Ridgeback Voyager - brake judder

[newbootclimbco]

I recently purchased a Ridgeback Voyager,its now covered 1200miles. When using the front brake only there is an awful lot of juddering,it feels like the front forks are gonna drop out.
Itook it back to my dealer who checked the brake blocks and balanced front wheel all other nuts and bolts are tight.Its still no better. I know its recommended to use both brakes together,but thats no better.I have sent Ridgeback a message and am waiting for a reply.Does anyone have any ideas about this problem in the meantime. cheers T.

[clandyfield]

One of these will sort it for you:
http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... 0s101p1809 - Brake uphanger.

It is mounted on the front fork and replaces the cable hanger on the steerer tube.

Andy

[CREPELLO]

A loose headset can also make the judder much worse.

I'm pretty certain that I read a review of the Panorama in a Cycling+ from 2005 that showed it fitted with an uphanger. That now too seems to come with the downhanger.Why remove an important part from the spec? Cost?

[newbootclimbco]

Thanks guys for the info and suggestions regarding the brake judder. I have spoken to my suppler and he is going to look into the fitting of a Brake Uphanger.If this solves the problem i will let you know,it may be of help to other cyclists. Many thanks T.

[Brucey]

I am sure that the uphanger will improve matters, but in fairness there may be an underlying problem that helps to cause severe judder that the uphanger won't completely eliminate.

Typically a bad rim joint (typically on an unmachined rim), local rim contamination, or a slight dent in the rim (from a pothole) may be the kind of thing that triggers the most severe judder. The way the cable hanger is fitted helps the fault manifest itself as strongly as you are seeing. The other brake setting details also make a difference, of course.

cheers

[cycleruk]

Have you checked that the brakes have some "toe-in" ?
Make sure the pads are are not warn and part is going under the rim.
The pads should be square and flat to the rim.
Also check that the pivots are a good fit and don't have any side play.
Clean the rims and pad faces

[Swallow]

This was a common problem with the early Tricross, usually solved with the brake uphanger. The first time it happened to me I thought I was going to die. Approaching a junction at speed, put the brakes on and violent juddering had me all over the road, frightened the life out of me. I never bothered with the modification, different brake blocks helped and I've learnt to live with it

[531colin]

An imperfection in the rim will "grab" once per revolution of the wheel.
There is a particular "brake judder" which has a frequency of several times a second, which is caused by flexing in the fork steerer......with a conventional brake hanger fixed to the headset, flexing the steerer alters the effective brake cable length, and pulls at the brake....an uphanger will solve this sort of judder, because it is fixed to the fork crown, ie below the steerer.
You can assemble two apparently identical bikes, with apparently identical inch and eighth steel steerers, and have one judder and the other one not judder.......makes life interesting.....
Fitting an uphanger is cheap and easy, its an obvious thing to do if you have a juddering front brake and you have checked the other stuff mentioned by various posters above.