You NEED To Learn These 6 Bike Handling Skills!
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- In this video, we're going to get you riding no-handed, hopping up pavement kerbs, looking behind you, riding in a straight line, bunny hopping & riding really really slowly. But why? They are essential skills for cycling plus they help build your bike handling skills and make you a better, more confident rider.
Intro 0:00
0:35 Ride Slowly
1:46 No Hands
2:57 Looking behind
4:10 Straight line
5:00 Bunny hop
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What one skill improved your cycling? Maybe it's not on Si's list? Let us know 🙌
How to proper ride corners. That was game changer for me.
What's the 6th skill?
@@jiriweiss4887 We bet you don't do it like this 👉czcams.com/video/b6MZMENPXS8/video.html
@@gcnno i didn't do it like this but in a next ride i will try to use it. Thanks
@@tobiasbouma4071😂
One little tip for looking over your shoulder without deviating from your line is to try to touch your chin on your shoulder, or even the top of your collar bone when looking back. It prevents your opposite arm from moving, which is what causes you to swerve. I learned that from riding on the track, and it makes all the difference.
Top tip that! 👌
Thanks legend!
Just tried this. Works really well. Good tip.
Great tip! Great too people sharing tips in the comments 🙌
Will try next ride !! Thanks
It's summer and I came to a crossing of pedestrians... slowed, paused, did a track stand then started forward. The looks on people's faces are worth every single minute of practice
Nothing looks cooler than a track stand! 😎
I commute 31km most days to work and 31km back. My feet don’t unclip until I reach my destination.
Good video. As a former motorcycle rider (started as a 16 year old and sold the last bike when approaching 70), all the same skills apply except the bunny hop. Started serious bicycling 6 years ago at 72. So now, at 78, I’ll set out to master the bunnyhop 😁😁 thank you, Si!
I teach track riding to school and adults from zero riding to full laps on an Olympic standard track, the first 5 skills are super important and I teach all of them. Not much cause for the bunny hop on the track (hard to do on a Fixie too!) so add starting and stopping without putting a foot down.
Super cool that you teach track skills! 🙌 It must be rewarding to see riders go from zero to enjoying themselves!
A good tip for riding slowly is to drag the rear brake. This gives you resistance to ride against and makes it much easier. I think Si was doing this
Yes, or even use both brakes and keep pedaling through them. Makes you very stable, also works against skidding and against tipping sideways (in a group ride eg)
Great tip Paul! Is this a skill you spend time practicing? 🚴
Being able to hold a good track stand is also a skill that pays dividends down the line and impresses. Taking your road bike to the pump track is a skill builder. And a last bit of unsolicited advice, ride single track on you gravel bike.
Brilliant video Si!
Pump tracks and road bikes are a great mix! Keep it steady and watch those skills grow 🙌
Love this, I can kinda do all these (except the bunny hop effectively) things but the tips just make complete sense and I’m gonna go back to start developing the skills as it really will help as a 60 year old veteran - who learned all these things as intuitively as a kid in England - to my Thai friends who have never cycled as a child and start in their 20’s to 40’s
Cheers 👍🏽😃💖
Oh, and by the way, we actually do have venomous snakes in Thailand?😮
Looking behind me without veering in to traffic was pretty helpful :)
It's such an important skill! 🙌
I'm one of those people who didn't learn to ride a bike until I was an adult and never really practiced things like bunny hops. Being able to get up onto a kerb smoothly is definitely something I need to practice.
After years and years on Zwift (smart trainer) I went back to rollers this year ... skills levels uplift ... proper riding !!!! Track standing - slow riding level 11 !!
Me too. Rollers just feel so much more natural.
It's amazing to me how quickly most of these have come back to me, having not ridden much since my teens until now (I'm older than Si, but not by much!) Never been good at the no hands riding though. The bunny hop is a very useful one, much of my local NCR is tree lined and there are roots under the path that are like very big speed bumps to a bike.
Very good video. All very necessary skills. Too many people lack a lot of those. The looking back and steering away is a thing I encounter too often.
For some of the items (slow speed in particular), if you use clipless pedals, consider switching to flats until you're pretty comfortable in case you have to put a foot down. After that, continue the practice with your cleats so you know how to unclip quickly and are still comfortable.
Riding the line on the side of the road is a partial substitute (and good staring practice) for riding the curb, but be sure to ride slowly while doing it.
Lots of useful information here (as usual from GCN). I've been practising riding hands-free for the last couple of weeks with little success. I'll try to consciously use my hip to balance the bike from now on.
One thing I like to do is ride hands free up an incline where I'm in low gear and having to use some exertion on the pedals. I may only be going 7 mph but I find it great for enhancing my balance.
