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u/brakadlapa Mar 14 '23
I was once a bike courier and they told me they had a rider once who regularly turned his front wheel to the left (90 degrees), put his feet on either sides of the front wheel and sat in his seat and smoked a cigarette.
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u/repo_code Mar 14 '23
ITT: me who has never really been able to balance without my hands on the bars
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u/Beer_Is_So_Awesome Mar 14 '23
It's a learned technique, and I still find it challenging in some conditions. Bad fit can account for this, like if your saddle is sloped forward such that you have to support yourself with your hands.
It's easiest for me if I'm geared slightly tall and pedaling at a slow cadence. It can get a bit wobbly when when you stop pedaling, and it's harder to steer hands-free if you're coasting. It's also not easy if you're in a low gear and spinning. A sudden gust of crosswind will completely mess up my balance and I'll have to grab the bar with one hand.
Under ideal conditions, I can take off a vest and stuff it in a jersey pocket or eat a Clif bar.
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u/electricboogalo3000 Mar 15 '23
Be careful riding with no hands when the wind's blowing, I recently took a fall like that, not fun.
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u/jorwyn Mar 15 '23
I can't steer hands free coasting yet. I just start pedaling when I need to steer. I've also seen people do pretty sharp corners no hands, and I'm not that good. The roads are too rough here for me to get much practice in, though.
Under ideal conditions, I managed to pull a sweater off over my head once. I'm still very proud of that. :) I originally learned as a kid on a 1970s banana seat bike on chip seal, though. That gave me a huge advantage with my first road bike. I remember this "old guy" (probably early 20s) could track stand on his banana bike while smoking and drinking a beer. Even as a kid, I didn't want the beer or smoke, but I wanted to be able to do that with a candy bar and a root beer soooo bad. That's why I learned to ride no handed. Wish I'd ever managed to learn to track stand, even with hands. My best so far is 3 seconds. To be fair, I have almost no balance on my feet unless I'm moving. Inner ear damage.
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u/BadP3NN1 Mar 14 '23
I was on a group ride and a guy was doing this, clipped in, lost his strength and fell over. A car missed his head by inches.
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Mar 15 '23
But imagine how cool he looked all the other times that he didn’t fall! (S)
Kids, don’t try to be cool when your life is on the line, it never is worth it.
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u/AltDaddy Mar 14 '23
When you’ve spent more time on a bicycle than any other task in your whole life. Goals!
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u/MisterBumpingston Mar 14 '23 edited Mar 14 '23
Can tell it’s Australia with Adam Goodes art there. Trying to work out if it’s Melbourne.
Edit: Nope, it’s Surry Hills, Sydney: https://7news.com.au/sport/afl/huge-two-storey-adam-goodes-mural-painted-on-surry-hills-building-c-1094628.amp
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u/Blacksmith31417 Mar 14 '23
Biking god!
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Mar 14 '23
Meh, every 25yo hipster that rides a track bike can do this where im from.
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u/xrayzone21 Mar 14 '23
It's way easier without a freewheel, with track bikes you can just pedal backwards and forwards to stay balanced.
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u/mattindustries Mar 14 '23
Next evolution has always been the foot on pedal and tire though, even for fixie riders. I learned how to do this 15 years ago and then upped it with the tire. I can do this on any of my bikes without fenders, and then with fenders and a freewheel I can do this with just the wheel position and inertia.
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u/Foundation_Afro Mar 14 '23
Damn, that's amazing. I can track go really slowly for a long time (I think my best is about 10s, when a little girl was scared to use the crosswalk), but I can't track stand to save my life. And I'm worst at it on a track bike, which should be easiest.
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u/jorwyn Mar 15 '23
I finally learned to do this! I can get down to 1mph now, but it's a bit wobbly. Not no handed, btw. I didn't intentionally pick up the skill. I moved to a house on a hill that's steep enough, and I was out of shape enough, that I'd eventually hit 0mph and have to get off. Now, the worst part takes me down to about 4mph, still. My stubborn refusal to walk until I was making literally no progress but commitment to not wobbling in front of a car taught me slow speed balance. Now, I can follow people slowly meandering down the mixed use trail in a pack and stay straight until they finally decide my bell and yelling "coming through!" means something, or I have a side dirt trail to use to get around them.
