Dismounting

[pooks]

I have plain pedals and wear ordinary athletic shoes when I ride.

My seat is adjusted rather high (or so it seems to me) in order to have enough room for my long legs to almost fully extend when I'm pedaling. This makes starting and stopping awkward, and I guess I've been using cheats too much because the two times I've had to stop unexpectedly, I've fallen both times. Right now I have some very nasty bruises! So I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong.....

First of all -- the cheats -- ordinarily when I'm riding, if I need to stop I'll slow down close to a curb so I can put my right foot on the curb and then get off. OR I roll onto thick grass on a slight incline which makes it easier to stop. Enough of that nonsense -- I need to learn the right way.

I assume that anybody who has their seat adjusted correctly is going to have the seat too high to be able to put their feet down on the ground while they're seated, right? So, how do you get on and off the seat?

My thighs will appreciate the answer, I assure you! And my elbows, hands, etc.

[Kano]

Pooks, what's been working for me is to stand on the low pedal, take my foot off the high pedal, and sort of step down off the seat (b*tt comes forward of the seat) onto the ground with that "floating" foot. My bike tips slightly toward that foot that's hitting the ground when I land so the pedal isn't wacking me in the leg. Yes, I'm anticipating the stop enough ahead so that I'm going fairly slowly rather than using my foot as a brake! There are occasions when that foot is a bit of a brake too, though!

While I'm stopped, I sort of rearrange my pedals so that I've got some pushing power when I start up again, or that's when it seems I'm in danger of falling! This way, I can be pushing on that pedal (not too close to the top of the circle, but some forward) and lifting my b*tt up onto the seat at the same time.

Does any of this make sense? Who knows if it's "right" but so far it's been working for me!

Scary to be thinking about doing this with those clipless pedals that one clips one's feet into, isn't it? I keep wondering how people manage to fall the other way from the foot that's heading for the ground. Some of the tales sound like they're already standing there, stopped and should oughta be comfortable when they tip over just for the seeming heck of it! Maybe I've got to experience it to understand it, so maybe I'd just as soon never understand?

Karen in Boise

[fatbottomedgurl]

Kano's got it-- push your bum off the seat and get that foot on the ground. But if it were me and I didn't have clipless pedals I would throw my leg back off behind the saddle like dismounting a horse and coast in on one foot... that's the kid in me.

[Tuckervill]

I do it all those ways. It just depends. I used to be able to tuck my leg over in FRONT of me, too, but I was very much younger then. My favorite way to stop is like the last post, coasting in one one foot, because it's a short little hill to my gate, and I have to hop off anyway.

I definitely try to stay on the seat if I can, because then it's easier to keep going if I want/need to. If I have to get off the seat, that means I'm stopped for sure.

But I'm pretty good at a track stand now, if the wind isn't blowing too hard.

And it doesn't matter if you're clipped in or not--you can fall right over if you're not paying attention.

Karen

[pooks]

So how do you stop suddenly?

Both times I fell, it was because something unexpected happened. I was already going slow one time and the bike was wobbling (which I now understand was because I was going slow!), but realized I was about to hit the curb and couldn't react in time. The other time my husband stopped and I didn't -- I was going downhill and decided to make a U-turn and go back to him. I wasn't going fast, but I was going faster than I realized, couldn't turn tight enough, suddenly saw I wasn't going to miss the curb and -- again, my reactions were wrong, and not fast enough. I hit the curb and went off the bike.

[uk elephant]

When I had that problem (for instance when borrowing the bike of my 6'4" "baby" brother), what I do is a sort of jump forward off the seat as I'm stopping. Basically, hit the breaks and stand up on the pedal that is at the bottom of the stroke lifting my butt of the seat and then just as the bike stops, put the free leg on the ground or jump off and put both feet on the ground. Just takes a little practice to get the timing right of jumping off just at the point when the bike has stopped, not two seconds before when the seat will hit you in the back. It is possible to get used to it, just takes a little practice.

Good luck!

[Kano]

So how do you stop suddenly?

Both times I fell, it was because something unexpected happened. I was already going slow one time and the bike was wobbling (which I now understand was because I was going slow!), but realized I was about to hit the curb and couldn't react in time. The other time my husband stopped and I didn't -- I was going downhill and decided to make a U-turn and go back to him. I wasn't going fast, but I was going faster than I realized, couldn't turn tight enough, suddenly saw I wasn't going to miss the curb and -- again, my reactions were wrong, and not fast enough. I hit the curb and went off the bike.

Pooks, you gotta stay away from curbs! It sounds like they're out to get you!

Now that turn around to get back to hubby -- I had a similar event one time: he decided to turn a corner, I was going at full tilt down that hill, didn't even bother to try! I pretty much said to myself, ain't no WAY that's going to happen at this speed! There was a church parking lot just a bit further, and I did my turn around in that. In this case, traffic and orange construction barrels made the decision to get off the main road easy! He was half a mile down the road before he noticed I hadn't made the turn behind him and came back to see what had happened to me. I'll probably never know what posessed him to turn down that one anyway -- our plan was the road just north of that church parking lot! (a couple of blocks farther on) Still -- by the time he found me, I was well on my way to catching up with him, and we discovered a whole new neighborhood of houses we didn't know was there!

Anyhow... Here's my advice on turning around when you get separated from hubby: wait til you're sure you're safe doing it, cuz for some reason, they come looking for you when they figure out that you're not with 'em, OR they catch up with you if they decide they like your route better! Chances are yours is a bit like mine and he'd rather wait a bit than be looking at a bruised up wife! (you know how we worry about them? strangely, they worry about us too!)

Karen in Boise