why are left turns/U-turns so hard (for me?!)

[latelatebloomer]

So here's me, doggedly trying to improve my rudimentary riding skills. I finally admitted to myself that I can't do u-turns AT ALL, and so have been taking my hybrid to a parking lot to keep working at them. I WAS practicing with my road bike but was getting worse instead of better - panicking at near-falls clipped in. I figure that when I was a kid on a bike I made hundreds of u-turns without thinking about it, and my plan is, when I can turn easily on the hybrid, put the little platform cheaters on the road bike - and then finally, clip in.

One thing I figured out is that u-turns are one situation where it's better to slow using the rear brakes, is that right? Leaving the front wheel to move smoothly?

And then I realized something... I can make a clockwise u-turn pretty well. Turning counterclockwise (to the left) as is more necessary - AWFUL! slow, jerky, unstable, too wide, nearly impossible. AND riding on the road I realize - same for left turns! My right turns are kinda slow but smooth and I hold my line, left turns - I start too early, skirt the other lane dangerously, and do it again no matter how hard I try! grrrr

Any ideas how/why I am making this so hard for myself? I did do my crash on a left turn, but that was 1 1/2 years ago, and I should be, and want to be, over that now and on my way to being a better cyclist.

(btw, I am a larger rider and this is my first sport at age 47, so I am just developing skills like balance and coordination and physical confidence/courage now. Better late than never!)

thanks for any help - the extremely determined LLB

[ehirsch83]

Besides being slow, turn your head! I learned that I used to make horrible tight turns, then I realized I wasn't turning my head-once I started to really turn and look, all of my weight followed and my turns are now nice and tidy!!

[DebW]

One thing I figured out is that u-turns are one situation where it's better to slow using the rear brakes, is that right? Leaving the front wheel to move smoothly?

You shouldn't be using the brakes during the turn if possible. And definitely not the front brake during the turn. Slow way down first, then turn with both wheels rotating freely.

[Zen]

I'm not real smooth with U-turns yet either.
Just keep doin' what you're doin' - practice!

[KnottedYet]

which foot is "down" on the pedals when you do a right turn? (should be left)

which foot is "down" when you do a left turn? (should be right)

If you have a habit of putting the same foot down whether you turn left or right, it could throw you off some.

[lph]

...and if you turn hard enough, it'll throw you off a LOT - like clear off the bike...

Did that once, doing a u-turn down a steep hill and caught my inside pedal on the kerb - did a perfect somersault and landed on my backpack

[OakLeaf]

It's common for people to have a much easier time turning one direction than the other and I don't know if anyone really knows why.

ehirsch hinted at this, but: pick your eyes up. Don't look at the ground. Turn your head all the way and look at something (a tree, a road sign, whatever) that's in the direction you want to be going when you complete the turn.

Your bike will go where your eyes are looking. That's true all the time, but it's most apparent at very low and very high speed, and hardest to correct once you've made an error at extremes of speed. Look at the ground while making a U-turn, and over you'll go. At high speed, if you look straight ahead rather than through the turn, presto, you've missed the turn and you're in the guardrail or tumbling down the hill.

There's a famous (if somewhat sexist) cartoon that illustrates the caption "Your bike will go where your eyes are looking." The drawing depicts a roadside billboard picturing a buxom woman. A tire track leads up to the billboard, and a motorcyclist's head is impaled in the billboard model's cleavage, the bike still dangling from his legs.

[OakLeaf]

...and if you turn hard enough, it'll throw you off a LOT - like clear off the bike...

Did that once, doing a u-turn down a steep hill and caught my inside pedal on the kerb - did a perfect somersault and landed on my backpack

OOOh yeah... someone was training me for racing 20 years ago when I was still riding a touring bike, long wheelbase, low bottom bracket, and they forgot to mention that little gem to me. I don't even have any recall of what happened, but from what he tells me, I stuck a pedal in the corner at 21 mph and all my forward momentum turned into launching me five feet up in the air, jackknifed front to back, turned upside down and came down on my head with sparks flying off my helmet. The next thing I remember is about half an hour later, when he was going to get his truck to take me to the ER (this was the days before cell phones).

If you remember to weight the outside pedal in higher-speed turns, that will help keep your wheels on the ground (your leg acts like a shock absorber), and that automatically keeps your inside pedal up.

[indigoiis]

Can someone explain what "weighting the outside pedal" means?
Say I am coming down a long hill, with a big right curve. I lean into my right, right pedal up. If I am leaning in, how can I weight the outside pedal at the same time?

[PscyclePath]

Oakleaf has given some excellent advice... so "ditto" on what she said.

Remember that a bike steers more by balance, e.g., leaning, rather than turning the handlebars like you would the steering wheel of a car. You actually start a turn by leaning in that direction, and the bike will naturally steer that way.

Get your bike, helmet, gloves, and maybe an hour of spare time and go find a big empty parking lot. Set up a number of paper cups or maybe coke cans in a line about 20 or so yards apart so that it looks like a slalom course.

Now let's get rolling. First, let's ride a loop around the edge of the lot, getting used to holding a straight line. "Twitch" (turn very slightly) your handlebars to the left, and note that when you do this, the bike leans tot opposite direction, e.g., to the right. It works the other way around, too... if you twitch your bars to the right, the bike leans left. Remember this, 'cause it's a good way to start a turn when you really need to turn in a hurry to either dodge something or make a particularly tight corner. Try this a time or two -- in both directions -- as you circle the lot.

