When It's Too Smoky to Ride...

Colin Campbell said:

Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to ride
much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got "smoked"
the last 5 - 6 miles.).

So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20 minutes
or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I could do this as a
kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that because current road bikes
have tighter wheelbases than an old, old Schwinn like I rode to school
50 years ago?

How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just barely
able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

Personally, I find it easier when pedaling. It's certainly a lot
harder on a road bike than on a BMX, but it's totally doable.

you inhaked a lot of smoke, ruined your lungs, and oxygen deprived
began doing what?
running for the Hamilton Prize?

Colin Campbell said:

Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to ride
much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got "smoked"
the last 5 - 6 miles.).

So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20 minutes
or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I could do this as a
kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that because current road bikes
have tighter wheelbases than an old, old Schwinn like I rode to school
50 years ago?

How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just barely
able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

It can be done but hard to explain. I had a tenant who could juggle 5
tennis balls while riding a unicycle around the house. Equally facile
forward or back. I can't do either one, but I ride no hands frequently
without thinking about it, just a natural break in the routine on flat
bar or normal road bikes. My fixie is 97cm wheelbase and rides 'no
hands' as well as anything so 'short geometry ' seems not to matter.
Perhaps you just need more time 'behind bars'!
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

A Muzi said:

Colin Campbell said:

Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to
ride much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got
"smoked" the last 5 - 6 miles.).

So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20
minutes or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I could do
this as a kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that because current
road bikes have tighter wheelbases than an old, old Schwinn like I
rode to school 50 years ago?

How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just barely
able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

It can be done but hard to explain. I had a tenant who could juggle 5
tennis balls while riding a unicycle around the house. Equally facile
forward or back. I can't do either one, but I ride no hands frequently
without thinking about it, just a natural break in the routine on flat
bar or normal road bikes. My fixie is 97cm wheelbase and rides 'no
hands' as well as anything so 'short geometry ' seems not to matter.
Perhaps you just need more time 'behind bars'!

Don't some fork angles on current bikes still make it hard to ride no
hands? I don't ride a lot of different bikes, so I really don't have
much to compare with but my own. All I know is that I could sort of
lean back on my old mountain bike (when I had one) and do it, but this
didn't seem to help me on my road bike, so I just rest one hand/arm at a
time. The tradeoff is that on my road bike I can brake with either hand
where it was pretty dicey and prone to jacknife sometimes on the
mountain bike.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Colin Campbell said:

Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to
ride much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got
"smoked" the last 5 - 6 miles.).
So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20
minutes or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I could
do this as a kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that because
current road bikes have tighter wheelbases than an old, old Schwinn
like I rode to school 50 years ago?
How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just
barely able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

Quoted message said:

A Muzi said:

It can be done but hard to explain. I had a tenant who could juggle 5
tennis balls while riding a unicycle around the house. Equally facile
forward or back. I can't do either one, but I ride no hands frequently
without thinking about it, just a natural break in the routine on flat
bar or normal road bikes. My fixie is 97cm wheelbase and rides 'no
hands' as well as anything so 'short geometry ' seems not to matter.
Perhaps you just need more time 'behind bars'!

catzz66 said:

Don't some fork angles on current bikes still make it hard to ride no
hands? I don't ride a lot of different bikes, so I really don't have
much to compare with but my own. All I know is that I could sort of
lean back on my old mountain bike (when I had one) and do it, but this
didn't seem to help me on my road bike, so I just rest one hand/arm at a
time. The tradeoff is that on my road bike I can brake with either hand
where it was pretty dicey and prone to jacknife sometimes on the
mountain bike.

'jack knife' may be possible:
http://draco.acs.uci.edu/rbfaq/FAQ/9.17.html

albeit uncommon, again experience as suggested above may help you know
those limits.

Front end geometry, done properly, is neutral for all common values of
head angle and fork clearance/rake. Mixing randomly selected forks into
a given frame can result in weird handling, but seldom unridable.

Bent frames and forks can be sketchy but even most crashed bikes are
very usable by most riders - look at the next bike over at a stoplight.
There are plenty of bashed commuter bikes still being ridden daily, even
no hands.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

with a load of food from wal, I stopped at the intercoastal bridge's
bottom clearing the way for a bike headed down.
so the kid way up the bridge, did a wheeelie for 200'
with no hands
zooooooooooooooooom
past me no hands
concrete wall and banana river on left
posted low steel guardrail on right.
zooooooooooooom
walmart dirt bike
definite O2 problem

In article <[email hidden]>,

Colin Campbell said:

Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to ride
much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got "smoked"
the last 5 - 6 miles.).

So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20 minutes
or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I could do this as a
kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that because current road bikes
have tighter wheelbases than an old, old Schwinn like I rode to school
50 years ago?

How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just barely
able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

Observe that your connection with the bicycle is
through the two pedals and the saddle. Learn to steer
by varying your balance on the saddle while pedaling.
The nose of the saddle is important for steering the
bicycle. I can turn corners on city streets no hands on
a sport frame bicycle.

