Bike Drills/Goofing off

[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...