caloso

I trackstand my freewheel bike all the time. Use the crown of the road to push against/rock back from. It's not super useful except when you want to get away quickly when the light turns.

prooftheory

This bit almost always involves being able to stay in control while moving toward the center of the track (i.e. down hill). Regardless, there should be a different name between simply not moving forward so you don't have to unclip at the light and what is effectively just a trick that fixed-gear riders do. It certainly is much more easy to accomplish with fixed gears.

fietsbob

Starting on a hill that is steep, I have turned down hill to get momentum,
and then turned back around and went uphill again once i was moving again..

cyccommute 

You kind of ignored the starting line part of the post. Starts for track are made on the level. Still "trackstanding". And if you want to go ahead and calls it "the trick that fixed-gear riders (and some freewheel riders) do so that they don't have to put their foot down at stops and is very similar to the stand that track racers do because we use the irregularities of the road to do it", go right ahead. The rest of us will use a bit of brevity and call it a trackstand.

MagicHour

Along with all the great tips everyone else has mentioned, try mountain biking if you ever get the chance. Riding singletrack trails for a bit in the late 90s did wonders for my road bike handling skills and balance, which more or less stuck with me to this day.
Barring access to a mountain bike or trails however, the stop-start chaos and obstacles of urban riding can build similar skills; or you can even take whatever bike you currently have and try practicing on grass, park trails etc. You can do things like try to go up little inclines, bunny hops, looking behind you, riding no hands etc.

caloso

You'll get there the same way as you get to Carnegie Hall.

Find a flat, light traffic road with a good bike lane or shoulder. Practice riding right on the line. Be smooth: no wobble, no bobbing, just turn the pedals over and focus on keeping the top half of your body perfectly still. Now, keep pedaling but take a hand off. Keep focusing on being smooth and straight on the line. Same deal with no hands. Same deal with looking back. Be smooth, stay straight on the line.

Work it into your daily commute or whenever you're just riding around.

prooftheory

Yes, but what they are doing can be done downhill as I said. Anyway, I retract the whole comment. When I said "you can't really do track stands ..." I should have said something like "you can't do real track-bike track stands ..." which obviously isn't all that relevant.

MichaelW

Most children who ride a bike spend hours upon hours in the summer riding around in circles and figure 8, doing slow bike races, slalom courses, mini jumps, seesaws, picking cans off the ground.
Track stands are a really useful skill and good way to improve your balance and responsiveness. One of the key elements of childhood bike play is to keep your feet off the ground for as long as possible.
Learning basic bike handling skills whilst clipped in will result in falls which will bruise your confidence.
As with any complex skill, you have to unpack the elements, practice them in isolation then rebuild the action.

Falling off the bike safely comes naturally to most children but it is another skill you have to learn.

Phil_gretz

A couple of old tricks:

- to look behind over the left shoulder, remove your left hand and place it on your left thigh. This serves to lock your shoulders relative to your hips somewhat, so when you then turn your head, your handlebars won't follow and alter your line. Try it, it works.

Also, to see the cyclist immediately behind, look under your armpit.

- to become comfortable handling a water bottle, practice removing and replacing it without looking. You don't necessarily have to drink, just practice maintaining your line and awareness while you remove a hand and touch the bottle. Then practice removing a hand and lifting the bottle, and then replacing the bottle - all the while looking forward. Do this repetitively, you'll get it.

PG

Chris516

In terms of pulling over to the side at a red light, putting my right foot on the curb and left foot on the pedal, I don't do it. When I am at a red, I continue to 'take the lane. I don't pull over to the side of the road.

In terms of looking behind you, use your peripheral vision and/or, get some mirrors.

In terms of signaling, I know I should use hand signals. But like you, they make me feel wildly unsafe.

In terms of getting my water bottle while riding, the same problem applies.

In terms of no-hands, just don't do it in traffic.

Machka 

And for that, he'll have to move off the pavement of the parking lot, and onto the grass.

howeeee

Riding no handed seems like the easiest thing to me,,just as easy as riding one handed. The track stand thing seems so so kewl,,I am 60 and just started riding a fixie, I tried a few times to learn a track stand...alas I dont think I will ever be able to do it lol

AdrianFly

Love all these suggestions.. will try them all tonight.

fietsbob

Ride Rollers all winter.. the attention you pay , not riding off the sides of the rollers ,

pays off in the summer by riding is a near straight line.

Recycle

Check some of the 1 minute Ride Smart videos from the League of American Bicyclists. https://www.bikeleague.org/ridesmartvideos