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I often find the front wheel turning in too easily on tight corners, to the point where the front can dive from under me. I'm on a 2018 Whyte 909 with 35mm stem and (if I recall) a 44mm offset Fox 34. Is it just me and pilot error or does modern offset and short stem contribute?
How wide are your bars?
760mm. Renthal Fatbar Lite.
sounds more like technique issues.
I think the Rockshox forks on that 900 series has even less offset (42mm ?), so might be worth playing with bar height / stem length ?
I found going to a 35mm stem ruined the handling for me. Seemed that it was very twitchy and the steering would go from not happening to all happening at once. Switched back to 50mm and the problem went away.
For reference, 800mm bars, 150mm 29" forks with 51mm offset.
My understanding is that you need more self centering. A longer stem should help. But i'm in no way an expert
My Marin SQ3 has a 65deg HA and 37mm offset and when I set off on a ride on it I have to take time to get used to it as I'm all over the place, can't keep a straight line. I removed the oem short stem and put a 60m 7deg stem and seriously high riser bars (780*91mm) because the front end was too low (XL frame, 6'3") No noticeable change to twitchiness changing the stem/bars).
It does have positive qualities, bouncing over obstacles and when pointed downhill. But I feel theres a couple of things it can't do. (Straight lines at low speeds and endos).
put a 60m 7deg stem
That hurts so much more, given the field of work I'm in 🤣
"mm" of course. A
Longer stem or different tyres?
My old hardtail rode much better with 100mm stem. 50mm was the cry of the magazine's so I tried that.
It became a twitchy, wandery mess.
What was your bike designed around? If it wasn't designed for 35mm I'd try whatever it was designed for I'd go for that. If it was designed around 35, I'd go for 50mm.
I had conti race kings-2.2 very low tread tyres on another bike. They made the front end of that bike tuck unexpectedly at speed. A change of front tyre sorted that.
Too much flop is the price of slack head angles. There are compensatory measures, e.g. big wide bars. Steering dampers help too.
Cycling went through a slack HA phase in the 1920s and early 1930s resulting in horrible handling atrocities.
Slacker head angle = more flop (until you slacken to 45 degrees). More trail gives more flop as well, but at higher speeds trail is good, and choices of fork offset are limited.
Another factor is tyres. Fat tyres at low pressures tend to tuck in and like @tall_martin indicated tyre construcoti0n and shape can affect the extent of that.
How are people riding skinny's nowadays with modern, slack bikes, with low tyre pressure, at slow speed? The footage off my camera is disconcerting. Makes me look like I've had a liquid lunch!
I was servicing my bike tonight and read the stem markings. Mine is 80mm, not 60!!! I realised, although 4bolt, it is unbranded, so ordered a Dabomb Shark 80mm stem for some "perceived" protection. I've recently met some local riders who've been digging in a "gentle" DH course in the mountains next to my city so don't want a failure there.
OP - I used to get the same tucking feeling in tight corners with 51mm offset forks, and cured it with 42mm and 44mm forks on two of my bikes.
So it might not be the fork offset that's the culprit.
How are people riding skinny’s nowadays
They aren't.
Had that on a 35mm stem on my following. Hated it. 50 fixed it.
I don't think it's one thing.
My Norco Sight 29 tucked into tight switchback corners which was a little un-nerving for a bit.
On the other hand it was great at higher speed / more mellow corners as it would hold a line really well.
My Norco Shore (27.5) has a slacker head angle but does not tuck into tight corners at all. For a bike with a 63 degree head angle, the steering is pretty quick when needed, but predicable throughout the steering axis.
Both bikes had / have the same length stem and bar length IIRC. 40mm / 790mm.
I also had a custom built hardtail a while back with for it's time a pretty slack head angle. With the first fork that I installed (OG Revelation) the steering had the dreaded flop at slow speeds. The fork wasn't great anyway so put on a Suntour Auron fork which had the same length and travel. The flop completely went away. So offset must have something to do with it.