Of course the bunny hop! I need to relearn that skill. Used to do it constantly on my BMX bike back when I was a kid, but now at 44 and with the terrible roads here in Puerto Rico, it's nice to have that skill. Also the slow riding, especially when riding through a traffic jam.
Great Video Si! Love the Bunny Hop tip...
Good tips! I need to learn these asap as a new bike riding I need to go practice
Great video. I agree that slow riding and surplace are good for developing a sense of balance.
6 perfect essential skills! Excellent episode.
It's absolutely true that stuff learned as a child sticks and comes off way easier than learning it afterwards. All I did when I was young was skidding around on my 90s MTB but I learned to ride without hands and pushed myself to ride a kilometer or more, taking turns, etc. and it came back quick after a 10-15 years of hardly riding bicycles at all. However, there are other contributing factors in addition to skill and training: geometry (trail, steerer tube angle?) and tire width, it is pretty easy on my endurance bike with 25 mm tires but my older bike with 23 mm and more of a traditional frame is way harder to control.
I love this type of videos
Finding a spot to practice skills or "session" as the cool kids call it definitely translates to better bike handling skills! It's also good old fashioned fun... I'm 41 and still practice wheelies, bunny hops and trying to ride on lines constantly!
Never too old for a wheelie! 🙌
How to ride over a car that is parked in a cycle lane would be a useful skill to learn.
Yeah these were definitely things done as a kid and a teen among friends just as little bit of competition and fun, hopping especially
Used to ride with no hands all the time as a teenager now I'm scared of crashing lol and lost that skill :(
Very helpful 😊
I have been cycling since I was five. All of these skills I had once upon a time.I cannot do a bunny hop anymore but I can for some reason jump kerbs. I still practice riding in a straight line and cycling slowly. I always look behind to see a break in traffic for right turns. but no longer have the confidence to ride with no hands. Can still track stand though. I feel I have lost some bike skills as I have gotten older suppose I can no longer do cartwheels or handstands either. This video makes me nostalgic for my BMX
No-handing depends on the bike as well. I can do it confidently on my cross bike, but my road bike does not want to go in a straight line that much. It has to do with the geometry ofbthe bikes.
Any bike should be able to be ridden no hands. Your bike fit plays a key role in this. If you are having trouble, could be the bike is not set up correctly or is the wrong size for you. Also, too loose or too tight headset preload will cause you grief.
@@larrymcgoldrick3471 Not true. Though perhaps true on modern bikes. Geometry, but more importantly fork wheel flop can make some bikes unridable no-handed. But true on the other points you mentioned including worn headsets creating a detent in the cup or cone.
Loved the snake! ❤ My son has one, long, similar to ‘Ka’ (The Jungle Book by Kipling).
I need to get better at my bunny hop as well. I use to be decent at it when I was a kid. I often come across large pot holes in the road that are unavoidable. Sometimes I clear them and sometimes I don't.
Essential for riding along our wonderful NYC infrastructure - hopping over every crack, every pothole, every curb, my SS frame can take it.
Must look cool too 😎
Bunny hop is my most absent skill and hands free is only sorta there. BTW a great video
0:38 got a belly laugh out of me. Thank you, Si!
No hands is really good. I feel it's most useful when I'm out on a really long ride and need to change my clothing in some way, zip or unzip a jacket for instance. and also, if you are on a many hours ride, it's a really good way to change your position, it feels very good when you've been hunched over the bars for a few hours.
Nothing feels better than that mid ride stretch 🧘
Another skill covered on a previous GCN video is standing still on your bike. Helpful at traffic lights when you don’t want to unclip because you can see it’s about to turn green.
Stopping for a period of time (at least 30 sec) without clipping. Super useful at a stop signs before merging onto busy road.
We had a junior on our team that could bunny hop railroad tracks, to clear both rails. To show off, he would do a BMX style "kickout", while doing it.
Great tips. What about a track stand?
bunnyhops are essential these days, great for tackling the potholes on british roads.
get them down to a fine art where its almost an instant-hop.
I like to pre-hop speedhumps, means you can land on the downside and pump for even more speed 🤘
I'm pretty new to road cycling, so pretty much all of them 😅
I wish I learned the bunny hop before. Yesterday I fell while riding over a cat running through my weels. Bruisend ribs and broken collar bone as a result. :)
Did I miss the bit about lifting the rear wheel if you DON'T have clip in pedals??
Maybe in GCN-world, everyone wears them all the time, but I mostly wear normal shoes on a bike, and dress normally too...
To bunny hop an obstacle riding with flat pedals, you can still lift the front wheel, and shift weight to minimize how hard the rear wheel hits.
Help please. Anyone know which video inluded a tuna nicoise recipe. It as a while back and a Pro P.T. or nutritionist showed one of the presenters. I loved it but cant find it now.
