Look mum, no hands!

[RizzoTheRat]

Despite learning to ride a bike over 45 years ago I never learned to ride no hands. Now that I cycle to work every day I've been working on learning and can now manage 5 minutes or more at a time.

Does anyone have any tips and tricks for getting better?

I'm on an upright hybrid/city bike and have generally been riding sitting upright with arms by my sides, I've tried leaning forwards and back a bit to see if the weight on the front wheel makes any difference but I've not noticed a change. So far I seem to have a given cadence/effort that works well, but as soon as I slow down on a gentle incline I start to lose it.
I'm pretty sure being relaxed helps though, I seem to be better cycling home on a Friday after a couple of beers at work.

[Super Sonic]

Julian Scott said:

Track stand. Utterly pointless, but I'm determined to teach myself.

SPDs & traffic lights!

[curvature]

Where do you ride where you can safely cycle no handed for 5 minutes?

Are you friendly with a surgeon/dentist as I fear this may not end well.

[Miocene]

Funny old world .. I really struggle with it nowadays. Did it without a second thought as a kid.

[smifffymoto]

As we get older the bike becomes even more top heavy.

[V8 Animal]

Supposed to get wiser when you get older.

[GiantCardboardPlato]

I cannot ride with no hands but i am pretty at doing it with my eyes closed.

[TGCOTF-dewey]

Jesus there are some risk averse boring folks on this thread.

Riding no handed, track stands in spds, jumping, wheelies, bunny hops, chasing cars on downhill roads, etc. are fun.

fk getting older and wiser... Getting older means you can afford better stuff to keep being childish on.

[bobbo89]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

Jesus there are some risk averse boring folks on this thread.

Riding no handed, track stands in spds, jumping, wheelies, bunny hops, chasing cars on downhill roads, etc. are fun.

fk getting older and wiser... Getting older means you can afford better stuff to keep being childish on.

Yep, I'm 33 and still love all of the above with the addition of endo's and who also doesn't love the odd skid on wet dirt/grass?

That said, my wheelie/manual game is pretty weak these days, need to work on that.

[President Merkin]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

Jesus there are some risk averse boring folks on this thread.

Riding no handed, track stands in spds, jumping, wheelies, bunny hops, chasing cars on downhill roads, etc. are fun.

fk getting older and wiser... Getting older means you can afford better stuff to keep being childish on.

Half & half on this after an unenjoyable VIP seat in A&E during the pandemic. My shoulder still isn't right two years on. Then again, stoppies are cool. WATCH THIS!



I'm 52

When I broke my arm, the X-ray guy turned out to be a weekend downhill racer. He asked me where exactly I'd crashed. I told him, he paused for a second & said: 'Well, you're not very good then are you?'

[RizzoTheRat]

curvature said:

Are you friendly with a surgeon/dentist as I fear this may not end well.

Despite giving up Jui Jitsu about 10 years ago it seems some skills never leave you, I tripped over a dog when I was out for a run a while back and was quite impressed that I rolled straight back up on my feet without even having to think about it Lost the front end of the bike on ice last winter and managed to drop the bike and step off without falling...and then slipped on the ice but managed a decent slideways break fall Of course this is probably pride before the really big fall

bobbo89 said:

That said, my wheelie/manual game is pretty weak these days, need to work on that.

I had a BMX when I was a kid and loved doing wheelies, stoppies, massive skids (pedal back rear brake was fantastic for that), jumps etc, but am rubbish at that kind of thing these days. Had quite a few years where did;t ride very much,but have been daily commuting for a few years now, however on an upright hybrid rather than anything exciting. Plus with roller brakes there's no chance of a stoppie. Had a bit of a wobble the other day pulling away outside my house while turning a corner but with a bit of weight in my panniers and the front came up while I was leant over a bit

[Gary29]

I ride no handed periodically just to have a break from my normal riding position for a few moments and shake my arms out.

Definitely being relaxed helps your balance, and also looking a bit further ahead than you normally would, if you look down at the ground it's much harder to keep your balance, and practice, as with anything, is the best fix.

[Vipers]

Reminds me of the kid showing off.

Whizzes past his mum, feet off the pedals

“Look mum no feet”, takes a second ride by

“Look mum, no hands”, takes another ride by

“Look mum, no teeth”.

Good luck on your quest to master it.

[RizzoTheRat]

I regularly see people cycling along with both hands in thier pockets, I don't intend to take it that far

[yellowjack]

Miocene said:

Funny old world .. I really struggle with it nowadays. Did it without a second thought as a kid.

Book yourself a hearing test. Seriously, I've cycled for 40+ years, as a kid I could ride "no hands" without sparing it a second thought. Lost a significant percentage of my hearing more than a decade ago, and it has really affected my sense of balance. It's particularly affected my ability to ride "no handed" to the point where I couldn't take my hands off the bars long enough to open a cereal bar or energy gel even if I wanted to. Eating "on the move" now involves one hand on the bars at all times and biting packets open. Unless I'm MTB racing I mostly stop to eat these days if I'm on a long ride. To hell with Strava times, average speed, etc, I like my face arranged the way it is, so I'm happy to take in a view while I sneak a bite to eat, even if it's only a brief stop in a field gateway.

[troc]

RizzoTheRat said:

I regularly see people cycling along with both hands in thier pockets, I don't intend to take it that far

That’ll be me then. Pockets are free with jeans. Gloves cost extra.

Also means I can do stuff on my phone (after checking the police aren’t around) without worrying about ‘phone compatible gloves’

[boyse7en]

Miocene said:

Funny old world .. I really struggle with it nowadays. Did it without a second thought as a kid.

I think it depends on the bike. When i was a kid i used to cycle all the way through the village (about 2 miles) swerving around parked cars and wandering pedestrians without a problem, but i think that was mainly down to the slack geometry and strong self-centering action of the steering.
On my road bike now, i can only manage a few seconds, but it is generally a much twitchier machine with a fairly unforgiving head tube angle.

[The Chevalier de Recci]

I think bikes used to be much easier to ride no handed.

In the 70's I could ride 1.5 miles to school without touching the bars and it wasn't entirely straight.

Nowadays my road bike seems far too nervous and twitchy to try for long.

I need my Viscount Grand Tour 1976 model back. Only fell off it once but I was carrying a deck chair so that's to be expected.

[RizzoTheRat]

troc said:

RizzoTheRat said:

I regularly see people cycling along with both hands in thier pockets, I don't intend to take it that far

That’ll be me then. Pockets are free with jeans. Gloves cost extra.

Also means I can do stuff on my phone (after checking the police aren’t around) without worrying about ‘phone compatible gloves’

If the guy I saw on my commute the other week is anything to go by, surely if you're texting while cycling you need your other hand to hold the umberella?

[trails]

if you think too long about it then stuff seems to go wrong, just have to let muscle memory do it's thing

Did anyone else pretend to be running at high speed on country lanes with high hedges when they were riding no handed as a kid?