I am a horrible bike rider. I am slow, I weave. I am generally everything that people talk about when they discuss triathletes with poor bike handling skills. I am getting better, but these things take time.
Problem is, I am an above average swimmer. And normally come out of the water with the first group.
I am looking at going a little longer this year (have only done sprints and olys before) and a few races will have mass starts. I am concerned about all of the fast cyclists that will be bearing down on me as I am meandering up the road.
Any way to reduce the risk, without affecting my race?
Ride more and practice riding in a straight line. When I was bike racing, our junior club team would practice riding a pace line down the white line on the side of the road. The idea was to keep your wheel on the paint for 10 or 20 miles at a time. If you didn’t, you got yelled at. Did wonders for bike skills.
Rollers - Krietler has a set they label as “Hotdog” rollers which were designed to be airliner friendly and hence, are only 9" wide. An hour or two once a week every week and you will start riding the straightest lines you ever thought possible - that or you will quit the sport because you end up in the ER as a consequence of riding off the edge of the damn things everytime! :^>
I have a friend who has a nice skid mark on his living room carpet from his first trip on (or off) his rollers. Not a good way to keep your wife happy. Set up in an open doorway.
Rollers are the best method. Just don’t get too engrossed in the TV. I remember watching a football game one time and didn’t realize I was very slowly drifting left until 2 hours into the game when I suddenly took a detour and was inspecting the carpet at close range.
Unicyles work too. My wife is a good unicyclist and she rides a line so straight you would need a laser to measure the deflection from course.
Make sure your bike is set up correctly for it’s geometrical intentions, and that your weight distribution isn’t too far forward…that can cause handling problems on it’s own. I’d recommend “white-line” riding and rollers (in a doorway, and don’t fill too silly if you put on your helmet the first few times on rollers!).
The most basic skill is the ability to ride a straight line. If ride straight and stay to the right, no on will hit you. Actually, once you get so you have total control over where you are going, you have all the skills you need for a triathlon.
Train yourself ride absolutely straight. Most triathletes do a decent job staying on the right side of the yellow line but many can only stay in a 2 - 3 foot wide path. You need to reach for a much higher standard. You should be able to go mile after mile without involuntarily moving side to side more than a couple of inches. While riding on paint is a bad idea, metaphorically speaking, the standard for riding is that a good cyclist should be able to ride for miles ON the yellow line, not just stay on one side of it.
Besides saftey, riding straight makes you a much more efficient rider. Obviously you are coving less distance but just as important, to ride straight you need to learn to keep your body still on the bike. This leads to more efficient pedaling and you’ll use less energy.
I agree with more time spent on the bike, but make sure that your time is not counter productive. A lot of shakey riders are that way because they are nervous on the bars. This makes them tense and a tense rider is like a 16 year old behind the wheel - constantly correcting his path.
Riding is like driving - you only want to put steering inputs in when you have to. This will smooth out your line and conserve energy. If you find that your shoulders are sore off the bike I would guess that you are too tense and this is causing you to be a twitchy rider. Spend some time in the aero position going slower than you would train just keeping the bike straight with as relaxed an upper body as possible. Get this down and it will be like taking a nap with your top half the whole time you are on the bike. You will feel more rested and have kept a nice straight line.
Oh yeah - Make sure you are fit right on the bike first!
As others have said Rollers Rollers Rollers ride in a doorway. The more often you ride (even 15 min a day helps at first) the more confident you will become. Early on we also play games waiting for others in our group. Drop a coin and challenge some one else to pick it up, we ride around parking lots on the lines very slowly, then with no hands. No different than swimming drills really help!!!