The venomous snake is so cute!
great video... but emergency stopping or stoppies, I regularly practice these where safe to do so, this skill maybe controversial but I believe this has helped avoid imapcts with other road users, well mostly I have 4 stitches in my chin because a car pulling out...2% you can't control...
Another good drill is to try and grab a bottle from the ground or a ledge while moving.
Also when practicing no-handed do it progressively taking 1 hand at a time or and taking 1 finger off the handlebar at a time until you can ride just touching it with 1 finger. Riding no handed helps both with the handling and reduces arm, shoulder, neck fatigue because it requires more of your core to stabilize.
The bottle trick is a great one! Maybe something to challenge your friends to in the next coffee ride?
Peter Sagan bunny hopped onto a piece of "road furniture," then off again to get into a better flow of riders once during a Tour de France stage, 6 years or so ago. After that, the UCI banned the move. Darn. It was a good move. Kinda like the time Lance Armstrong cut across that field to make up time in a stage. That was probably banned, too. The UCI takes all the fun out!!
Helps that your a ex mountain biker, I remember you on your Santa Cruz and GMBN😊
I am glad I rode BMX in the 80s, as that was the best learning ground for bike handling skills.
You can always spot and ex BMXer! 👀 Do you ever get back in the small wheels?
@@gcn Not as often as I did, but do ride my 24 cruiser more now. I stopped racing in 2013/14
While riding with no hands is sometimes a useful skill, as Si says, be careful when you use it. A few hours before watching this video, I saw a cyclist riding no hands on a winding mountain road in Colorado. It was a relatively safe stretch (no steep drop off, for instance), but he was swerving from the wide shoulder into the main lane of traffic and back as cars were passing.
I also mountain bike, which naturally helps for most of these.
I casually bunny hopped a pothole on my road bike once, not knowing a constructiom signaller was looking my way. He made me stop and gave me a fist bump 😂
Learn to do an endo. Really useful when you need to turn around on a narrow country lane.
Can you post where Si gets his face fairing from? His glasses smooth the air flow over his face.
One skill many roadie’s struggle with…acknowledging other riders. Don’t worry, if you wave they won’t think you’re soft.
Be able to wear and remove my windproof jackets without stopping the bike is the one thing that gives me the sense of being a pro 😂
During school when I had no car, I carried two big paper bags of groceries on my bike, by going hands free..(don't necessarily try this 'at home', people) :)
I can’t un-see this video!
I know for sure that riding an motorcycle on track would help a lot of bicyclists on good control in cornering . The look technique is essential and not much of the bicyclists know this . Me being a biker riding in group als a cyclist
I could brag about being able to bunny hop, but the one time I actually got surprised by a snake on a single track, I panicked and flew over the snake... but upside down due to front breaking too much. It was not even a dangerous one.
What about a GCN Olympics you could have a sprint race ,bunny hop high jump., bunny hop long jump , track stand and a TT race. Im sure there some other competition ideas.
Si's mountain biking skills are showing from the bunny hop
Any excuse to show off his skill! 😁
2:35 you look very exited being able to drive with no hands. Kudos
Missis Richardson must be happy!
Aahhh. Vintage Si. Nostalgic early GCN material. None of that gravel gibberish. Kudos 😅
Depending in what part of the world your in and how your brakes are set up. In the USA our front brake is our left hand and most people are right handed so that means they grab the bottle or eat with the right hand so I teach them how to brake with just front brake only because when something goes south you don't have time for anything else.
A track stand at lights/roundabouts is always handy. I’m pretty good nine times out of ten, but there’s always that one time I make an absolute pig’s ear of it. Normally with a dozen giggling motorists waiting behind.
Sweet, I’ve been working on all of these things on my own lately. Glad to see I’m doing the right thing, according to Sie. Si? Sigh? Sai? How the heck to you spell his name?!?!
I don't know how to hop for some reason but I can do most of the rest. For some reason when I try to hop, the front goes up and the back just stays. I am hoping like the other bits I just figure it out as I go along.
Bunny hops can be tricky! Let a young Dan show you the way 👉 czcams.com/video/-nOu5TYGvoU/video.html
I just figure it out the other day while putsing around after a couple beers. The best way I could describe it is by trying to scoop your feet out from under yourself. Imagine jumping in the air and your toes flinging dirt behind you as you do it. Basically you’re just trying to apply a rotational force in the direction you want the real wheel to go. You’re not going to actually move your feet, but that’s essentially what the motion feels like.
Practice without being clipped in to avoid bad habits
Bunny hopping is the hardest one for me…having been able to do it as a kid on my BMX bikes was easier then it is now on my road bike, even with my feet clipped in.
Venomous snakes 😂 you need to visit us here in Australia Si!!!!
Hmmm...
