Am I wonky?

[Paul]

Warning: if you are inclined to obsess over little things once brought to your attention, and then pine for the days before when you lived in blissful ignorance, DON'T READ THE FOLLOWING!

(click to show/hide)

I sometimes notice while riding that I can see more of the right hand side of the front wheel than the left. This happens on different bikes, all of which have been set up as symmetrically as possible using both my one-eye-closed and my tongue-sticking-out gauges, so pretty damn accurately.

So is it me? Am I wonky? Is anyone else wonky?

[Canardly]

Usually one eye dominates the other. Try holding your index fingers in a line away from you in front of your face and close each eye in turn. When the fingers do not move out of line that is the dominant eye.

[Kim]

Me too.  I always assumed it was an arm thing rather than an eye thing, but eye dominance also makes sense.

The solution is to ride bikes where you can't see the front wheel while riding along.  Then you can obsess about whether the bars are straight.

[Paul]

Usually one eye dominates the other. Try holding your index fingers in a line away from you in front of your face and close each eye in turn. When the fingers do not move out of line that is the dominant eye.

That's not it. When I close each eye in turn, it is obvious that my head is slightly to the right of the bike.

[Cudzoziemiec]

You're a multicellular organism not a bacteria or a robot.

[Biggsy]

I think it's pretty normal to be wonky in some way or other.  For me, my right leg ends up nearer the top tube than the left even when the crank positions are symmetrical.

As for optical illusions, I'm hopeless at trying to judge whether the bars are pointing slightly to the left or to the right.  I should assume they're straight if I can't decide, but they never look straight!  And technically they never will be straight because there's no such thing as perfection in the analogue world.  Everything that is not digital is actually wonky!

[Ben T]

It's because the bike is tilted ever so slightly to the left due to the road camber, but you're not. Ever noticed it on the continent?

No point me trying it because I know I'm wonky anyway, my right shoulder often sits noticeably lower than my left, when I don't remember to correct it.

[Tigerbiten]

It's because the bike is tilted ever so slightly to the left due to the road camber, but you're not. Ever noticed it on the continent?

Why would a bike be tilted due to the road camber ??
A trike yes, cycling across a slope on a trike can be "fun".
But all the bikes I've seen riding across a slope have been upright unless leaning into a curve.

[T42]

My left butthalf gets more wear than the right, but then I've got ass-symmetrical legs.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Most folk are asymmetric, leg length, curved back, differential muscle strength and so on.

[Paul]

It's because the bike is tilted ever so slightly to the left due to the road camber, but you're not. Ever noticed it on the continent?

Of course!
And there's the whole hemisphere thing too! The thing that makes the water rotate one way down the plug in the northern hemisphere, and the other in the southern. That could be a factor...

[mattc]

I think it's pretty normal to be wonky in some way or other.  For me, my right leg ends up nearer the top tube than the left even when the crank positions are symmetrical.

As for optical illusions, I'm hopeless at trying to judge whether the bars are pointing slightly to the left or to the right.  I should assume they're straight if I can't decide, but they never look straight!  And technically they never will be straight because there's no such thing as perfection in the analogue world.  Everything that is not digital is actually wonky!

When I replace/adjust brake levers (on drops), I ALWAYS set one side* lower than t'other. Not enough to feel through my arms, but I can see it if I sit in front of the bike.

This is despite using various (unprofessional but "reasonable") techniques to get them level 
 And one side is usually pointing in a bit - you'd think that would be the easy bit to get right!

[I think it's the Left. As it happens.]

[mrcharly-YHT]

It's because the bike is tilted ever so slightly to the left due to the road camber, but you're not. Ever noticed it on the continent?

Why would a bike be tilted due to the road camber ??
A trike yes, cycling across a slope on a trike can be "fun".
But all the bikes I've seen riding across a slope have been upright unless leaning into a curve.

Tyres on a slope. If bike is upright according to gravity, then it would start to curve to the right. So a very slight lean to the left balances this out. I think that is what Ben is suggesting. Makes sense to me.

[Ben T]

It's because the bike is tilted ever so slightly to the left due to the road camber, but you're not. Ever noticed it on the continent?

Why would a bike be tilted due to the road camber ??
A trike yes, cycling across a slope on a trike can be "fun".
But all the bikes I've seen riding across a slope have been upright unless leaning into a curve.

Because if the bike wasn't perpendicular to the road, it would basically be effectively leaning, relative to the road, and would thus steer into the middle of the road...wouldn't it?

[Ben T]

It's because the bike is tilted ever so slightly to the left due to the road camber, but you're not. Ever noticed it on the continent?

Why would a bike be tilted due to the road camber ??
A trike yes, cycling across a slope on a trike can be "fun".
But all the bikes I've seen riding across a slope have been upright unless leaning into a curve.

Tyres on a slope. If bike is upright according to gravity, then it would start to curve to the right. So a very slight lean to the left balances this out. I think that is what Ben is suggesting. Makes sense to me.

yes, exactly.

[Paul]

It's because the bike is tilted ever so slightly to the left due to the road camber, but you're not. Ever noticed it on the continent?

Why would a bike be tilted due to the road camber ??
A trike yes, cycling across a slope on a trike can be "fun".
But all the bikes I've seen riding across a slope have been upright unless leaning into a curve.

Tyres on a slope. If bike is upright according to gravity, then it would start to curve to the right. So a very slight lean to the left balances this out. I think that is what Ben is suggesting. Makes sense to me.

yes, exactly.

Even if this is correct, it doesn't explain my particular case which is happening on a flat path. No camber.

If it is also happening on roads with a camber I don't think I've noticed it. I assume that's because I'm too busy watching the traffic around me to notice, but it could be that the camber effect is cancelling out my wonk.

I guess I'll just have to go to France to check.

Or start riding on the wrong side of the road here.

[tonyh]

May not be relevant, as normally I (probably) sit fairly straight:

When very tired and back is playing up, I've been aware of seeing a great deal of one side of the front wheel, while everything (except eyes) is telling me I'm vertical; trying to return to the real vertical, though not particularly painful, is then almost impossibly awkward-feeling.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

It is quite common towards the end of PBP and other long brevets to see (generally older) folk who have 'the lean'. Leaning so far to one side or the other that their bikes tend to move down the road in a series of curves linked by jinks in the other direction. They always think they are sitting straight on the bike. I've never found anybody who knows what the cause is.

[rogerzilla]

There's an apocryphal theory that right-handed riders tend to crash on their left side (I think I have a 100% record of this) and that's why the gears and stuff are on the right.  If you have a tendency to lean to the right, the bike does lean the other way.

[Kim]

My recent off was to the right (I think just because that was the point in the oscillation where it passed the tipping point), so I now have a nice scar developing on my right elbow to balance out all the existing ones (mostly due to loss of traction off-road) on my left.

[Brucey]

It is quite common towards the end of PBP and other long brevets to see (generally older) folk who have 'the lean'. Leaning so far to one side or the other that their bikes tend to move down the road in a series of curves linked by jinks in the other direction. They always think they are sitting straight on the bike. I've never found anybody who knows what the cause is.

I've seen people riding home from the pub like that....


Re the riding on the camber thing;   if we had pizza cutters for wheels there would be no lean. But we don't; tyres are finitely wide and once on an angled surface the contact point of the tyre moves off-centre and this means that the bike must lean and/or turn in order to keep going in a straight line.

BTW no-one is built perfectly symmetric, and indeed very many bikes are not either. It amazes me that obvious wonkyness isn't more common than it is.

cheers