My Liberte's steering too fast?

I got a Liberte and am surprised at its handling ability. Not in a bad way, but in a different way. I can't ride with one hand, ride with no hand or ride off the saddle easily. Hopefully I will get the hang of it and be able do them at ease in the future. But since the bike is mainly for my wife and I mentioned about mounting a water bottle carrier to drink on the go, she doesn't think she can even take one hand off to in order to grab the bottle.

I wondering if it has to do with the small lightweight wheel and frame geometry. I've ridden mtn bikes with 20" wheels and can do all those handling techniques with no issue. Althought the wheel is much heavier and wider. Do you have the head tube angle and trail of the bike? Those are usually the parameters that defines a bike's handling speed (along with wheelbase).

5 answers1 reply

6 Comments

ZiZZO

Jul 13, 2020

Hey l_w_a_n_g

You can try out reversing the fork, but we do not recommend this for several reasons: 1) Reversing the fork will bring the front wheel in closer to the bike, increasing the potential to strike the toe on the wheel. 2) Reversing the fork changes the "natural" shock absorbing properties of the bike; increasing the stresses on the bike when you ride over potholes and bumps. 3) Reversing the fork can negatively affect the handling and stability of the bike. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns. Tony

l_w_a_n_g

Jul 10, 2020

I guess one gets use to the handling, although I will probably only ride it once in a while. But less skillful cyclist like my wife might take a long time to be able to ride while standing on the pedals.

I noticed the steering tube can be turned 180 deg ending up with a negative fork offset, and a huuuge trail. Maybe I can try that just to check out how it feels.

ZiZZO

Jul 10, 2020

Hey there. Just like "full sized" bikes, there are folder for every occasion. And just like full sized bikes, you have recreation bikes and Pro bikes. 😉

You do bring up a good point with your question. We feel that commuters AND casual rider may benefit from a more responsive bike (though that has not always been the case, think beach cruisers!)

But when commuting, with traffic, imagine a car door opening if front of you😫? Riding with traffic? Imagine a casual rider on a crowded trail (and they do get crowded on warm summer days!) Ultimately, it depends on the rider and their comfort level 😉 But the hope is that if a rider has been riding a beach cruiser and switch to a ZiZZO (for example), they get used to the feel of the ZiZZO over the cruiser. Tony

l_w_a_n_g

Aug 11, 2020

Replying to

Trying to figure out the instability and why I can't ride with no hands, even if I am not pedaling and staying perfectly centered. I eventually got to be able to take my hands off and ride hands free, but I had to shift my weight quite to the left to compensate for the bike's tendency to veer to the right, all before removing my hands from the bars. The reason I wasn't able to take my hands off in prior attempts was due to the short trail, the bike swerved extremely to the right instantaniously.

I went to check the dishing of the front wheel by reversing it, and it is fine. Then I checked the frame alignment with strings attached to the headtube and rear dropout's eyelets and measuring offset from seattube, which checks out fine. Did not check the dishing of the rear wheel by reversing it, but their distance from the left and right chainstays seems to be equidistant. I can't check anything else w/o the required tools.

What I did was shift the front wheel so that it doesn't sit truly vertical (limited by how much they can be within the confines of the front dropouts). First I mounted so that it tilts left (from the perspective of the rider), thinking if the bike veers right, I should veer the wheel left. That didn't work. Then I mounted it so it tilts right, and voila, I can ride hands free w/o any pre-shifting my weight. I can only follow the line on a lane so far, not anything fancy like steer around object or go around a corner since the trail is very short and weight shifting have to be of the most minute amount.

From this, there is something that is not aligned right. Can't be the centering of the fork since I have to keep it visually off-centered. Anything else, I can only speculate, such as headtube alignment, uneven fork rake, etc. I will get a level and see if anything is way out of alignment.

I will attach picture of how off-center I had to mount the front wheel. You can see how much the brakes has to be shifted to one side, and the center of the tire is offset from the center bolt from the fork.

l_w_a_n_g

Jul 09, 2020

Thanks for the info. I am surprised at those geometries. That is probably why when I first encountered a pothole, my attempt at swerving around it caused a much bigger turn on the handlebar than expected.

Aren't folders generally ridden by commuters or casual riders that wants to just throw the bikes in the trunk and be done with, instead of crit racers that expects lightning fast handling?

ZiZZO

Jul 09, 2020

Hi l_w_a_n_g

Thank you for your post and you make an accurate observation with regards to the handling of the ZiZZO Bike. The Liberte has a steeper head tube angle (86.8 deg) and smaller trail (27.5mm); combined with the smaller and lighter wheels, this can make the bike feel more "whippy". Generally, most riders will adapt to the new bike feel (think of driving a new car fo the first time. It'll feel vastly different from your old car, but you typically get used to that as well). That being said, we always recommend safe riding habits ;-) Let us know if you have any other questions. Tony