On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 2:52 PM, Dr. Paddle <drpaddle@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Sam built a bike for me in the early '80s. It was gorgeous. It had the
> front and rear racks, Mafac cantis, brake and stay bridges that pierced the
> stays, and excellent workmanship. The equipment was top-line French with
> Phil hubs as in the eBay offering. Thing is, though, I never liked the way
> it rode. It was nearly impossible to ride with hands off the bars. The front
> wheel would fall to the side, even when the bike was unloaded. I theorized
> that the bad handling was due to the very shallow head angle. Do you have a
> similar problem with your Braxtons?
>
I'm not Derek, and I only have one Braxton, but mine handles very nicely. In fact I like it so much I had a custom Waterford made based on the Braxton's geometry. Do you know what the head angle on your bike was? Mine measures out at 70.5 degrees. While that does produce a bike with a high wheel flop factor, I only notice it at very low speeds (under 5 mph with hands on bars, under 10mph hands free), or when I stand to climb.
John
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John Wood
Open Road Bicycles
Missoula, Montana, USA