Funny thing happened to me yesterday, I was going for an afternoon workout, I was just plodding along & up ahead of me a pretty good distance I see two people on bikes. I didn’t really pay any attention to them as they were pretty far ahead. I hit the bottom of a pretty long steady rising hill & I look up there is a guy on a light purple Huffy mountain style bike 1/2 up the grade, I pull up next to him & right by, I wasn’t even trying to catch or pass him. When I got to the top of the hill his daughter (around 8-10) was waiting for him on her pink bike with a handlebar basket.
The thing that I found funny about all this was I was running, I averaged 8:30’s on this run which is about 7mph, this guy must have been going about 3.5, I didn’t even know you could ride a bike that slow. He was weaving pretty good, how slow can you ride a bike without falling?
I think a skilled bike handler could go pretty slow and stay upright. I believe a few years ago some german paper had a “riding slow” contest between zabel and ullrich. They were both on a velodrome on fixed gear bikes with no brakes, and the person across the line last won. I think it was zabel. I think that’s a pretty cool idea.
slow races are an awesome idea. they give you incredible bike handling skills (especially on a mtn bike, but i doubt many ppl here care about that). when i was first getting into riding, we used to have slow races to a cone or a curb or something and the last one there won. it got to the point where it’d take like 5 min to go maybe 25 yards b/c people would just sit there in a permanent track stand. really cool.
I think LeMond rode a Huffy… or at least rode one stage or race on a bike with the word “Huffy” on the tubes
In the 1980’s, Huffy acquired the rights to the Raleigh name in the United States which lead to the Huffy ‘Tech’ Center under the direction of Mike Melton producing the bikes used by the US Olympic team in 1984 but the Huffy branded bikes that Greg LeMond used in the Tour De France were actually made for Lemond by Serotta!
As far as the ridding slow post, I used to have a friend that liked to do “Trials” which is a European obsticle coarse on a MTB. He used to be able to sit/stand on his bike and watch TV for hours! He could even free up a hand to reach for his beer (of coarse this only would last for so many beers!)
I’ve been to mtn bike and penny farthing competitions with “slow” races. Last one to the line wins. Also used for handicapping/bonuses in races. The number of seconds it takes you to go 15 feet is the same number of seconds deducted from your mtn bike obstacle course time. I can now sit in a track stand for a red light on my TT bike. Its easier on the mtn bike though.
This brings up something I was thinking about the other day. After trying a track stand at a red light and falling over waiting too long to unclip, I decided I needed to practice somewhere other people are not. I’m thinking of using a hallway to give me something to grab on the way down. Any ideas? Currently I have the pedals level with my weight roughly even front to rear ( I think)
