I love wine. I mean, I like beer and scotch and can’t resist ordering a Vesper whenever I pretend to be a gentleman spy, but I love wine. As a semi-professional drinker, the biggest worry I have is that should my as-yet undiagnosed problem with alcohol become a diagnosed problem with alcohol, I’d have to stop drinking wine. A full bodied, well balanced red – not too fruit forward but with a good nose of earth and a long finish – will get my heart racing every time.
And speaking of a good nose of earth, I restrict that strictly to wine; last week’s face-plant while training for cyclocross was taking it a step too far. It’s amazing how a stick positioned in just the right spot at just the right angle can move a much larger object laterally with some ease. Like the Greeks using timber rollers to haul the Trojan Horse to the walls of the city, so my front wheel slid off with surprising speed, sending me to the ground stunned and with a hint of terra firma lingering in my sinuses.
The first thing we think of when we think of having good bike handling skills is someone like Robbie McEwen or Peter Sagan dodging about in the bunch, chasing the best wheels and avoiding crashes in technical finales. Or Sven Nijs avoiding barriers the way I avoid awkward conversations about things like “feelings”. But good bike handling skills are usually much less obvious than that – and much more elemental to having confidence on the bike.
Good bike handling skills are fundamentally about weight distribution and understanding how shifting your weight on the bike will affect the way it reacts to the road. The difficulty with this is that learning how your weight affects the bike involves trial and error, and in this case “trial and error” means “crashing loads”. And for anyone who has crashed a road bike, we all know this involves an empirical study about what happens when a soft surface abraids against a hard rough surface. And also the possibility of motor vehicles and other terribly unpleasant things interacting with said soft surface.
A study in extremes tends to be the most effective tool when examining how subtle weight changes might influence how the rider and machine move together as one. The basic problem with riding on the road is that the surface is so uniform that the opportunity for meaningful study are rare and come with high risks and unpleasant consequences. Which is why riding off road is the secret to becoming a good bike handler and ultimately a better Cyclist. First and foremost, the consequences of being at the bottom of the learning curve are much reduced; speeds are lower and the surfaces are (generally) softer. There are also fewer cars. But mostly, the surface is so erratic that you are constantly forced to experiment with how distributing your weight can influence the way the unit moves together.
Here are a few principles I’ve use when it comes to improving my bike handling:
After a short while, these things become second nature and you don’t even have think about them. The next time you hit the road, you’ll be amazed at comfortable and confident you feel on your machine. And feeling comfortable and confident is the first step towards being Casually Deliberate and Looking Pro.
VLVV.
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@frank
Well.....you do have to take the track class where they teach some of those handling skills...and then you have to upgrade a few categories before you can ride the Madison or Miss n out....
28's? Which ones? I had my nice 25mm Pave CG's show up at the shop yesteray, but I am probably just gonna stick with my 24mm Corsa SR's
@frank
I know that pays and the wines of les cailloux well: not just CdP but Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Rasteau etc. Next time you are down this way I'll have to dig about in the cellar for a couple good bottles. My parents have a place over in Vaison la Romaine on the other side of the Montmirail. Spent 6 weeks there in 07.
@frank
I have to admit it doesn't always work out. Lost my front wheel on wet leaves on a commute home a few years ago and when down like a sack of proverbial. Took me 2 years of physio and surgery for a SLAP tear to get over that one.
Not sure what bike handling skills would have helped me there.
@frank
That's where I was going with the comment about letting your elbows and knees filter out the vibrations but you're right its more than that. It's sometimes about only maintaining the minimum contact with the bike to be able to change direction and keep the cranks turning. You have to learn to let the bike do it's own thing underneath you, rather than to hang on to it and wrestle it into submission.
Its massively counter intuitive in the same way that releasing the brake and trusting the tyres to hold when you think you've taken too much speed into a corner can be.
I wouldn't say my bike handling is great but having learnt to ride motorbikes off road and spending a few years riding downhill bikes has certainly helped.
@RobSandy
Possibly none apart from crashing skills. The more you crash the better you crash.
@Nate
mmm... Gigondas I like a lot although I prefer Bordeaux or Madiran.
I'm also rather enjoying a bit of this at the moment (and not just for the label - the producer, Some Young Punks, has a bunch of great labels)
@Chris
A lesson learnt - I had a similar crash a month later, where I was completely unhurt.
The difference? The first crash, I put my hand out. The 2nd, I kept my hands on the bars and landed on my shoulder.
Don't put your hand down!
I can't comment on mtb skills or the like but I do think it has something to do with knowing what to do with your centre of gravity. I learnt to ride horses when I was very young and with all the sporting, jumping and fanging around we did you learnt to know where to lean and how far your could push into corners. Hooves aren't tyres I know, but I also know I use some of the skills I have learnt riding ponies on my bike.
@frank
My coach used to send us off on "the keyring drill" - on an abandoned airstrip, we used to drag-race in the lowest gear, slightly downhill, with keys and coins dangling in the pocket. If it's ringing, you're losing...
@DeKerr
Fair point - I agree that practicing crashes on the Stillorgan dual carriageway into work in Dublin is possibly not an ideal scenario. My point is that commuting has forced me to develop handling skills via day to day negotiation of the hazards of traffic.
Perhaps this could be enhanced with a few detours through parks where the price of wiping out is not so high.