Jimbo1983

I would say having your stem higher out of the steerer would be the problem. I have had several older bikes with the quill type stem, and all quite large frames (63cm or more) and lowering the stem seems to lower the centre of gravity of the front enough to make a difference in no-hands stability.

Fahrenheit531 

This has crossed my mind. Maybe I'll look more seriously before going the frame route.

noglider 

If you have a good mechanic, it isn't really that much trouble. Or you could do it yourself. I took my International to a brilliant mechanic just to have it spread to 130mm, and he checked everything on an alignment table. He found the BB wasn't perpendicular to the seat tube! He bent it back into shape. Frickin' Raleighs!

easyupbug 

I am surprised by the number of no no hands riders. If I like the bike and it will not ride around the block w/o hands and the usual fault corrections don't do it, it gets corrected on a Marchetti frame alignment table and/or fork table. Probably a poor investment but I am happy afterward.

Fahrenheit531 

Just another update on this issue on this bike for posterity:

I switched the bike back to single speed this weekend. On the menu was a completely different (and heavier) wheelset and a return to a more typical stem, as I just didn't dig the Technomic. The wobble is still present. If anything it's worse.

The headset is perfect right now, i.e. as free as possible without any play. But revisiting this thread I see the wisdom in @ThermionicScott's tube amp analogy, so I'm gonna tighten it up just a hair and see what we get. It's the original headset so I'm now imaging subtle brinneling combined with near-zero friction and thinking hmmmm.

Nahuel_B58

Yesterday i was wrenching myself a GT Agressor with my 28 rim sized singlespeeder. I put my hands off my handlebar and put my right arm strongly on the GT's stem and the bike i was riding was still going to the front. I hope this helps you to figure out if weight balance can be an important factor.

unterhausen

most bike shops will have the Park frame alignment gauge. Or you can try the string test. There are ways to check fork alignment without a tool as well, but I find that I'm not patient enough to make them work

Phamilton

I just went through this issue with my Schwinn Voyageur. I had a shimmy in the front end, tried headset, tried taking off the front rack, tried a couple different stems. I had a Wald basket zip tied to my rear rack that I was using to carry my backpack (commuter bike). The shimmy was worse when the basket was loaded, but still there when empty. I took the basket off and no more problems. Touring forum advised me some frames don’t like weight up high and back, not even a little.

Phamilton

Further thought, my Voyageur has a real flexy frame, I wonder if OP’s Raleigh isn’t also pretty flexy. Maybe that has nothing to do with it, just wondering aloud.

Nif

I have to read this in full but I have had two different bikes with low-speed frame shimmy and it made things miserable. One was a stock Bruce Gordon (have to look up the model) and the other was a custom Independent Frames touring bike.

Both had low-speed and moderate speed top tube (or so it seemed) shimmy. I tried all sorts of loading changes to no avail. And ended up having to ride without the handlebar bag on both to alleviate it a little bit.

I was wondering if it had something to do with my "geometry" combined with bike geometry. I thought it would be alleviated with a custom bike but nope.

I'm about to start shopping around for a new touring bike (the first was gutted for the second and the second was stolen) and I'm super gun shy and don't even know how to explain the problem to anyone as in the past they've usually said that they've never heard of low speed shimmy.

I will be keeping tabs on this topic!

Slightspeed

A hundred years ago in my racing days, my friend had a Bianchi Specialissima (?) and complained of high speed shimmy. My Legnano, was as rock solid as a locomotive, still is. I always thought he was messing with me, till we traded bikes for a short ride. Both our bikes were new at the time, and, roughly the same size. The shimmy was a real thing, and scared me. He found that if he clamped his knees to the top tube on fast descents, it lessened the shimmy, but we never figured it out. He no longer has the Bianchi, but I still have and ride the Legnano. A few years ago I went to a Nitto longer reach stem, from the old Ambrosio, with no change in riding feel or handling. It's still as solid as ever, but easier on my old body. I was always jealous of his cool Bianchi, while I "made do" with the Legnano. Not any more. I see old Bianchis all over, but hardly ever another Legnano, except at Eroica, where I've ridden mine twice.

Fahrenheit531 

Ding ding ding! We have a winner. I tightened up the headset just a hair -- not enough to feel a difference while riding, but enough to sense a tiny increase in friction when it's in the stand -- and problem solved. I guess what I thought was a "perfect," near frictionless setup was too loose.

It's the small victories...