Riding with no hands !!!

[slowmotion]

No I won't do it.....Fell off in February and my knee is buggered now so I don't need to be asking for trouble....I remember doing it when I was much younger and if it ever went tits up we were quite fast in recovering...but not now....Although I understand the logic of why the young 'uns do it nowadays.

Round here, young riders do it so they can roll spliffs while riding down the wrong side of the road. I can't help admiring their ability to multi-task.

 

[Bazzer]

Dead easy when younger. Used to challenge myself how far I could ride or how sharp a corner I could take. Nowadays, only a few seconds. Keep trying to work out if it's because I am now older and lack of balance or lack of invincibility of youth.

BTW nIce Bianchi. Personal opinion of course, but I think much prettier than celeste.

 

[Lonestar]

Round here, young riders do it so they can roll spliffs while riding down the wrong side of the road. I can't help admiring their ability to multi-task.

Round here young riders do it while snorting coke.Must say I'm not too impressed.

 

[slowmotion]

Round here young riders do it while snorting coke.Must say I'm not too impressed.

I'm a bit out of touch with the price of recreational drugs these days. Is your neighbourhood more or less affluent than mine?

 

[Dave7]

Hi to you all out there. Yes,I am fully aware that it is not advised never mind it could be risky but in my younger years it was as easy as licking an ice cream.
I was able to achieve it on both fixed wheel and on my regular rode bike but I am blowed if I can these days albeit they are different bikes and I am pushing the door of 73 years young.
I have attached two profile images - one of each bike to see if anyone can see something that I am missing. View attachment 411920 View attachment 411921

I am 71 now. By coincidence I was only thinking (3 days ago) of when I were nowt burra whippersnapper how we practiced that art and mastered it so that I could ride along the street and turn corners........all with no hands. I "sort of" tried it the other day by lifting my hands clear by a few mm..........then thankfully bottled out. As @steveindenmark said (and I say it often) I don't bounce like I used to.

BTW................that Bianchi flat bar looks very nice. What is it?

 

[toffee]

Just come back from Holland where every other teenager was cycling around with no hands as they were texting

 

[Profpointy]

I think it depends a lot on the bike. I never could do it as a kid on the (crap) raleigh folding shopping bike my Dad insisted on getting me adding another bit of envy looking at my pals riding jo handed on their racers weighing half what mine weighed. Even my modern Thorn tourer is tricky yet my more sporty Condor is easy

 

[TheCyclingRooster]

I am 71 now. By coincidence I was only thinking (3 days ago) of when I were nowt burra whippersnapper how we practiced that art and mastered it so that I could ride along the street and turn corners........all with no hands. I "sort of" tried it the other day by lifting my hands clear by a few mm..........then thankfully bottled out. As @steveindenmark said (and I say it often) I don't bounce like I used to.

BTW................that Bianchi flat bar looks very nice. What is it?

Hi Dave. It is a 50cm Bianchi Via Nirone 7 Alu Carbon and was built by me on a naked frame last year using Mavic Aksium rims and Mavic Aksium cartridge hubs. The drivetrain is a 10spd Campagnolo Veloce with brand new levers and a triple Stronglight ring set-up on Thorn (SJS Cycles) 140mm cranks.
The stopping power is provided with Tektro short drop callipers.
The pedals are my trusty Marcel Berthet Lyotard Platform Pedals with Christophe toeclips and QR leather straps. The ride is really something quite different but very similar to that which I experienced with a brand new 2010 52cm Claud Butler Levente that I sold simply

because it was just outside of my comfort zone when coming to a halt without a kerb edge to reach out for.

 

[classic33]

If I still put my arms out like wings, made engine noises, and pretended I was a plane, I might agree, but normally I do it for slightly more practical reasons these days.

Can planes fly backwards?

 

[Jimidh]

It’s a confidence thing - if you know you can do it it’s pretty easy so long as you keep your speed up and sit pretty upright.

It’s a skill i’ve managed to hold onto but don’t ask me to do a wheelie now even though we were always riding along on one wheel when I was a teenager.

 

[mikeymustard]

I was only thinking yesterday that I've not seen anyone riding no handed for ages and three passed me in the space of 10 mins; two of them were youngsters on vintage racers (so that was nice). You can tell it's half term

 

[Biker Joe]

To ride no hands you need to sit well back on the saddle and in an upright position with the weight over the back wheel. I can do it but it's not a safe way to ride. and don't feel the need to.

 

[rrarider]

I wish that I had never seen this thread. I still have my 1980s conventionally shaped bike, which I know I can easily ride with no hands, if I sit up straight and go at a reasonable speed. A little while ago I bought a Raleigh Shopper, just to use for short shopping trips and with it's small wheels it's always seemed a bit wobbly. Despite this, since reading this thread, I got to thinking 'I wonder if ...?'.

I'm so glad that I spotted this on a Sheldon Brown page:

The stock Raleigh Twenty headset uses the same bottom section as other Nottingham 3-speeds, with 25 5/32" balls, but the upper headset uses a nylon bushing.The extra friction of this bushing plus the geometry of the stock fork generally make it impossible to ride a stock Twenty no-hands. Replacing the upper headset solves this problem.

I'm not even going to try it; I've had one serious injury in a bike accident, I don't want another.

 

[Salty seadog]

I can and do at times on all my bikes however the Forme hardtail after 7 years has developed the need to create a speed wobble if I go no handed at over 17/18mph. Still it's a reliable way to demonstrate a wobble to anyone and the only bike I've had that has done it.

 

[TheCyclingRooster]

Dead easy when younger. Used to challenge myself how far I could ride or how sharp a corner I could take. Nowadays, only a few seconds. Keep trying to work out if it's because I am now older and lack of balance or lack of invincibility of youth.

BTW nIce Bianchi. Personal opinion of course, but I think much prettier than celeste.

Hi Bazzer and Dave,I had a 50cm Celeste with a exceptionaly good spec including Campy and a pair of 'Wing' bars but all of the visible alloy was black and that included the hubs and the spokes and the original Campy double (later changed to a Stronglight triple) I could not bring myself to stripping it and turning it into a Flatbar Hybrid hence the seeking out of a totally naked frame.