I see growth 😊
in learning ALL these skills, even sitting on that saddle eating & drinking 😅
I can't take both hands off the bars for more than .5 seconds without crashing, so I should start there. Also...being able to descend a big hill without clutching my brakes and getting passed by childre 2:12 n and seniors.
Any skills would be an improvement for me, can't even corner on the flat 😂. It looks like yoga would be a helpful foundation too.
When can we buy the snake in the GCN merch shop?
That's a beautiful Canyon 😅
Bhop is the best. Always triggers me when my mates almost come to a stop because there is a small curb you can just bhop over at 30kph
is feather going to climb the pozza san glisente? i have tried it and it was atrocious😂.
How is it possible to get the back wheel off the ground if you ride flat pedals?
ultra slow riding is really can make one confident when riding in the traffic without worrying sudden stop and falling down dumbly.
How would you bunny hop without the clip-ins/clipless?
I also think it’s important to learn how to bunny hop on flat pedals.
Do you have any tips for this? I am a flat pedal rider (on a roadie) and i cant figure it out..
@@relicbane you raise the front wheel way higher than you think. You'll pretty much be jumping upright. When you push the handlebar forward, the rear wheel will come up as well.
@@DMurdock thanks! I’ll try some more. Ive been able to jump the entire bike like how the TDF riders sometimes do to jump on kerbs at high speed, but i think thats a little different from bunny hops which can be done at lower speeds… right?
Whenever I bunnyhop (on a road bike) people say I’m damaging the fancy carbon frame and rims, is that true?
Would love to ride no hands but the few times i tried i nearly crashed. Scared the crap out me.
As an older cyclist (but a novice) I get that these skills are worthy but the problem I have is a real fear of being ‘clipped in’ and unable to put a foot down when (inevitably) I do wobble. Should I practice perhaps wearing trainers 👟 and not clipped in?
Don't bunnyhop actual rattlesnakes folks. Bad idea. 👀 🐍 Fun episode. 😁👍These were all considered must learn skills when I was a teenager, along with the trackstand.
THIS! No real snakes were bunny hopped in the making of this video 👀
As a dutchie, it is a standard to do these thing
I can take one hand off the handlebars at a time, both is not for me - too dangerous, don't need it, plus, it's illegal in Romania. I can look behind me thanks to Manon's advice from an older video. Bunny-hopping is for youngsters or circus people. And you don't have to hop up pavement kerbs - you can simply slow down and gently roll over them, or dismount and do the job manually.
I'm 45, Simon, so you're still young and restless. 😛 And as a child I had no idea these skills existed, let alone try them.
I can easily do all of them on my city bike on my road bike though I still struggle a little with some. I guess I still need to get used to the quicker reponse and to the higher center of gravity on the road bike.
An important one is transferring your weight to the back of the bike when on a steep decline, or when having to suddenly slow down.
Thanks, I learned that one quickly upon my first experience with disc brakes!
This could work as a game of B.I.K.E. Already some Gmbn and gcn CX videos. Let's do one for roadies please.
Slow riding is the best skill for anything on 2 wheels or less. Still can't no hand prob due to the potholes :D
Great advice, however if you are of small stature, or vertically challenged like me you may not want to ride slowly especially turning in small figures of 8 or track standing as you may have toe overlap! P.s. any chance of borrowing Manon Pinarello Mat for WMCTC at Manchester, struggling to find a track frame suitable for pursuiting.😢
So learn how to ride thru toe overlap. It’s even more important!!
You do have to be careful about toe overlap! 👀 Do you struggle to ride slowly in traffic?
@@nzmarty shorter cranks?
Actually in video he shown one of technics to avoid overlap, you push with foot what inside of turn, and get back it and push again like ratchet
@@gcn I always struggle riding a figure of 8 in the middle of the road at anytime of the day! 😂
I can ride no handed since six years old. But my bunny hops still are a hit and miss. Sometimes its perfect, the other time by back wheel still slams into the obstacle.
The venomous snake is adorable. 😂 Although that is down the list of Si's fears from cows.
Snakes 👍 Cows 👎
I bet you tried to bunny hop cows and that's the source of the trauma.
I love riding curbs. The faster the better for me
When you want to look back and someone is riding next to you, touch his/her shoulder while looking back. This makes sure that you keep riding parallel and not ride into each other.
Add How to counter-steer when cornering.
Hahaha well now, you bring that bike on down here to the bike park we'll show what tricks are hahaha
Keepemcoming
Don't tempt him! Si can do some pretty sick skids 😎
Learning to cab whistle is extremely useful when you want to tell someone on the sidewalk you’re coming while you’re still far away so you don’t jumpscare them saying “on your left”
The whistle is good but how about fitting a bell? 🔔
@GCN nah, bell isn’t aero