Riding with no hands



elnadeau

New Member
Jul 2, 2003
14
0
0
Hi,

Did some archive searching on this subject and came up blank.

I remember as a kid I could ride around my whole neighborhood on my Huffy without hands but I have not been able to feel like I can sit up and ride without a hand on the bar even for a short period with my current road bike, an '01 Schwinn Super Sport GLX. So I'm wondering if this is normal for most road bikes or it's just me.

I also feel like when I take a look over my shoulder that it's too easy to go off my line. I assume this all has to do with geometry, steering angle, fork trail and so on.

I'm thinking of a new bike, like a Trek 5200, and wanted to know if should expect it to be better in this respect.

Thanks.
 
rideing with no hands is mostly balance
if your seat isnt adjusted right for your height then it makes it harder
I resently raised my seat about an 1.5 in and it made a lot of differance
easyer to keep balance now
before I raised the seat I was all over the road
so if the bike is ok and no warped rims or bent frame then
gets some speed up and try it with your seat a little higher
I set mine according to Schwinn manuals
The Leg should be slightly bent siting on the seat and foot on the pedel
then touching the ground should be on tiptoe

also as a note it seems that the newer lighter wheels need more speed
to gain gyro to assist in balance
 
No it probably wont be better although it might. I wouldn't buy a bike based
on how well I could ride it with no hands! :)

Different bike geometries give different handling. My _old_ road bike was so
stable I could ride no hands and go to sleep (well, almost ;)) whereas my
current race bike was VERY twitchy and it took me a while before I could ride
confidently with no hands.

Practice.. that's all there is to it.

hippy
 
"also as a note it seems that the newer lighter wheels need more speed
to gain gyro to assist in balance"

That seems like an important point, those wheels on my old huffy must have been real heavy vs the Velomax wheels on my Schwinn. I'll have to practice with more speed and see how it feels (my seat height was set at a fitting center and feels perfect).


"I wouldn't buy a bike based on how well I could ride it with no hands!"

:) Nope, I don't have that as part of my criteria, I'm looking for a better ride than aluminum. But good advice anyway.

Thanks very much.
 
elnadeau said:
I also feel like when I take a look over my shoulder that it's too easy to go off my line.

When you look over your shoulder, try bending the elbow opposite from the shoulder you're looking over. I've found that often when looking over one's shoulder, you straighten the opposite arm, allowing your neck muscles to pull on your shoulder, in turn pulling on that arm. Bending the elbow seems to isolate the hand from the shoulder.
 
Part of the problem could also be that as a kid, you don't worry too much about coming off... when you are older you are more cautious!
 
I remember form a dynamics class in college that the stabillity of the bike is related to the horozontal distance between where the tire contacts the ground and the point where the handle bars pivot (center of head tube). Clown bikes are much harder to ride because the wheel is directly under the head tube. So if the fork on your bike does not curve forward like the old steel forks or the head tube angle is quite small it would be harder to ride with no hands.
 
I can ride mine with no hands on my mountain bike, and I can even stand up on the pedals so I don't even need the seat;)
It's all about balance, if it wasn't for the brakes.. I could ride mine for miles without touching the handlebars.
 
elnadeau said:
Hi,

Did some archive searching on this subject and came up blank.

I remember as a kid I could ride around my whole neighborhood on my Huffy without hands but I have not been able to feel like I can sit up and ride without a hand on the bar even for a short period with my current road bike, an '01 Schwinn Super Sport GLX. So I'm wondering if this is normal for most road bikes or it's just me.

I also feel like when I take a look over my shoulder that it's too easy to go off my line. I assume this all has to do with geometry, steering angle, fork trail and so on.

I'm thinking of a new bike, like a Trek 5200, and wanted to know if should expect it to be better in this respect.

Thanks.
I had the same question when I got back on the bike a couple years ago. I'm pretty familiar with the dynamics issues Slimer remembers so well from his coursework, so my assumption is that in the last 20 years bicycle geometry fashion has leaned toward more responsive handling and away from stability.

On the other hand, after a few months of working on my pedaling action I realized that it was no longer an issue - I can go no handed for long enough to accomplish anything I need both hands for, or to stretch, etc.
 
elnadeau said:
Hi,

Did some archive searching on this subject and came up blank.

I remember as a kid I could ride around my whole neighborhood on my Huffy without hands but I have not been able to feel like I can sit up and ride without a hand on the bar even for a short period with my current road bike, an '01 Schwinn Super Sport GLX. So I'm wondering if this is normal for most road bikes or it's just me.

I also feel like when I take a look over my shoulder that it's too easy to go off my line. I assume this all has to do with geometry, steering angle, fork trail and so on.

I'm thinking of a new bike, like a Trek 5200, and wanted to know if should expect it to be better in this respect.

Thanks.


Some bikes are twitchier than others. I know the Look is but you get used to it and can master the back glance and riding with no hands. Wider tires help also. 700x20 are more difficult than say 700x23's ,at least for me.
Here is a thread that ran for while on this subject.

http://www.cyclingforums.com/t65071-.html
 
i once rode my beater (a gary fisher utopia hybrid) from my neightborhood (andersonville) to navy pier.

about 8 miles down the chicago lakeshore path.

i was riding witha friend whos pretty slow and trying to entertain myself so i thought id see if i could make it a mile and after a couple of miles i thought i'd jsut go for the whole trip. didnt touch brakes or steering wheel once.

that said i dont think i could duplicate that feat on my raod bike.
 
One of the easiest ways to improve your no-hands cycling is just to lean back further, thereby reducing the weight on the front wheel. :cool:
 
slimer78 said:
I remember form a dynamics class in college that the stabillity of the bike is related to the horozontal distance between where the tire contacts the ground and the point where the handle bars pivot (center of head tube)
Yes, same as in motorcycle design, where it is referred to as "trail". It gives the front wheel a self centering effect, making it much easier to control with no hands. Another example is a shopping trolley - the wheel centre is never in line with the pivot point, so that when you turn it the wheel (in theory:rolleyes: ) follows the right direction.
 
Yes we had a big joke with that. "Look Ma no brains." instead of look Ma no hands. Yeah it looks really cool to ride around with your arms folded. Not too terribly safe.
 
Reminds me of the days of youth seeing other kids riding around with no hands, some even with their hands in their pockets. A lot of it was for show though and I had to admit it was kinda funny when one was showing off to the girls but ended up bailing.

One handed I can do, but no handed I can only do for a few seconds at most because like above, I always seem to become slightly wobbly. I've thought about this a lot over the years and I can imagine tyres might make a difference to stability but I think the general rule of physics still applies, and that is the faster you're going the more stable the bike is.
 
In my opinion it is really annoying to see people riding with no hands especially in the city. One wrong move or breaking tire and you may end up paralyzed or even dead. It is even more dangerous if you aren't wearing a helmet.
 
Hello everyone! My name is Jorge Solis. I was once riding with no hands and I was not going fast enough so the front wheel of my bike actually turned and I had an accident. Since then, I think that riding with no hands is too risky and should be avoidable at any cost. What do you guys think?
 
I hate seeing people riding with no hands around traffic. Commuting by bike is already potentially dangerous, I don't know why anyone would want to risk their safety any further. Accidents happen even when you're doing everything 'right', and I hate to think how hard it would be to react in time if you suddenly got cut off or something.

One of the people I used to cycle with would ride no handed all the time and it used to drive me crazy because I knew he was always the first one to feel sorry for himself and complain if he were to wipe out, which happened once or twice.