Your Endurance Lifestyle. Redesigned.

Pre-Riding the Queen K in 2008!

After publishing my previous article on how to become a better beginner cyclist,  I realized that perhaps I spoke in terms too broad to actually help folks take tangible steps to improve. One of the best ways to improve how you ride a bike is to…ride your bike…a lot. That said, most of us don’t have enough time in the week to get enough ride time in. So consider the following list of skills/drills a way to “hack” the cycling learning curve.

Level One

One Handed Riding – One of the easiest way to pick a novice cyclist out in a crowd is to wave…the person who swerves 8 feet to the right is, you guessed, the winner. Learning to ride with one hand takes a bit of skill and coordination. Your weight needs to be firmly placed on the seat, with the one steerin had locked out for support and stability. Bent elbows are a no-no here. Some folks find that engaging your core muscles can help!

No Look Drinking — A pre-requisite before you even think about group riding, this skill builds upon your One Handed Riding skills. When done properly, you never have to take your eyes off the road

Rapid Stop — Super important to have in your skill arsenal. To execute properly, you get off the seat and “sit” your weight way back over the rear wheel. You put pressure on the brakes such that 60% is on the rear wheel (your weight) and 40% is on your front wheel.

Pop and Drop — An easy way to reduce the impact of any last-minute bumps, chips or dips. Simply pop your arms out (so the elbows are bent a bit) and then drop your tosro using the elbows as a spring to absorb the shock of impact.

Over The Shoulder View — Having a clear understanding of what’s behind you at any given time is very cirtical. Most folks over do this by turning their whole body to get a sloid view of traffic. Experience cyclists depend more on their peripheral vision. These folks take a quick glance by touchin their chin to their oshoulder; if thyey notice someting, then that warrants an additional look.  This quick glance minimizes and disruptios from steering.

Level Two (includes all of level One)

QuickDodge — If you have a split second before hitting an obstacle, you can still get around it. As the name suggests, you quickly jog the front wheel by pushing your hands (left/right or right/left). This should b enough to get the front wheel around the obstacle, the rear wheel will simply follow the front.

Sunglasses to Shirt — Wearing sunglasses can help and hinder you. Sure they keep the bugs out, contacts dry and eyes safe, but sometimes on hot days they can fill with sweat, etc. To prevent this, you can move your sunglasses before starting any serious climb and replace them when done.  While riding, simply take one hand to pull your sunglasses off. Holding them by one side of the frame, use your mouth to fold one arm of the glasses down. Then reach behind your head, much like an archer reaching to a quiver of arrows, and slide the open arm of the glasses down inside the top of your cycling jersey. To anchor them, now just fold the glasses down so both arms are closed and you are all set! Once you have reached the peak of your climb, simply reach back to pull your glasses off and then use your mouth to open the remaining arm and slide them on….then ride like a monster!

BunnyHop — With enough advance warning, you should be able to “jump” small- to moderately-sized obstacles. I generally use this to hop over a crack in the road, up onto a construction plate, etc. This takes much practice, so be patient. Know that part of the secret to a successful BunnyHop is simply having enough speed to actually clear the object you want to jump!

First, come out of the saddle. Hands on the hoods with firm grip and pedals parallel to the ground (3 and 9 o’clock). As you approach the object, you need to prepare to jump just prior to the front tire hitting the object. To initiate the jump, bend your elbows and knees. lowering your body closer to the bike frame. Then explode upwards by pushing down on the pedals and handlebars. As you ascend up into the air. you’ll want to pull up on the pedals and handlebars to lift the bike off the ground (Jump 1, Pull 2).

Level Three (includes all of Levels One and Two):

No Hands Riding — Being able to ride with no hands on the handlebars is a significantly important skill. This means you can eat, drink, stretch, change clothes, adjust gear, etc., all on the fly.  Remember that this skill can take some time to perfect, and should only be used in safe environments (read: not the side of a major highway, etc.).

Riding with no hands is not that different than riding with one hand…only there’s no one hand. Once you are in a good gear given the terrain that ensures you’ll be able to continue pedaling without over-exerting / spinning out, then you are ready to begin. Basically as you continue to turn the pedals over, you push off the bars simultaneously with both hands, sitting straight up. If you attempt to do one hand at a time, you’ll really struggle with the sudden shift in your center of gravity from one hand to zero hands…this is actually harder in my mind.  Once you are up — still pedaling, of course — you can use your hips to tilt the bike and correct your direction. Be ready at any time to grab the bars, as anything, even a light breeze or a tiny bump, can make you very unstable. One you can master his skill, your cycling world is an entirely different place…the effort is very worthwhile!

Sunglasses to Helmet — Fundamentally no different than putting your sunglasses on the back of your jersey, this just looks more “pro” — and sometimes that’s enough. Your goal is to anchor your glasses by putting them, upside down, arms into the slits in your helmet just above your eyes. The upside down part is key, as this is what keeps them from falling back out again!!!

I find it’s best to do this with your helmet off, when not riding, to find the optimal placement and to ensure stability. Once this has been done, you can then execute while riding. Simply sit up to ride no hands, remove your sunglasses, flip and insert into your helmet and done. Once you are competent you should be able to do this in just a split second. Note: If you need to get your hands back on the bars pronto, you can always hold your sunglasses in your mouth.

Got Other Skills???
Post’em in the comments and we’ll add them to the list!

Thanks!

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