, they push, I dont. this is because getting wobbles on this mini is freaky as hell considering the size and the flex.I went down half way and because of nervousness, got mad wobbles that I had to ride out. If you keep your legs and mind relaxed these wobbles generally wont happen, unless theres other issues involved(loose trucks, imperfections in the road etc.)

[mudkiphater]

im pretty sure i only get (s)wobbles when i am nervous about the hill i am going down or when i dont have my lead foot in the right spot but other wise i believe they are just a nervous reaction