One little tip for looking over your shoulder without deviating from your line is to try to touch your chin on your shoulder, or even the top of your collar bone when looking back. It prevents your opposite arm from moving, which is what causes you to swerve. I learned that from riding on the track, and it makes all the difference.
It's summer and I came to a crossing of pedestrians... slowed, paused, did a track stand then started forward. The looks on people's faces are worth every single minute of practice
Good video. As a former motorcycle rider (started as a 16 year old and sold the last bike when approaching 70), all the same skills apply except the bunny hop. Started serious bicycling 6 years ago at 72. So now, at 78, I’ll set out to master the bunnyhop 😁😁 thank you, Si!
I teach track riding to school and adults from zero riding to full laps on an Olympic standard track, the first 5 skills are super important and I teach all of them. Not much cause for the bunny hop on the track (hard to do on a Fixie too!) so add starting and stopping without putting a foot down.
Yes, or even use both brakes and keep pedaling through them. Makes you very stable, also works against skidding and against tipping sideways (in a group ride eg)
Being able to hold a good track stand is also a skill that pays dividends down the line and impresses. Taking your road bike to the pump track is a skill builder. And a last bit of unsolicited advice, ride single track on you gravel bike. Brilliant video Si!
I'm one of those people who didn't learn to ride a bike until I was an adult and never really practiced things like bunny hops. Being able to get up onto a kerb smoothly is definitely something I need to practice.
Love this, I can kinda do all these (except the bunny hop effectively) things but the tips just make complete sense and I’m gonna go back to start developing the skills as it really will help as a 60 year old veteran - who learned all these things as intuitively as a kid in England - to my Thai friends who have never cycled as a child and start in their 20’s to 40’s Cheers 👍🏽😃💖
After years and years on Zwift (smart trainer) I went back to rollers this year ... skills levels uplift ... proper riding !!!! Track standing - slow riding level 11 !!
It's amazing to me how quickly most of these have come back to me, having not ridden much since my teens until now (I'm older than Si, but not by much!) Never been good at the no hands riding though. The bunny hop is a very useful one, much of my local NCR is tree lined and there are roots under the path that are like very big speed bumps to a bike.
Lots of useful information here (as usual from GCN). I've been practising riding hands-free for the last couple of weeks with little success. I'll try to consciously use my hip to balance the bike from now on.
Of course the bunny hop! I need to relearn that skill. Used to do it constantly on my BMX bike back when I was a kid, but now at 44 and with the terrible roads here in Puerto Rico, it's nice to have that skill. Also the slow riding, especially when riding through a traffic jam.
One thing I like to do is ride hands free up an incline where I'm in low gear and having to use some exertion on the pedals. I may only be going 7 mph but I find it great for enhancing my balance.
For some of the items (slow speed in particular), if you use clipless pedals, consider switching to flats until you're pretty comfortable in case you have to put a foot down. After that, continue the practice with your cleats so you know how to unclip quickly and are still comfortable. Riding the line on the side of the road is a partial substitute (and good staring practice) for riding the curb, but be sure to ride slowly while doing it.
It's absolutely true that stuff learned as a child sticks and comes off way easier than learning it afterwards. All I did when I was young was skidding around on my 90s MTB but I learned to ride without hands and pushed myself to ride a kilometer or more, taking turns, etc. and it came back quick after a 10-15 years of hardly riding bicycles at all. However, there are other contributing factors in addition to skill and training: geometry (trail, steerer tube angle?) and tire width, it is pretty easy on my endurance bike with 25 mm tires but my older bike with 23 mm and more of a traditional frame is way harder to control.
I have been cycling since I was five. All of these skills I had once upon a time.I cannot do a bunny hop anymore but I can for some reason jump kerbs. I still practice riding in a straight line and cycling slowly. I always look behind to see a break in traffic for right turns. but no longer have the confidence to ride with no hands. Can still track stand though. I feel I have lost some bike skills as I have gotten older suppose I can no longer do cartwheels or handstands either. This video makes me nostalgic for my BMX
Finding a spot to practice skills or "session" as the cool kids call it definitely translates to better bike handling skills! It's also good old fashioned fun... I'm 41 and still practice wheelies, bunny hops and trying to ride on lines constantly!
No-handing depends on the bike as well. I can do it confidently on my cross bike, but my road bike does not want to go in a straight line that much. It has to do with the geometry ofbthe bikes.
Any bike should be able to be ridden no hands. Your bike fit plays a key role in this. If you are having trouble, could be the bike is not set up correctly or is the wrong size for you. Also, too loose or too tight headset preload will cause you grief.
@@larrymcgoldrick3471 Not true. Though perhaps true on modern bikes. Geometry, but more importantly fork wheel flop can make some bikes unridable no-handed. But true on the other points you mentioned including worn headsets creating a detent in the cup or cone.
I need to get better at my bunny hop as well. I use to be decent at it when I was a kid. I often come across large pot holes in the road that are unavoidable. Sometimes I clear them and sometimes I don't.
No hands is really good. I feel it's most useful when I'm out on a really long ride and need to change my clothing in some way, zip or unzip a jacket for instance. and also, if you are on a many hours ride, it's a really good way to change your position, it feels very good when you've been hunched over the bars for a few hours.
Did I miss the bit about lifting the rear wheel if you DON'T have clip in pedals?? Maybe in GCN-world, everyone wears them all the time, but I mostly wear normal shoes on a bike, and dress normally too...
great video... but emergency stopping or stoppies, I regularly practice these where safe to do so, this skill maybe controversial but I believe this has helped avoid imapcts with other road users, well mostly I have 4 stitches in my chin because a car pulling out...2% you can't control...