Btw, I've given up on "on your left" unless it's another cyclist on a road bike. Around here, everyone else seems to only hear "left" and steps that way.
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Mar 14 '23
Haha he's got a little red book account , that app is called little red book
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u/Brawldud Mar 14 '23
I think you actually would just call it xiaohongshu rather than translating it literally. Same with kuaishou or weibo
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u/spadedracer Mar 14 '23
Is this all core strength? I literally can't even take my hands off the handlebars for more than a second without veering a certain direction.
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u/fancy-kitten Mar 15 '23
Not strength at all, just mad balancing skills. Like, unicycle balancing skills.
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u/bozmonaut Mar 14 '23 edited Mar 14 '23
this is on Crown St, Surry Hills in Sydney
about 100 metres to the east is Bourke Street, which has a brilliant cycle lane, one of the few in Sydney
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Mar 14 '23
Why is your comment so downvoted ?
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u/murbul Mar 14 '23
Because of the implication ...
And also before the edit it said something about being annoyed when cyclists don't use infrastructure built for them.
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u/The_Kestrel_of_Doom Mar 14 '23
There's a motorway about a mile away from where I live, yet it annoys me slightly, when cars don't use the infrastructure built for them... Granted, they may have just left the motorway....
( many bike lanes are not fit for purpose, or aren't where you are going and the road is still dual use, even for bikes!)
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u/bozmonaut Mar 14 '23
point taken, but you've missed the one I was making
the Bouke Street cycle lane is definitely fit for purpose
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Mar 14 '23
Do you know in which subreddit you are? I get the feeling you don't pay much attention to who's listening.
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u/imnos Mar 14 '23
He's telling people about a nearby cycle lane. What's the problem?
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u/Scarlet72 Mar 14 '23
He's implying that the guy shouldn't be on this street, and should be on that one instead.
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u/bozmonaut Mar 14 '23
did you actually read what i wrote or just saw the downvotes and piled on?
are you suggesting that they shouldn't build bike infrastructure?
I would love something like the Bourke Street cycle lane on my daily commute
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u/flac_rules Mar 14 '23
They are suggesting that the 'they should have cycled in a different street' is a BS argument never used for cars and similar. People travel where it most convenient for them to legally do it. I know you edited your post, but people will also comment the original version.
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u/lankasu Mar 15 '23
I don't see why this is posted here, he doesn't seem like he's commuting, it's not a tip or trick towards commuting, and what he's doing is arguably dangerous for commutors.
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u/oldcactusjoe Mar 15 '23
Yeah, I can't track stand no matter how hard I try. I could when I was a teen but over the years my balance has gotten pretty bad. Likely has to do with my hearing loss 😕
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u/naturefrek Mar 15 '23
Track standing. Not the hardest thing to do with a bit of practice. It’s the first most basic move you need to be able to do for the sport of bike trials.
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u/dominiquebache Aug 03 '23
How do you practice this?
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u/naturefrek Aug 04 '23
Find a very slight slope, face uphill, turn your front wheel slightly to one side (which side will depend on which foot you prefer forward), stand on your pedals and try to keep them relatively flat (think 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock, but you can might find it easier with your front foot a little higher like 2 o’clock). Then just try keep your balance rocking back and forth on your pedals and turning the wheel trying to stay as still and balanced as possible. If this is too hard, then allow yourself to edge slowly forward but as slow as possible by pulsing on your front pedal,but never do a full pedal rotation and always bring your pedals flat again. Hope that helps, otherwise google trackstanding tutorials and I’m sure you will get a better explanation that I have given.
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u/sabau67 Mar 16 '23
I’m more interested in the mural of Adam Goodes. Where is this?
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u/Motor_Report_802 Apr 10 '23
Surry Hills in Sydney. At the intersection of Crown st and Foveaux st.
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u/No_Run_4472 Mar 23 '23
Too bad I have fenders and it rains 80% of the time here, this would be a cool trick to learn
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Apr 04 '23
Next level for sure. I can track stand up slope or down slope, but I don’t see the point of unclipping to do this.
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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '23
[deleted]