--
Michael Press

"Colin Campbell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just barely
able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

Don't think about it. I'll remove my glasses and helmet and then put them
back on at anytime without missing a beat in order to clear the occasional
bug that flies into a vent. Can do this on either road ride bike or on the
SS UAV. Also ride no hands on the rollers too. I think it's better if you
are pedaling.

Just do it?
--
Marty

Marty said:

"Colin Campbell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just barely
able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

Don't think about it. I'll remove my glasses and helmet and then put them
back on at anytime without missing a beat in order to clear the occasional
bug that flies into a vent. Can do this on either road ride bike or on the
SS UAV. Also ride no hands on the rollers too. I think it's better if you
are pedaling.

Just do it?
--
Marty

My favorite no-hands episode was about 20 years ago riding with a guy
I knew who was supposed to pick up a kiddy-pool for his little brother
at Toys-R-Us and he was late because we had been out on a training
ride. It came in a huge cardboard box, probably 4' by 4' by 2'. My
buddy had me give him a hand to get started which went hitch free from
the first attempt. He rode with this box on his head. It was too tall
for him to be able to get his hands over the top edge, so he just kept
his hands on the sides, flipped into his toe-clips and off we went.
This was in Los Angeles with cars around. We rode probably 20 blocks
like that. He didn't have access to his brakes, so a few times he rode
up ramps into gas-stations, etc to cut corners to avoid congestion.
Twice he had to make a right on red, and then a U-turn when clear
because we rolled up to a red light with cross traffic.

It was amazing. Talk about "Just do it"!

Joseph

Colin Campbell said:

Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to ride
much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got "smoked"
the last 5 - 6 miles.).

So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20 minutes
or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I could do this as a
kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that because current road bikes
have tighter wheelbases than an old, old Schwinn like I rode to school
50 years ago?

How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just barely
able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

Certain geometry may make no hands riding easier, but certainly
heavier wheels make it easier. This may help explain why the bikes you
remember where easier.

Saying that it scares you makes me think it is difficult for you to
ride no hands because you are tense and nervous about it. Go with the
flow!

Steering is by moving the seat side to side with your butt. This is
easier to do if you are sitting up vertical. You can ease your way
into this position by perhaps just holding the bars with one hand and
gradually work your way to just finger-tips, then no-hands.

Especially now that it is getting cold, I see large number of kids
riding MTB's no hands at pretty slow speeds on their way to school
each morning. They ride no hands because they have their hands in the
jacket pockets (not wise!). I guess gloves are for squares.

Joseph

Joseph Santaniello said:

Quoted message said:

Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to
ride much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got
"smoked" the last 5 - 6 miles.).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20
minutes or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I could
do this as a kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that because
current road bikes have tighter wheelbases than an old, old Schwinn
like I rode to school 50 years ago?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just
barely able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

Quoted message said:

Certain geometry may make no hands riding easier, but certainly
heavier wheels make it easier. This may help explain why the bikes
you remember where easier.

Quoted message said:

Saying that it scares you makes me think it is difficult for you to
ride no hands because you are tense and nervous about it. Go with
the flow!

Quoted message said:

Steering is by moving the seat side to side with your butt. This is
easier to do if you are sitting up vertical. You can ease your way
into this position by perhaps just holding the bars with one hand
and gradually work your way to just finger-tips, then no-hands.

Quoted message said:

Especially now that it is getting cold, I see large number of kids
riding MTB's no hands at pretty slow speeds on their way to school
each morning. They ride no hands because they have their hands in
the jacket pockets (not wise!). I guess gloves are for squares.

Jacket pockets or even pants pockets are far warmer than gloves. The
trouble with pants today is they are worn so low and are so baggy that
pockets are hard to reach so jacket pockets are closer and accessible.

Jobst Brandt

Quoted message said:

Joseph Santaniello said:

Quoted message said:

Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to
ride much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got
"smoked" the last 5 - 6 miles.).
So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20
minutes or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I could
do this as a kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that because
current road bikes have tighter wheelbases than an old, old Schwinn
like I rode to school 50 years ago?
How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just
barely able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

Certain geometry may make no hands riding easier, but certainly
heavier wheels make it easier. This may help explain why the bikes
you remember where easier.
Saying that it scares you makes me think it is difficult for you to
ride no hands because you are tense and nervous about it. Go with
the flow!
Steering is by moving the seat side to side with your butt. This is
easier to do if you are sitting up vertical. You can ease your way
into this position by perhaps just holding the bars with one hand
and gradually work your way to just finger-tips, then no-hands.
Especially now that it is getting cold, I see large number of kids
riding MTB's no hands at pretty slow speeds on their way to school
each morning. They ride no hands because they have their hands in
the jacket pockets (not wise!). I guess gloves are for squares.

Jacket pockets or even pants pockets are far warmer than gloves. The
trouble with pants today is they are worn so low and are so baggy that
pockets are hard to reach so jacket pockets are closer and accessible.

Jobst Brandt

Perhaps true, but in the context of riding a bike no hands, I'd prefer
cold hands or gloves.

Call me overly cautious, but I don't run up stairs with my hands in my
pockets either!

Joseph

Colin Campbell said:

Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to ride
much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got "smoked"
the last 5 - 6 miles.).

