Lazarus Short

This evening, it was already fairly dark as I pulled up at the front yard gate. I got off the bike, took a last drink from the water bottle, and heard a freewheel. Looking up, I saw a dark rider on a dark bike - nothing unusual, but as he went past I saw that he was riding with only his left hand on the bar. The other hand was on the bar of a second, riderless bicycle to his right. He was riding straight and true down the street, into the darkness. I called after him, "Now that's bike handling!"

My other story is seeing, years ago, a rider taking his jersey off over his head with both hands WHILE RIDING. He wobbled just a little, but did not lose direction, and he was quick. I was awed.

Anyone else with a story of amazing/awesome bike handling?

bengreen79

I've seen people escorting an empty bike while riding another one. I always wonder if they stole it.

I've personally had some very pro-looking saves (necessitated by user error). Most recently, I locked up both wheels on my road bike on a wet morning slowing down to get onto a MUP entrance. I skidded onto the entrance, headed straight for one of those concrete light poles with no traction. Somehow I managed to skid my back wheel around farther, release the brakes and get rolling enough to save myself. Anyone who saw the second half of the incident probably thought I had some mad bike handling skills. Anyone who saw the first half saw an idiot riding too fast for conditions.

cyclist2000

When I was in high school I worked at a bike shop and when my sisters bought their bikes from the shop I would ride then home that way.

downtube42

Ghost riding a bike; done it a few times. Starting and stopping can be touchy but other than that it's not really that great a trick. It seems like when your brain knows how to ride one bike it knows how to ride two.

IthaDan 

Plus, you don't have to put your foot down at lights!

awfulwaffle 

One time, I was going around a bend in the trail right next to a river. The trail at that particular part had a tree that leaned towards the water and needed to be ducked around, and the trail itself was sloped and about 5 feet up off the river. Right as I rounded it, I yelled to my buddy behind me. I had gotten halfway through "Be careful, tricky turn, don't fall in!" when I realized that I had leaned too far and was on my way over the edge head first.

Is that what you meant?

vol

Those who escort an empty bike, I wonder how they'll be able to maneuver to avoid an impending accident.

Machka 

You need to go to The Netherlands or Taiwan.

The most interesting one I saw was someone cycling down the road with a cat carrier in one hand and an umbrella in the other.

Rootman

This is probably NOT what you are asking for but it's the first thing that comes to mind.

When I was a kid I rode my big brothers English Racer, it was way too big for me. I was all af about 10 years old rapidly tooling down the sidewalk on this too big bike. I spotted a girl I had a crush on down the block and decided to show off for her. I was planning to skid to a halt in front of her and dismount all in one motion, what I DID was grab too much front brake and flew over the handlebars. In slow motion a million things went through my mind. I was wondering if breaking a bone would hurt, I was pondering what I would do the rest of the summer as I sat around in a cast. What I managed to do was do a mid-air somersault and landed perfectly on the roll and managed to jump up on both feet. The bike was a few feet away teetering and barely moving towards me, I grabbed it before it fell and stood there grinning at the girl, not a scratch on me. I was SURE she would be impressed by my wonderful bike handling skills. She looked at me, screwed up her face in a grimace and said "You're weird!" and walked off.

tagaproject6

A story? A video is better...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZmJtYaUTa0

Lazarus Short

Five minutes, twenty-one seconds, and the palms of my hands were sweating through the whole thing. I think any stories we can come up with will just be lame after this video...

Lazarus Short

Good story! It gave me a good laugh. Now, is there a part two, where you do a last-second save, or did your buddy fish you and your bike out of the river?

awfulwaffle 

Haha, thanks. Unfortunately, part 2 was indeed me handing my bike up to my friend and wading in chest high water to a part of the river where the bank was a little lower. With just over 100lb difference between us in my favor, his first comment was "Good thing you didn't get knocked out (my helmet smacked the bottom of the river), I don't think I could have pulled you out of there".

Part 3 was me completely tearing down my bike to get water out of and regrease the bearings and fork guts later that evening after we finished our ride. Amazingly, my little under-saddle tool pack didn't get any water in it at all. Gotta be grateful for the little things.

StephenH

This last weekend, I was riding the tandem when another rider in our group moved over in front of me. Since I'm not an expert paceline rider and since that doesn't work very good with a tandem behind a single bike anyway and since I value my skin and that of my stoker, I moved to the left, thus allowing some extra room and so we all got home safely.

Lazarus Short

That's enough reason to seal all the relief holes in the frame, external AND internal.

Steve B.

Buddy of mine is someone I hate following on a mt. bike and will NEVER go skiing with, such is his handling skills and sense of balance.

He had a slow leak in his rear road bike tire one ride, made a 90 degree right turn on asphalt and I heard the scraping of the rim on the road. He had rolled the clincher. He also recovered and got the bike straight to a stop.

Same guy on same bike, a Klein TT bike from '94 that has too many miles on it, has it's stem break at the bar clamp. The entire bar assembly, which is the Profile cowhorns/aero bar set up, rolls downward, it's a 1" headset/25.4 clamp design, full wrap around setup so the bar stayed with the stem. Kevin rides the bike to the side of the road, the aero bar is scrapping against the front tire. I've no idea how he recovered.

KevinF

I was riding with my friend Don on Virginia's Skyline Drive once. It was September, so it was fairly cool. For those not familair with Skyline Drive, it follows the ridge of the Blue Ridge mountains, so it's long ups followed by long downs. It was cool enough that you'd need a jacket for the descents, but the climbs were long enough that you wouldn't want a jacket on for the climb.

I would just stop at the top and bottom and take my jacket on and off as needed. Don would just sit up, take his hands off the bars, take his jacket off, fold it up, and put it into his jersey pocket while starting up, and on the way down, he'd reverse the process. I was in awe.

vol

Show me one that can do those tricks without being hit by cars amid rush hour traffic in Manhattan or on a dangerous highway.

Machka 

Like I said before, you need to go to The Netherlands.

The thing that had me awestruck about the cyclist carrying the cat carrier in one hand and umbrella in the other was the fact that he was doing it in heavy vehicle, bicycle, and motorcycle traffic. I had been cycling through all that about an hour earlier and had my hands resting on my brake levers. And about half an hour later, we witnessed a motorcycle/bicycle accident. But there he was with the cat carrier and umbrella almost oblivious to it all.

Machka 

Another example ... I cycled behind a guy who removed his tights while riding.

vol

Maybe that made him highly visible and the drivers were either curious or concerned about the cat's safety?

Machka 

He wouldn't have been particularly "highly visible" among the hundreds of other cyclists each carrying odd items of one sort or another ... or several other people of varying ages.

That's the norm there. The umbrella was quite commonly carried ... the cat carrier only stood out as slightly more unique than some of the other items.

awfulwaffle 

You can say that again. I doubt much of the water made it in around the bottom bracket or headset, mostly through the unused v-brake bosses on the back of the bike. Never thought about sealing em, but that's a good idea.

bengreen79

Children can be very perceptive

Lazarus Short

OK, here's a video of a crazy Norwegian riding his bike down a steep highway, facing BACKWARDS:

https://sploid.gizmodo.com/crazy-guy-...394/@caseychan