Now let's turn... The traction that you get from your tires depends on how much weight they're bearing. You want your weight evenly distributed on the bike's wheels, so scootch your butt back a little bit on the saddle, bend your elbows, and lower your torso a little bit toward the top tube. If you sit up while cornering you could have too much weight on the rear wheel, causing it to slip out from under you on a wet or slick road; likewise if you lean to far forward and put too much weight on the front wheel, it could do the same.

Start your turn by easing the bars in the opposite direction to lean your bike in the direction you want to go. Once you start to turn put the outside pedal down (to the bottom of the pedal stroke), raise your hips slightly off the saddle, and shift your body weight to the pedal. It should feel like you're standing on the pedal with your outside leg. This weight shifting lowers your center of gravity and makes your bike more stable in the turn, helping to weight the wheels and hold them steady in the turn. (If you lean or turn sharply with the inside pedal all the way down, it could strike the ground and at least throw you off balance, if not dumping you on the pavement. Always go into a turn with the outside pedal down and weighted like this.)

(Don't brake while you're in the turn... Feather your brakes to slow down enough to make your turn safely, release the brakes, and then make your turn. Braking, especially the front wheel, makes it want to go straight ahead, which is not want you want to do here.)

Remember what Oakleaf said -- your bike goes where you're looking -- Keep your head up, and your eyes focused on the line or direction you want to go. Imagine leading into the turn with your chin... that's where you want to go. Some folks want to point the inside knee into the turn as part of leaning into the direction you want to go; but press your outside thigh into the saddle, which pushes the top of the bike down and into the turn. At the same time, pull up a little bit on the bars with your outside hand. The bike will carve smoothly around the corner, leaning as much as it needs to, while you remain relatively upright, standing on the outside pedal.

To straighten out, relax your outside hand so you aren't pulling so much, and the bike will straighten out into the new direction.

Practice this a time or two or three until you feel comfortable, and the bike is carving smoothly thru the corners like you want it to. Now, go make a run thru your slalom course of cups/cans, passing alternately to the left and right of the cans. Repeat until you can cut smoothly thru the course.

Make each corner as shallow as the road and other traffic allows. The general rule is to approach a turn wide, cut close to the apex of the curve as straight as possible, and then exit wide. This has the effect of decreasing the angle of the turn, gives you greater stability, and lets you carry a little more speed and momentum into (and out of) the turn.

Take a little time every now and then to go "dancing with your bike" like this, learning how to balance and make the bike go where you want it to, and how far your balance will let you go before Mr. Gravity steps in too heavy-handedly...

[emily_in_nc]

You are not alone LLB! This is all great advice. I had the same problem, big-time, when I started mountain biking last year. Yikes - who knew that a left turn could be so much harder than a right turn, and why? I didn't get it at all, but I could never make tight left turns and always ended up in the woods b/c I didn't turn tight enough. Somehow without really even trying, left turns this year on the mtb are not significantly harder than right turns. I don't know why; I guess just doing them more helped, but it's like now I wonder what I was so jacked up about last year (fear of falling and failing can also do a real number on our skills), when it came to left turns. I still have to work pretty hard on u-turns on my road bike but am better on my mtb now.

Good luck!

Emily

[latelatebloomer]

omigosh, I feel SO much better! I am SO glad I asked (I felt like such a loser!) and you wimmen are fantastic. I'm sure I've looking down at the road, and pscyclepath, I have a dancing date with my bike this afternoon. If you lived any closer than Arkansas, I'd be knocking on your door!

Really, I was feeling so discouraged I even had a little voice telling me I should just quit. I know where to turn when I hear that voice! I'll report back soon.

Thanks a million - llb

[VeloVT]

I spent a whole lotta time this spring working on tight u-turns. When I first got my bike (last may, about a year and a half ago), I just couldn't do it at all.

One thing I found helpful when I was having trouble **thinking** that I could make a turn was to reach my knee out into the turn. This is something you still see people do, but much of what I've read lately advises against it because it decenters your weight (I took careful notice during the TDF and almost everyone DID do it, and also took careful notice at a local crit that had cat 1-4 riders (in different races of course), and maybe 30% of riders did and 70 did not...). Anyway, I find it helps initiate the turn more quickly.

As I've gotten a bit better at turning (it's still a skill I really need to work at), I find I'm using my shoulders a lot more -- not to "steer" the bike per se, at least not in the sense of "turning" the handlebar, but sort of weighting and unweighting either the inside or outside to control the line, if that makes sense (I may not be describing this clearly but it's not the same as turning the handlebars... if anyone gets what I'm trying to say perhaps they can explain it better??? ).

[annie]

If you can, ride with someone that corners well and follow their exact moves. I was never very good at fast, curvy downhills, much tho' I loved them. A friend of mine was awesome at descents! So I took to following her downhill whenever I rode with her and it definitely helped my confidence and abilities. That and practice, practice, practice, especially when you start feeling that you're "getting it." Keep doing it, till it comes more naturally.

Annie

[Bklynmom]

I do think there is something to this left right thing too. I have a dreadful time parallel parking on the right side of the street, and not on the left.

Maybe there's a depth perception issue or who knows what!