jim p

Get a nice tri recumbent and the trackstand is a lot easier. I was practicing trackstanding and like magic the bike shot out behind me and I was airborn over the bars and tucking to roll on my right shoulder. I decided that this was more abuse than I wanted to go through so no more trackstanding for me.

big chainring 

I'm turning 50 in a few months. Raced bikes in my youth.

Some tips on track stand.
Easier if your front wheel is on a slight uphill, that way you can roll back, pedal forward, roll back etc. When first starting out you can turn the bars to the left and grab the front wheel with your right hand and shuffle it forward and back.
Learn to hop the rear wheel when rolling really slow. Pull up on the pedals and shift your weight to hop the wheel one way or the other. Helps when you feel like you are loosing balance, hop the rear wheel and regain youre balance.

me showing off - rolling front wheel with right foot.

ronbo

Tried a couple today on my criss cross on the katy trail. I waited until I was good and tired. Did one for a short time. I hit soft gravel rolling back on the second one, stopping me dead and causing a near fall....don't have the reflexes yet to just push back before I wanted to. That was enough for today...on the road will be easier. I used to be able to stop dead in the road and simply balance the with the front wheel turned to the left and the front brake on. That was on my road bike. Never really cared that much about it on the criss cross. Slow was good enough off road to get me up and over fallen trees, etc...unless they were small enough to bunny hop at trail speed.

TromboneAl

I can see how it can be done on a slight incline, where you can rock back or forth to keep the bike under you. However, the logic of working against the brakes on flat ground doesn't make any sense to me. I'd think that you need some way of causing the wheel to roll backwards. Am I missing something?

ronbo

It's a balance act on flat ground. You have to be very, very comfotable and very still. Rolling isn't part of the equation anymore if the ground is flat...unless you use your hand or foot like the photo above. Frame flex and muscle twitch is all you have on flat ground.

Much easier using the crown in the road...that's plenty on most roads.

God bless!

-Ron

daredevil

I worked on it a while today. I suck.

Yen

As a new Club Tombay member, I think I'll get the rhythm of clipless before I attempt this. It's impressive to see though. I often chuckle to myself as I wonder what other [non-cycling] drivers must be thinking as they see it.

cooker

I hadn't tried it for a long time so I went out today and I could barely do it for ten seconds, and I had to roll the bike 4 or 5 inches each way. I need to get my groove back.

gcottay

I never could manage a real track stand on any freewheeled bike, so shamelessly cheat. Unless the light is extremely long, six or eight feet is usually enough on a DF and play about does help pass the waiting time.

On my SWB recumbent the cheating gets ridiculous. Forty feet of leeway might be enough. For a short light. On a good day. With a nice headwind.

cooker

Some rider on BF a while back was explaining that he would lock the brakes with the wheel turned a bit, and lightly rock the bike, balancing based on the fact that the contact patch would roll a little bit back and forth (left and right) as he rocked

limeylew

I have found that it only takes 3 things. Practice, practice and practice. :-)

Part of what I do is, every time I take a shower, I stand on my right leg, focus on a spot on the floor about 6 - 8 feet in front of me and dry off my left leg, being careful to wipe in between each toe, then work up to my knee. I then repeat this on the other leg.

This gets me used to the idea of finding a focal point to concentrate on when in a track stand.

Another thing is that I use toeclips, so not being able to 'unclip' becomes a non issue.

Lately I've been riding a bike with a 3-speed hub and I find this much easier to track stand on than my fixies. Having said that, my steering geometry is quite different from my 3-speed to my fixies.

Realistically, I don't stay 'up there' for very long but my favorite thing is to stop at 4-way stop sign, take one hand off the bars and wave a motorist on my right to come across.

I'm 68 and hope to good at this by the time I reach 98. :-)