Improving Handling Skills

[Zen]

This is kind of related to Jolt's "Boy Am I Slow" thread but I didn't want to hijack.

I'm still feeling a bit wobbly in the front. I think that proper inflation would make the bike more responsive but as someone who isn't entirely at one with the bike yet I'm thinking maybe I should under-inflate and have more of a "grip" on the road surface?

I'm not concerned with speed at this point, handling skills and confidence are my main concerns.

[KnottedYet]

I highly recommend going to a large empty grassy field (soccer or football, etc) and riding like a wild demoness! Slow, fast, uphill, downhill, standing in the pedals, sitting, pedalling with one foot, holding the bars with one hand, making sharp turns, deliberatly lifting the front wheel, trying to "peel out", and so on!

Hitting the mushy spots and bumps and such on the field will do wonders for your handling skills, and if/when you topple it won't be a disaster as you will land on the grass!

Don't under-inflate the front tire, go play instead!

[Geonz]

If it makes you nervous borrow knee and elbow pads :-)
You can even toss sponges out there on the ground and practice maneuvers around them.
If you look up ... oh, I don't remember what it's called, but it's the "level I" bike course that the League of American Bicyclists does. I took it and there were some good, basic practice strategies for handling skills. Being able to just focus on that really helped me - I do *not* pick up skills without focused thinking-about-it practice.
I was practicing 180's in a parking lot before a ride, and *trying* to make sure to watch for any traffic that might come along, which there hadn't been... then suddenly there was this truck... I stopped and the driver looked at me and said ever so kindly, "It's okay, I was watching you." I figure he thought I was trying to conquer a personal demon, or honestly didn't know how to ride a bike at all, or was recovering from something or... but it was so kindly said and I thought, "hey, if we all treated each other as if we were fragile, it would be a much nicer world, eh?"

[Eden]

underinflating your tires does not necessarily give you a better grip on the road - if they are too low you can get squirrelyness in the steering as the tire is trying to roll off the rim (especially in the front wheel) - the tire actually squirms and can make you even more wobbly!

[Jolt]

What kind of handlebars do you have on the bike in question, and are they different than what you're used to? The reason I ask is that the couple of times I've gotten on a road bike with drop bars, it has been a major swerve-fest that I haven't had the guts to take out of the parking lot because I felt like I was about to crash the whole time. I'm used to flat bars, which seem to be much more stable especially if you're a bit of a twitchy rider anyway, and I couldn't even get a comfortable hand position on the narrow drop bars. It would take some major getting used to for me to ride with that type of setup, and it's probably the same for anyone changing to a totally different configuration. If you're doing so, that may be part of your issue and will improve with practice.

[Zen]

I have drop bars and feel comfortable in the drops, it seems like it takes me about three miles to get warmed up to get comfortable enough to get on the hoods.

I have bookmarked a site about handling skills so I guess i'll leave my tire pressure where it is and make like I'm going to Carnegie Hall (practice, practice, practice)

Thanks once again everybody.

[lph]

I hate hate hate having underinflated tires. They suck, quite literally. It feels like trying to pedal a boat when cornering, all soft and wobbly. So my bet would be for medium inflation (funny phrase ) and handling practice first on a flat, firm surface, to feel what it's "supposed" to be like, and then on a looser surface, to get used to what it can be like. You'll probably feel a difference according to your speed as well, more stable the faster you go.

And thenyou might have a stem (is that the right word? the thingy that your handlebars go through) the wrong length. I've tried different stems, and some of them made me feel impossibly wobbly.

[indysteel]

My suggestion is to relax your arms and upper body. As it relates to the road bike, make sure your bike fit allows for some bend in your elbows. Don't lock your elbows and relax your grip on the bars. Ironically, a death grip on your bars will give you less, not more, control. A relaxed arms/upper body will allow you to absorb the impact of bumps on the road. It will also help you feel less fatigued. When you're out on the road, try following the white line on the side of the road to practice holding a steady line.

[KnottedYet]

The instructor for my bike skills class (held in a grassy field and an amazing fun class!) kept telling us to "float" over our bikes on the bumpy stuff. Soft arms, springy legs. Bike does what it wants to, and you just float over it using your hands and feet. You could see the class participants who found the magic balancing act: their bikes would be bouncing and jolting and wobbling, and their backs and heads would be almost steady over the bike, with arms and legs flexing and moving.