Another skill covered on a previous GCN video is standing still on your bike. Helpful at traffic lights when you don’t want to unclip because you can see it’s about to turn green.
I wish I learned the bunny hop before. Yesterday I fell while riding over a cat running through my weels. Bruisend ribs and broken collar bone as a result. :)
During school when I had no car, I carried two big paper bags of groceries on my bike, by going hands free..(don't necessarily try this 'at home', people) :)
I also mountain bike, which naturally helps for most of these. I casually bunny hopped a pothole on my road bike once, not knowing a constructiom signaller was looking my way. He made me stop and gave me a fist bump 😂
What about a GCN Olympics you could have a sprint race ,bunny hop high jump., bunny hop long jump , track stand and a TT race. Im sure there some other competition ideas.
Sweet, I’ve been working on all of these things on my own lately. Glad to see I’m doing the right thing, according to Sie. Si? Sigh? Sai? How the heck to you spell his name?!?!
Another good drill is to try and grab a bottle from the ground or a ledge while moving. Also when practicing no-handed do it progressively taking 1 hand at a time or and taking 1 finger off the handlebar at a time until you can ride just touching it with 1 finger. Riding no handed helps both with the handling and reduces arm, shoulder, neck fatigue because it requires more of your core to stabilize.
Peter Sagan bunny hopped onto a piece of "road furniture," then off again to get into a better flow of riders once during a Tour de France stage, 6 years or so ago. After that, the UCI banned the move. Darn. It was a good move. Kinda like the time Lance Armstrong cut across that field to make up time in a stage. That was probably banned, too. The UCI takes all the fun out!!
Help please. Anyone know which video inluded a tuna nicoise recipe. It as a while back and a Pro P.T. or nutritionist showed one of the presenters. I loved it but cant find it now.
I could brag about being able to bunny hop, but the one time I actually got surprised by a snake on a single track, I panicked and flew over the snake... but upside down due to front breaking too much. It was not even a dangerous one.
I can't take both hands off the bars for more than .5 seconds without crashing, so I should start there. Also...being able to descend a big hill without clutching my brakes and getting passed by childre 2:12 n and seniors.
I know for sure that riding an motorcycle on track would help a lot of bicyclists on good control in cornering . The look technique is essential and not much of the bicyclists know this . Me being a biker riding in group als a cyclist
While riding with no hands is sometimes a useful skill, as Si says, be careful when you use it. A few hours before watching this video, I saw a cyclist riding no hands on a winding mountain road in Colorado. It was a relatively safe stretch (no steep drop off, for instance), but he was swerving from the wide shoulder into the main lane of traffic and back as cars were passing.
Depending in what part of the world your in and how your brakes are set up. In the USA our front brake is our left hand and most people are right handed so that means they grab the bottle or eat with the right hand so I teach them how to brake with just front brake only because when something goes south you don't have time for anything else.
A track stand at lights/roundabouts is always handy. I’m pretty good nine times out of ten, but there’s always that one time I make an absolute pig’s ear of it. Normally with a dozen giggling motorists waiting behind.
Bunny hopping is the hardest one for me…having been able to do it as a kid on my BMX bikes was easier then it is now on my road bike, even with my feet clipped in.
@@relicbane you raise the front wheel way higher than you think. You'll pretty much be jumping upright. When you push the handlebar forward, the rear wheel will come up as well.
@@DMurdock thanks! I’ll try some more. Ive been able to jump the entire bike like how the TDF riders sometimes do to jump on kerbs at high speed, but i think thats a little different from bunny hops which can be done at lower speeds… right?
As an older cyclist (but a novice) I get that these skills are worthy but the problem I have is a real fear of being ‘clipped in’ and unable to put a foot down when (inevitably) I do wobble. Should I practice perhaps wearing trainers 👟 and not clipped in?
Don't bunnyhop actual rattlesnakes folks. Bad idea. 👀 🐍 Fun episode. 😁👍These were all considered must learn skills when I was a teenager, along with the trackstand.
I can take one hand off the handlebars at a time, both is not for me - too dangerous, don't need it, plus, it's illegal in Romania. I can look behind me thanks to Manon's advice from an older video. Bunny-hopping is for youngsters or circus people. And you don't have to hop up pavement kerbs - you can simply slow down and gently roll over them, or dismount and do the job manually. I'm 45, Simon, so you're still young and restless. 😛 And as a child I had no idea these skills existed, let alone try them.
I can ride no handed since six years old. But my bunny hops still are a hit and miss. Sometimes its perfect, the other time by back wheel still slams into the obstacle.
I don't know how to hop for some reason but I can do most of the rest. For some reason when I try to hop, the front goes up and the back just stays. I am hoping like the other bits I just figure it out as I go along.
I just figure it out the other day while putsing around after a couple beers. The best way I could describe it is by trying to scoop your feet out from under yourself. Imagine jumping in the air and your toes flinging dirt behind you as you do it. Basically you’re just trying to apply a rotational force in the direction you want the real wheel to go. You’re not going to actually move your feet, but that’s essentially what the motion feels like.
I can easily do all of them on my city bike on my road bike though I still struggle a little with some. I guess I still need to get used to the quicker reponse and to the higher center of gravity on the road bike.
Great advice, however if you are of small stature, or vertically challenged like me you may not want to ride slowly especially turning in small figures of 8 or track standing as you may have toe overlap! P.s. any chance of borrowing Manon Pinarello Mat for WMCTC at Manchester, struggling to find a track frame suitable for pursuiting.😢
