wolfchild

I was never in a situation where I felt it was necessary to ride no handed...If I need to remove or put on a piece of clothing or stretch myself out during a longer ride or eat a snack, I just stop do what I need to do and continue riding. I had no idea it was such a terrible thing for a cyclist to stop for a few minutes, I learn something new on BF everyday.

DrIsotope

I don't recall anyone chastising you for stopping, but you basically called everyone who dares ride no-handed a moron. So methinks thou dost protesteth too much.

But then again, I categorize the ability to drink, eat, or add/remove layers while riding to be valuable skills, and not reckless tomfoolery.

Metacortex

Talk about no-hands, some Incredible bike handling skills here:

AlmostTrick

I think the main issue holding back those who can't ride no handed is they're too tense. Sit up, relax and loosen up the entire body, pedal at a moderate but steady rate, and release the bars. Notice how the hips and lean "steer" the bike. Once you get it you'll even be able to take curves and turns without touching the bars.

Reynolds 

Riding no handed isn't difficult if fork and frame are well aligned, although some bikes are easier than others.
Now riding cross handed, that can be a challenge...

Kapusta

rgconner

Taters gonna tate.

Daniel4

I think it's only psychological. It's like swimming. Some people just can't dunk their heads in water.

All the physics says the bicycle is really stable. The two rotating wheels have high angular momentum so it would take a bit of force to knock them over if it's going fast. There's a youtube video demonstrating how far an empty bicycle can travel down a hill. Pretty far.

I've even seen a fellow pedalling pretty slowly with no hands while texting. When the bike tended to flop over one side, the front wheel would naturally turn in that direction preventing the fall but instead continue the rolling turn.

If you can ride a stationary bike at the gym with no-hands, you should be able to do it on a real bike.

Doctor Morbius

Well, the first thing you gotta do is cut your hands off. After that it's pretty simple.

colombo357

Step one is to find a mom and tell her to look.

Step two is to win a bike race.

The rest falls into place.

Darth Lefty 

Well, seems like Facebook links are killed. Find Antoine Boulard on the "People Are Awesome" page. About a minute of FAST downhill mountain biking with no hands

downhillmaster

Troul 

right.....

Ald1 

Well it's a skill that IMHO improves your riding WITH hands. Right on to the poster that said you can't do it tense. So when you can you become more relaxed and effeicient on the bike "sans hands".

Milton Keynes

I can't really ride no handed on my skinny tire bike, but as someone pointed out above it's easier with wider tires. I just got back from a short ride on my mountain bike which has wider tires, and I put this to the test. It was pretty easy to ride no-handed for a short time, even while pedaling. But with my skinny tire bike I think I'm going to need a bit of practice.

Milton Keynes

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

JonathanGennick 

The only way for me to get the correct balance for no handed riding is to take the leap of faith and sit bolt upright on the seat from where I am then unable to cover the grips. I also need some speed, so I can't go no-handed slowly enough to not worry about crashing. Going from 700c to 650b tires made it more difficult for me to ride no handed. Putting 26er wheels on the same bike made it even more difficult. Swapping forks for one that was longer made no-handed riding noticeably easier. And finally, don't discount the effects of age.

GailT

I'm guessing the geometry of the frames makes more difference than the width of the tires. Does your mountain bike have more trail than your road bike?

A smaller wheel reduces trail, so that makes sense. A longer fork might increase trail, depending on the difference in the rake.

wphamilton

I learned on my other thread that true serious bikers don't stop, not even for coffee. It's all about being serious, if you're a serious cyclist, and why should no-hands riding be any different?

But seriously, it doesn't have to be necessary to do it, does it? Maybe it's just a good idea at the time, and it's better to be able than to not know how. When I was healing up from collarbone surgery I couldn't actually use that arm much, and I'm pretty sure that the "no hands" skill came in handy riding with basically one hand. And if I'd have lost the use of the other hand somehow, I could have still gotten home so there's that also.

DaveZ

I used to see this young guy on the bike trail, riding along, juggling.
Haven't seen him in a couple years. I sure wish I had gotten a picture!

Bandera

Skills that are important for the cohesion and safety of riders in a pace-line may not be so important to solo riders.
That said being able to rotate to the back of the group while holding a straight line, not overlapping wheels and keeping pace while adjusting shorts, clearing one's nose, taking a drink, eating a snack, swapping empty bottles for full or doffing/donning a vest are SOP and require calm confident bike handling, including being able to ride hands-off when appropriate.

Solo efforts against the clock whether casual or as part of a formal event are not well served by the Zero Speed of stopping for non-mechanical faults.

As always, suit yourself.

-Bandera

nilfunks

Start small. Take your hands off without moving them far from the bars for like 5 seconds, then increase it. I guess that's how I learned when I was 10 y/o.

Troul 

Pot holes will throw a wrench in the effort of no hands. Here its almost not possible for more than 5 bike lengths but thats contingent on the conditions

Milton Keynes

Yes, the road bike has a straight fork, while the mountain bike's forks are bent forward slightly.

GailT

The rake actually reduces trail compared to a straight fork, but there are probably other differences in the frame geometry that give it more tail even with the raked fork. The Dave Moulton blog post that I linked to above explains this in more detail.