hahah judging by some of the posts in here you’d think there was some kindof mysterious and skilled art to getting yr bike to go where u want it to go.
i just point my bike in the direction i want it to go usually.
It’s not hard to handle a bike just like it’s not hard to swing a golf club. What’s hard is mastering the skill of doing it well.
Bike handling is sooooo easy, that many 3 year olds and even some 2 year olds can master it!
I have a friend that was legally blind until about 2 years ago, and even with her horrendous vision, she was able to ride, but not particulary well. (I should note that she is 45 years old, quite big and never rode a bike as a kid) Her poor vision meant her balance isn’t the best. She’s had an operation that has fixed her eyes and her riding is improving as well. She just needs to do it more often.
She has managed a local 160km bike race along with several shorter ones.
Pretty much anyone can get the hang of riding a bike.
You often get this macho roadie bike-handling bullshit. Like it’s this mysterious alchemic art.
Basically, you ride the thing, and if you make a mistake then you fall off. The more you ride them, the better and more confident you get.
Funny that, eh?
Here we go trashing the roadies again.
Handling a bike does require a bit of skill. There are some basics of physics and balance that need to be learned. However, what I see happening is many triathletes leap-frogging right over the basics, slapping aero bars on a ill-fitting bike and putting behind the seat bottles on too. Then trying to hammer along with their head down and having no idea what they are doing.
And it can be the simplist thing - like centre of gravity. When I first met my girlfriend three years ago, she complained the her bike did not corner well. At the time, she rode with two seat mounted bottles, a aero handle bar mounted bottle and a bento box. I told her to put the bottle on the frame and get rid of the bento box and the handle bar mounted bottle. All of a sudden she was turning with confidence and much higher speed. Reason - the bike’s centre of gravity was back to what it was designed for.
Fleck
Well I couldn’t agree more.
I had some of those rear jobbies on the end of an Arione saddle, and when I got sick of launching bottles and started just using the frame mount, the thing looks and feels a whole heap better.
Sure there is a bit to it. But not as much as many would have you think. A modicum of courtesy and common sense is all you need, really.
Exactly. It’s a piece of piss. you just have to be aware of what is going on around you.
Are we talking "triathlete bike handling"ie riding solo, staying the hell away from everyone,
or the “roadie bike handling”; in a pack of 50 guys going 42km/hr around a less than 90 corner?
option 1, pretty simple, a three year old could do it.
option 2, not so simple, come ride with me sometime and i’ll show you.
What scares me in tri’s is that many train solo and have bike skills suitable for this, and then have no idea how to deal with the swarms of other cyclists trying to share the road at race pace. Especially when the inevitable illegal packs start to form. Nothing scarier than being in a pack of cyclists who have no idea about pack dynamics.
I think the bigger problem with riders suddenly finding themselves surrounded on the bike has more to do with the person. There are a number of riders in our club I will never ride behind of, more to do with the fact that they are not “aware” of their surroundings. In the city I learned pretty quickly to be aware of the cars, pedestrians and obstacles; some of the newer bikers either can’t process it all or just go on thinking “the car will see me” not the other way around - and THAT defines to me; an idiot.
what!? people don’t draft in triathlons…that’s hersay! 
as for the pack dynamics…that was the reason i crashed…some douchebag who is a wheel suck with no handling skills hit the guy in front of him, and fell, causing the chain rxn…
I have to completely agree. I just got taken out in a sprint finish of a local circuit race last night. The idiot that did this looked back over his left shoulder in the middle of the sprint and then drifted into me on the right, forcing me off the road and over some concrete barriers. Say bye bye to a set of 404s. The one fortunate bit was that I partially jumped the barriers and didn’t go face first over the handlebars. I was able to ride across the grass and come to a stop without going down. The impact crushed both rims. My bike handling skills kept me upright, and when my line was forcing me to deal with the fact that I was headed offroad, I was able to avoid certain disaster by partially jumping over the barriers, and staying upright even when my crushed rear wheel would no longer turn (jammed in the brake). The other guy didn’t take anybody else out, but he lost control when he bumped me and did see some big air as he flew over his bike and tumbled. He walked away bruised and with a cracked frame. This all happened at about 35MPH. You could call it lack of bike handling skills or lack of common sense (stupid mistake).
I’ve been training with a small (4-6) group of primarily roadies over this past off-season and into the season. Having to hang onto a paceline has forced me to handle my bike well in very tight places travelling pretty quickly.
This all paid off at Eagleman this year. I passed so many people who didn’t know how to corner. They were shedding speed going in and taking the outside line instead of using the corner to gain speed.
On the way back into town, I passed half-dozen people in one shot because of this.
riding in a pack? Done a bunch of it, really very simple…
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don’t half wheel
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ride in a straight line
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no sudden movements
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look ahead, up the road, the whole time.
But, seeing as how I can’t guarantee that people I ride with will know or be able to follow these rules, I ride alone. I had a fella couple of years back who managed to crash into my rear wheel and take down half a big group…he was riding behind me and just rode into me! No change of pace, no deviation, nothing from me. Just riding along in my normal, controlled fashion…dude rear ends me. Although I escaped, it put me off the whole scene. At least when I ride alone it is just me agains the traffic and I can protect myself to some degree…
Depends on what cycling activity you’re doing. Training solo for triathlon requires less skill than group riding which requires less than road racing. From what I’ve seen, the most skill required is in mountain bike racing.
most skill required is in mountain bike racing
and that is where you meet some of the best bike handlers and spinners.
Agreed, but there is still a different skill and experience in large group racing/riding on the road. Having been a prior mountain biker before switching to the road, most mountain bikers are used to having space around them (fewer other riders to worry about), and fewer distractions aside from dealing with the terrain. There’s not much drafting in mountain bike racing.
Go ride with the Belgians and then tell me that you have bike skills.
The mtb riders do some amazing things too. There are skills and there are skills. I can hack down a black slope skiiing. but to see the pros go by is amazing. Not all fast riders are good bike handlers, but there are some of the pro riders that can do things I wouldn’t think about.
I don’t think this is a roadie vs triguy item, but some people knows how to rides their bikes, and some don’t.
I don’t think this is a roadie vs triguy item, but some people knows how to rides their bikes, and some don’t.
Riding a bike is just like driving a car. Same basic skills, hold a straight line, accelerate, brake and turn.
That being said, there is a big range in how finely those skills can be refined and applied. Some drivers are near their limit going 65 mph on the expressway. Some others can handle entering a corner at 165 mph on a track in race traffic. Same on a bike.
“Bike Handling Skills”, once the basics of holding a straight line and turning are mastered has more to do with attention, focus and anticipation than any particular physical skill.
In my limited experience I agree with Ian. I rode with a group in which some guys over-reacted to to “issues”–road debris, etc., and others reacted almost in unison–right on each others wheels with catlike reactions–like they were all on a whip that had been cracked.
Over- reacted??? Maybe it seemed over-reacted but in a fast pace line like some groups ride in a small piece of debris can cause a ride behind you to go down,not much time goes by from when you point debris out till a rider behind you is on it,