I can’t track stand. I can do a pseudo track stand but It’s not legitimate, like a roadie who can’t bunny hop without being clipped in. Frankly it’s rather embarrassing, I’m worried people won’t take me seriously, but I cannot do it despite much practicing. Anyone else have this issue?

THIS is what you consider one of your issues?... and no, I can't do a perfect track stand, I'm better with dynamic balance, don't give it much thought though.

As a coach of mine once said, practice doesn't make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Maybe you just don't have good balance, or are practicing wrong. I can't do much of a track stand, but it's enough to deal with waiting for traffic and that's all I need.

Never like seen by racers, or any rider with exceptional handling skills, but certainly as a usable skill. On the streets, at least where I live and ride, track stands confuse a lot of motorists and pedestrians. I get a lot of " what is this guy doing?" looks.

I have to imagine that this is way down on the list of reasons why people don’t take you seriously. At least people around here.

I can't track stand for longer than 10 seconds. But I don't care and if the stop is longer than that I just put a foot down. As for more useful information. GCN posted a How to Trackstand recently on YouTube

In countries where driving is on the right hand side of the road, the term track stand isn't really accurate. In order to remain as stationary as possible, the rider has to balance using the crown of the road which is to their left. In a velodrome, the uphill side of the surface is to the right. I can remain stationary through a stoplight cycle on the road here, but when I tried it in a velodrome I was totally thrown off by having the uphill on my right side

Once you leave the velodrome, being able to track stand well is less of a strategic need. IMO!

On multi geared bikes it might make for more chain wear whenever the chain is at greater angles from front ring to the rear.

I mean other cyclists IRL

I’ll bet it holds true for them as well.

On a track bike (or a fixie), you don't need a crowned road or a sloped velodrome to do a track stand.

Since these bikes let you pedal forwards and backwards, you can track stand on a perfectly level road -- or even a slightly downward sloping road.

However, a fixed gear bike has to have a certain amount of slack in the chain that can result in play between pedalling forward and backwards making it difficult to switch between pedalling forwards and backwards. This can make it difficult to balance on a perfectly level road. A bit of a slope in the road allows the rider to not have to switch
A downwards sloping road does not require the rider to switch pedalling direction

If you want other cyclists to take you seriously, I would start by wearing a shirt or jersey. Let your legs do the talking.

Do you really think anyone cares if you can track stand? If someone did care, why would that concern you? Not that many roadies do it, actually. Probably even fewer care if others can.

It's probably the nitrile glove patch that keeps people from taking you seriously. Or the bizarre bike fit. Or the bizarre wardrobe. Or the bizarre stalking on climbs. Or the bizarre stalking of random females. Or....

If I had a velodrome near me I would love to see a nice stand at the track maybe selling lemonade and Italian ice in the summer. Would be nice.

I don’t have this issue. Outside of track racing where it has a tactical use, I think it is silly and a waste of time. But then I ride flats and shoes I can run in, so on the rare occasion I’m waiting at a stoplight, I just step off and wait. And probably drink some water. YMMV.

Otto

I spent 25 years commuting into downtown Montreal. During that time I very often came towards traffic lights that would from my experience soon change for me. If my feet were already on my pedals I would much easily be able to get going again. I wasn't ever thinking about drinking

As I said, it varies. I don’t commute by bike, so I’m rarely at a light and the ones I do use most are favoring the cross traffic on the busier road, so it’s usually a decent wait.

Otto

Your experience is very different from mine. My experience is based on 25 years of commuting often in downtown traffic. My skills are derived from that

Riding to the brewery, I sometimes need to do a short stand while waiting at one busy street. On the way home, I don't do it because I don't want to chance breaking my growler.

No one takes you seriously?

I can do a track stand for as long as most traffic lights take to turn green. One thing I never could get the hang of is riding a unicycle. I spent several hours trying and finally gave up. Also a cool trick I never could master for more than 30 seconds or so was riding a bike backwards ie sitting on the handle bars and facing the back of the bike and pedaling. I bet I spent well over 20 hours trying to do it and usually after 15 or so seconds would have to put my feet down. My uncle could ride a bike that way all over the place even when he was well into his 70's. He never got tired of telling people his family was too poor to buy a bike with a seat so he had to learn by sitting on the handlebars. I think he got a kick out of the fact we all tried and could never master it.

They don't.