Thorn Sport Tour steering stability

[Frank Tompson]

I was wondering why I spent £1,500 on a bike; now I know. My Thorn Sport Tour is amazing. It's so springy and responsive and the Rohloff gear shifting is a dream.

However, steering, particularly at low speed going uphill, feels unstable. Any suggestions to improve please?

[Sprocket]

Frank,
Could it be something as simple as tyre pressures, or an over tight headset?
Sprocket

[strat]

Nothing vital to contribute, except to say that you will get more response to your question on the Cycling Plus website. Also if you give  Thorn a ring and get an answer I would be interested in what is said as   I intend to get a Raven sport shortly.

Is the instability worse than other bikes?  Crawing up a hill at 3 or 4 miles an hour, I am wobbling about a bit! If there was a problem with the steering I would have thought it would manifest itself most on a fast descent.

[Ratty]

Could it be the tyres?  My Adventure Tour came with panaracers which I found a bit squirrelly.  I have read a review of these tyres on either mtbreview.com or roadbikereview.com which said that the only negative was dodgy handling at first but that you get used to it.  I did find that this was not only at low speeds though.

BTW I only changed the tyres to mount studded ones for winter.  I have not used the panaracers much but will put them back on in spring so can not really comment on them myself apart from that they were not as stable for the first few rides as the studs.

[Frank Tompson]

Problem solved - give or take.

Spoke with Robin Thorn yesterday who advised the wrong forks had been fitted. Instead of a 47mm rake I had a 42mm rake fitted. Went down today and got them changed. I wouldn't exactly describe the result as 'running on rails' but definitely an improvement.

Many thanks to all those who responded to my question.

Frank Tompson
Bath