How can I stop myself wobbling when I look round?

[Cyclingfun]

Thank you, thank you THANK YOU ALL! All your replies are so generous with experience and creative ideas and it's given me some useful pointers. I think neck flexibility may be part of the problem so trying some flexing exercises should help. Thinking about the altered pressure on the handlebars had not occurred to me, nor had using a forward fixing point (do you mean like a spinning ballerina does?). Holding eyes to the front till moved head will be useful... Well it's ALL useful and I've got lots to practise. Where I live is a bit limited on quiet carparks for practising - but I've realised there are plenty of modern housing estates with very quiet roads, where the odd wobble wouldn't be a disaster. Although I realise that a mirror would be an undoubted help, I do agree that, anyway, turning one's head is essential to deal with blind spots. I've never noticed a racing/road bike with mirror and don't have one myself - but will think about it. I imagine our roads are much narrower in the UK than yours in the USA and also much more congested on average, so skilled bike/traffic handling is very much a life/injury/death matter. Lucky for me I live in a beautiful and less-populated rural area of the UK but if I want to ride with groups I've got to get this right. So thanks again to all of you for your thoughts.

[lph]

PS! When moving your chin to your shoulder you might want to think about moving your left shoulder forward to meet your chin. That counteracts the tendency of the opposite shoulder following your head and therefore turning the bike.

[spokewench]

The tip for keeping your hand in the middle of the handlebars is a great tip. You can look around once you figure how to keep your weight balanced later by having your hands out wide, but here is the concept. If you have your hands out wide, when you look to the right you tend to weight your right side, thus putting your weight to the right side handlebar and swerving to the right. The whole concept is this. Keep your elbows bent really well so that your are taking the weight in your core, you are not resting all your weight on the handlebar. When you rest your weight there, the bike moves with your weight. If you are holding yourself with your core and not resting so much weight on the handlebars, your core keeps you straight. So, relaxed on the handlebars, elbows bent, hold yourself up by your core, keep your hands in middle of bar, then keeping your weight centered over the seat and middle of bike, look to the right and the left.

[Melalvai]

Another option is to sit up, leave one hand on the handlebar, and turn from your torso. I feel more stable that way.

[damon_rinard]

Melalvai said what I usually do: use just one hand.

In a group where riders are close, sometimes I find it helpful to rest my free hand on the shoulder of the rider next to me while I turn to look back. I usually speak to that rider first so they're not surprised. :-) With my hand on their back I can judge my path relative to theirs and avoid too much of a swerve.

[velo]

Ditto to Melalvai. I take a quick glance back for traffic and such by just turning the neck and keeping torso parallel to bars, as another poster mentioned. However, If I want a long look-see, longer than just a glance (such as when I am changing lanes at an intersection to make a left), I put my right hand on the top of the bar, not too close to the stem, then take my left hand off as I sit up straighter, turn and place my left hand on my thigh which is at the highest position in pedal rotation. I am actually twisting the torso and head and using that hand on the thigh to counter balance the twist. I'm also not pedaling. HTH.

[kermit]

Try stabilizing your hand on your leg as you turn to look, right hand on right leg or left hand on left leg. Works really well for me.

[Cyclingfun]

Since my post of thanks to so many for totally useable great ideas, some more have come in - so warmest thanks to you too. I'm going to try the hand-on-leg method when I next get out but, sadly, poor weather is a-coming and then events will intervene over the next six days - The cause of the events is a happy one: the celebration of my DH's 80th birthday, which was yesterday but will rather take over the next 2 weeks as various family members and friends get together with us at difference places to whoop it up! So if I don't have time to write more than this, it's for lack of time rather than lack of appreciation. I think you're a great group - uber-supportive and it's really nice to be in contact with you all.