Bike Drills/Goofing off

[Trekhawk]

Once a week for part of one ride I spend some time doing drills( goofing off) in an empty carpark at the local college. Its a huge carpark and because its the one furthest from the actual buildings it never has any cars in it.

Its great fun and I can really see some improvement. I have been doing one leg pedal drills, lets see how slow I can go without falling off (Im sure that one has a better name), cornering and last but not least riding with no hands.

Today I was so pleased I rode with no hands for about 300 metres.
Now this is not something Im ever likely to do on the road (yep the carpark is super smooth) but its just such good fun. It reminds me of when I was a kid and just loved goofing off on my bike. Now all I have to do is remember not to tell DH hmm apparently riding no hands on my new bike is not allowed.

Does anyone else love to just goof off on their bike sometimes??

[maillotpois]

That's great!

I will sometimes ride around a parking lot trying to do the no hands thing while I am waiting for people to show up for a ride. I also do some drills with people I am working with if we're going to do an event that has a potential for close contact riding or bumping. That really improves pack rding skills as well. (For those drills you need another person, a grassy area and sneakers...)

Another fun thing to do (if it is safe and no cars coming) while you're waiting for someone on the road is make as tight circles as you can in the road without stepping down. You could do that at your car park, too, but on the road you can't cheat at all if your circle's not tight enough!

[SadieKate]

At the end of many mountain bike rides Bubba and I will slow race each other.

Tight circles requiring ratcheting - frequently - managed to nearly take out the right hip of the turn around person at one of our time trials last year because he wasn't expecting someone to turn so tightly.

I used to do one-legged stuff more when I was helping friends get used to clips. Teaching them that it doesn't take two legs to get up some momentum.

I play around with the no hands thing too. I'm horrible at it. Some days on my mountain bike I can nail it and some days I suck. I actually managed to use both hands to unzip a jersey last winter but never managed to do it again. I suppose I could practice more . . . . . we should goof off more.

You know, I've never tried the pick up the bottle from the ground manuever, but I can butt floss!

[maillotpois]

DH and DSIL can both ride with no hands, effortlessly. I hate them.

[SadieKate]

Add Mr. LeeBob to your list.

[maillotpois]

What.

Ever.

Loser.

[sbctwin]

no hands, in my dreams only. I really would like to be able to do that. I will try it once in a while, but no, can't do it ....

[KnottedYet]

I "goof off" at the school track behind my apartment. It's great!

[Kitsune06]

I'm working on the no-hands thing... just playing around. It really depends (for me) how my saddle's tipped. I think it might be somewhat easier for men because men are generally more comfortable with saddle tipped upward. I like saddle tipped down, but when I'm going hands-free, I feel like I slide forward on the saddle.

I manage to be incredibly ungainly sometimes trying to jump things. I get the front over just fine. Then the rear wheel hits and no matter how I try to unweight it or jump or whatever, somehow I always hit either the top tube or the stem. I mean OW. GEEZ already! Anyone have this problem?

[Eden]

I'm working on the no-hands thing... just playing around. It really depends (for me) how my saddle's tipped. I think it might be somewhat easier for men because men are generally more comfortable with saddle tipped upward. I like saddle tipped down, but when I'm going hands-free, I feel like I slide forward on the saddle.

I manage to be incredibly ungainly sometimes trying to jump things. I get the front over just fine. Then the rear wheel hits and no matter how I try to unweight it or jump or whatever, somehow I always hit either the top tube or the stem. I mean OW. GEEZ already! Anyone have this problem?

I'm just the opposite - if I try to bunny hop I can get the rear wheel up fine, but I'm not strong enough in the upper body to get the front wheel high enough. If you can't get the rear wheel up high enough you may not be using your legs enough (I'm assuming you have toe clips or clipless pedals - since I'm not sure how its done without - but you must be able to do it since I've see those with trials bikes doing it seemingly not clipped in... massive upper body strength maybe?)

As for riding without hands - no problem I can ride forever, over bumps, steer - as long as the corner isn't too tight or fast. I don't really like taking off or putting on my jacket, though I can do it, mainly because it often acts like a sail and can jerk me left or right. When I was doing the weekday women's rides I would circle the parking lot no handed just to kill time since I was usually early. -- I do have good balance to start with, one of the core exercises my coach has me do is balance kneeling (not sitting on heels, but knees on ball, thighs vertical) on an exercise ball and I've worked up to a point where I can do it for over 5min at a time now - I tried juggling while on the ball, just to amuse the husband who tells me to run off and join the circus, but my juggling skills are poor...

[HipGnosis6]

You can bet I'll start out with more of this type of stuff when I get back on the bike.... Right now I can't even get my bike shoes on, let alone ride no handed!

[HillSlugger]

I'm working on the no-hands thing... just playing around. It really depends (for me) how my saddle's tipped. I think it might be somewhat easier for men because men are generally more comfortable with saddle tipped upward. I like saddle tipped down, but when I'm going hands-free, I feel like I slide forward on the saddle.

I rode no-handed all the time growing up but almost went down the first time I tried it on my road bike. When I sit up and unweight the front wheel the handling and control fall apart. I will probably try it again now that I'm much more used to this bike.

[Eden]

If your front wheel really wobbles around when you are no handed check your headset - it may be loose or the bearings may need replacing.

[HillSlugger]

If your front wheel really wobbles around when you are no handed check your headset - it may be loose or the bearings may need replacing.

I bought it new in September and it only has about 400 road miles on it so too loose seems much more likely than worn out. I'll have my LBS check it out when I bring it in for its tuneup.

Thanks

[Kitsune06]

Yeah, no clips. I can get the rear wheel to leave the ground by jumping and pulling the bike up with me (just a little) and using forearm and wrist to move it forward a bit, but I need a lot more practice on that b/c I lose balance a lot on landing. Trials riders just blow me away. I think I read somewhere that trials riders use pressure back against the pedals to grip (hence 'shinburger' pedals) because you don't want to do real trials clipped in (you'd eat it in fantastic ways if you couldn't bail right)