How do you ...

[XmisterIS]

... ride no-handed without falling flat on your face and smashing all your teeth out?

I tried to ride no-handed once ... and it hurt!

Ow, ow, ow, pain, ow, etc ...

(I still have all my own teeth though ... well, one is a root filling, so its kind of half my own tooth).

 

[Bigtwin]

The trick is to balance so that the bike continues to stay upright in much the same fashion as with your hands on.

 

[Young Un]

Get competant at riding non-handed first with both hands. Once you have mastered this, sit with one hand by your hips, one on the bars. Slowly, one by one remove a finger until you are left with only two fingers on the bars. Stay like this for a while and get nice and relaxed, and make sure you sit up straight, as hunching over the bars will only make things worse. Once you are comfortable with two fingers raise your spare arm to aid with balance then slowly lift you two fingers up of the bars, and if needs be hover them about 5 cm above the bars - but most importantly look up not down at your hands. ONce you can ride with your bar hand hovering there, just slowly lower it to the same position of the other hand - to kind off even up your balance. Then when you can compfotrably ride with your hands by your side it is now time to learn to steer the bike non-handed which requires shifting your weight using your hips - best to practise on a quiet road. Then, reap all the praises you can get about riding non-handed, and annoy runners by cruising past them, immitating their arm movements


Hope this helps/makes sense

 

[XmisterIS]

Lol! Thanks for that advice ... the not-looking-down thing makes sense - when riding a motorbike, the best way to have a horrible accident is to look down at your hands!

The no-handed thing seems to be something that either you can do or you can't - I have a friend who has just naturally been able to do it since she started riding as a kid ... whereas I have also been riding for years and I can't do it!

I might give your technique a try though.

 

[Renard]

Then, reap all the praises you can get about riding non-handed, and annoy runners by cruising past them, immitating their arm movements

Tis funny

 

[Mr Pig]

I've never been able to do it, even when I was a kid. Couldn't do wheelies either.

 

[XmisterIS]

I can ride no handed on my Fixed!

Still can't trackstand, though.

Now that is weird ... I can't ride no-handed but I can easily trackstand ...

 

[longers]

I've always done the running arms thing but never when going past runners, I will next time it's suitable.


Striking a pose and pointing at stuff looks good too

especially if you're not pointing at anything in particular and you get people to look

 

[yello]

The key is to get your weight back and get upright. Don't attempt to hover your hands over the bars because this is actually more difficult! You control the bike mostly with your weight through the hips anyway so getting your weight back stabilises the bike more. Watch the pros when they do it, they'll be sat bolt upright eating or doing up jackets etc.

It takes a bit of confidence and a leap of faith but you should aim to sit back and take the hands/arms away from the bars. Practice on a soft landing ground if you're nervous!

Also, your bike's obviously got to be safe. No good trying no hands if your headset is loose and your bars are flapping around!