So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20 minutes
or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I could do this as a
kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that because current road bikes
have tighter wheelbases than an old, old Schwinn like I rode to school
50 years ago?

How do you teach yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just barely
able to go downhill, and mostly coast.

A buddy and I thought we'd try to ride this morning, but when I got to
the meeting place, the sun was a brown disc in the sky, so I decided to
scrap riding for today.

Before going home, I rode around in the neighborhood, as I'd done the
previous two days. Today, I rode down the long, gentle slope twice with
no hands while pedaling much of the way, and I made it back up about 60%
of the way with no hands and pedaling.

Practice, practice, practice....

I think I'm gonna make it. (But I'm not gonna try to carry a box on my
head!)

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/4JG30

Joseph Santaniello said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Due to the Southern California wildfires, it's been too polluted to
> ride much the last two days (Monday wasn't perfect, but I only got
> "smoked" the last 5 - 6 miles.).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> So, just to say I rode, I pedaled around my neighborhood for 20
> minutes or so each day. I practiced riding without hands. I
> could do this as a kid, but these days, it scares me. Is that
> because current road bikes have tighter wheelbases than an old,
> old Schwinn like I rode to school 50 years ago? How do you teach
> yourself to ride hands free? So far, I'm just barely able to go
> downhill, and mostly coast.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Certain geometry may make no hands riding easier, but certainly
heavier wheels make it easier. This may help explain why the
bikes you remember where easier. Saying that it scares you makes
me think it is difficult for you to ride no hands because you are
tense and nervous about it. Go with the flow!

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Steering is by moving the seat side to side with your butt. This
is easier to do if you are sitting up vertical. You can ease your
way into this position by perhaps just holding the bars with one
hand and gradually work your way to just finger-tips, then
no-hands. Especially now that it is getting cold, I see large
number of kids riding MTB's no hands at pretty slow speeds on
their way to school each morning. They ride no hands because they
have their hands in the jacket pockets (not wise!). I guess
gloves are for squares.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Jacket pockets or even pants pockets are far warmer than gloves.
The trouble with pants today is they are worn so low and are so
baggy that pockets are hard to reach so jacket pockets are closer
and accessible.

Quoted message said:

Perhaps true, but in the context of riding a bike no hands, I'd
prefer cold hands or gloves.

Quoted message said:

Call me overly cautious, but I don't run up stairs with my hands in
my pockets either!

I ride substantial distances in winter with hands in pants pockets,
never touching the bars. Typically HWY84 from Skylonda summit
(1500ft) to the beach at HWY1 (15 miles) which easily can be ridden in
a big gear (no shifting required).

Running with hands in pockets is a different matter, swinging arms
being an essential part of running, especially up stairs. Next, you
might suggest climbing ladders with hands in pockets.

Jobst Brandt

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I ride substantial distances in winter with hands in pants pockets,
never touching the bars. Typically HWY84 from Skylonda summit
(1500ft) to the beach at HWY1 (15 miles) which easily can be ridden in
a big gear (no shifting required).
Jobst Brandt

Both hands in the pocket while riding?
I used to love riding with no hands too, until...
I broke my left clavicle about two months ago, both hands on the top portion
of the bar, but my thumbs not wrapped around. I hit a small rock just
right, enough for the unstable steering to cause me to go down. It happened
in a split second. No fun riding in a ambulance with a broken clavicle.
-tom

Tom Nakashima said:

Quoted message said:

I ride substantial distances in winter with hands in pants pockets,
never touching the bars. Typically HWY84 from Skylonda summit
(1500ft) to the beach at HWY1 (15 miles) which easily can be ridden
in a big gear (no shifting required). Jobst Brandt

Quoted message said:

Both hands in the pocket while riding?

Quoted message said:

I used to love riding with no hands too, until... I broke my left
clavicle about two months ago, both hands on the top portion of the
bar, but my thumbs not wrapped around. I hit a small rock just
right, enough for the unstable steering to cause me to go down. It
happened in a split second. No fun riding in a ambulance with a
broken clavicle.

You'll find that riding upright, no-hands, is less hazardous than
just leaning on the bars, because you are not going to fall over the
bars against which you were leaning when upright.

Jobst Brandt

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I ride substantial distances in winter with hands in pants pockets,
never touching the bars. Typically HWY84 from Skylonda summit
(1500ft) to the beach at HWY1 (15 miles) which easily can be ridden
in a big gear (no shifting required). Jobst Brandt

Quoted message said:

Tom Nakashima said:

Both hands in the pocket while riding?
I used to love riding with no hands too, until... I broke my left
clavicle about two months ago, both hands on the top portion of the
bar, but my thumbs not wrapped around. I hit a small rock just
right, enough for the unstable steering to cause me to go down. It
happened in a split second. No fun riding in a ambulance with a
broken clavicle.

Quoted message said:

You'll find that riding upright, no-hands, is less hazardous than
just leaning on the bars, because you are not going to fall over the
bars against which you were leaning when upright.

Absolutely right. The bike finds its way 'no hands' but falling off the
front of a handlebar is dangerous.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971