Originally Posted by
ScottCommutes
My suggestion for learning a track stand:
Learn it exactly like you will do it - on your bike, on the flat, unsupported, moving in and out of it. Go really slow. Stop. Hold it until you can't, pedal a bit to recover. Repeat. Each time try to get a few more milliseconds out of the stop phase. Do this often - like for five minutes at the start of every ride.
Several years ago I decided “ there’s no reason a 60 year old man cannot learn to track stand”. It being the dead of winter, I made a shallow ramp from scrap wood, maybe about 5 degree slope and about the size of dinner tray. Set that on the shop floor next to my vise. I clamped a board in the vise to grab onto as I was falling off. Lined my geared mtn bike up on that small ramp, wheel turned about 40 deg to the left and got started. MANY failures but I could just grab that board each time then restart. With no fear of falling I kept at it. A couple minutes each day. Finally I held the track stand 1second. Many failures then 3 seconds. Then 5, 10, 15. I got pretty good at it. I still practice on occasion. Yeah, it’s pretty much a “parlor trick”.
For me there’s no real use “in the wild” other than standing next to some car who has pulled into a pedestrian crossing and stopped for the light. It really alarms them. BUT the very low speed balance it taught me has been very helpful during all sorts of riding. And I always win the slow races with my grand kids.
BTW: while learning, I had to retrain my brain. Since back when I was a kid I was “right footed”, always stopped the bike with my right foot forward. As I live in the USA, I had to change that - get into the habit of stopping with my left foot forward. No worries. Did that too.