Admission:- I can't ride no hands !

[T4tomo]

Have you tried taking your hands off a couple of inches and keeping them there within easy reach?

That genrally doesn't help much, as it's easier to balance sat upright with your weight back. You need to fully commit! That said it makes for an epic fail if you have one of those twitchy bikes that is very hard to ride no hands

 

[T4tomo]

I am talking about small steps as a training program. Obviously the aim is to be able to ride all day with your hands behind your head.

I realise that, but as ones weight is then forward, it tends to make you wobble and put your hand back down and then never progress beyond letting go of the bars for a few seconds. It's better to get sat up straight with one hand on the bars, then let go and keep your weight back of centre.

A fairly scant analogy to teaching kids to swim by throwing them in the deep end, but less cruel!!

 

[Globalti]

Tim - can't you recognise a G-i wind up when you read it?

Not a wind-up! In years of cycling I have come to the conclusion that steering caster and gyroscopic force are of equal importance in keeping a bicycle in a straight line, with gyroscopic force diminishing in effect as the bike slows.

 

[Ian H]

It improves your bike-handling skills overall if you don't feel you have to be locked to the bars all the time. It also allows you to adjust clothing, stretch your back (v useful on long rides), etc.

 

[Globalti]

Yes, as I age I find that after about 20 miles I am getting pins and needles in my hands, which I think is more back-related than hand, but sitting up straight and flapping my arms and hands around brings relief. I might take off one day, who knows?

I also sit up to freewheel and enjoy the view, straighten my neck, change hand position on the bars and I have even removed a waterproof on the go although the moment when both hands are still in the sleeves is scary.

 

[nickyboy]

Having seen someone faceplant in the road when a dangling sleeve went into the front wheel, I don't think taking jackets off or putting them on without stopping is all that clever.

As I often sneak out in the working day for a bike ride I often get phone calls while riding. My ambition is to become confident enough to get my phone out of my back pocket and answer it whilst riding "no hands"

Unfortunately, around here I'm usually gurning uphill at 6mph or flying downhill at 40mph, neither of which are particularly great for going no hands I suspect

 

[I like Skol]

Not read the full thread but..... YES I CAN! Happily remove/refit gloves, answer the phone, scratch my ##### chin, do the Bolt point, fumble in back pocket for a snack or just sit back and soak up the ambiance. If you can do it then you know that actually you can have your hands back on the bars in a split second should the need arise (apart from the two arms stuck in the sleeves of a jacket scenario, which needs to be performed on a quiet, straight road).

 

[Ajax Bay]

Lean back and sit 'upright' on the saddle. How much 'core strength' does that need? (Not that core strength (or whatever they now call it) isn't a good thing.) If a rider 'hovers' over the bars 'in case' then that stops them getting their CoG back and makes 'riding no hands' far more difficult. Commitment and confidence is required.
Offset and gyroscopic effects are involved but body position is committed (with apologies to 'eggs and bacon' and the hen and the pig).

 

[raleighnut]

[QUOTE 5090552, member: 9609"]I wonder how much it has to do with core strength - when I tried to relearn to ride with no hands I found it a bit precarious and difficult, but as soon as I concentrated on the same muscle groups that I do when doing Pilates, (particularly balancing on the foam roller*) riding with no hands very quickly become simple.

As children we have natural core strength, that is how our bodies are designed to work, but apparently as we get older most of us start to rely on our limbs to do all the work, and that according to my pilates teacher is why so many of our backs fall to bits. I wonder if this is part of the reason riding with no hands was so easy when we were young?


*get good at this and I guess riding with no hands will be easy peasy, it took me about a year before I even discovered the correct muscles to use
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc2byXUOEyc&t=27s
when you get really good you can get all four limbs off the deck at the same time.[/QUOTE]
I'm not sure if it is due to 'core strength', I feel a lot of it is down to reaction time in my case. I've certainly become 'clumsier' as I've aged.

 

[Ian H]

David 'Daedalus' Jones experimentally found that gyroscopist effects are minimal.
http://www.phys.lsu.edu/faculty/gonzalez/Teaching/Phys7221/vol59no9p51_56.pdf

 

[Globalti]

OMIGAWD! I started reading that but then the more interesting challenge of oiling the patio door runners was handed to me so I gave up on the article.

In a nutshell, what does it say?

 

[Sea of vapours]

In a nutshell, what does it say?

That, for a bicycle with someone riding it - as distinct from one rolling along at speed by itself - it's predominantly about trail. More trail (front wheel axle further back in relation to steering axis) produces more stability but a commensurately more difficult bike to steer.

 

[Ian H]

OMIGAWD! I started reading that but then the more interesting challenge of oiling the patio door runners was handed to me so I gave up on the article.

In a nutshell, what does it say?

It says that gyroscopic effects are minimal.

In a decidedly humorous way.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Reposting from a post 14 months ago (talking about fork shape):
"A bike designed with neutral steering eg many touring and expedition bikes, should be extremely difficult to ride 'no-hands'. Their offset/head tube angle is deliberately chosen so that steering is unaffected (or at least affected only a small amount and not enough to allow easy/safe 'no-hands'). However a racing bike should be very responsive to leaning and therefore relatively easy to steer no-hands. Also one's weight must be well back, but of course this means one is further away from the 'safety' of grabbing the bars. Like [others] I suspect that the natural reduction in risk tolerance that most experience/exhibit with advancing years means we get caught in the too far forward and on a relaxed geometry bike 'no man's land', and this manifests as loss of ability."

 

[Mrs M]

I used to ride my 1980 Halfords Cascade racer, no hands, anytime
Nowadays, managed to ride my Pashley a few yards, no hands, felt like a triumph!
How times have changed