5 Essential Skills for Bike Riders!

Brief video on skills to master for a beginner cyclist! Saddle Height: Do I look natural riding like this? Of course not, and neither will you. Saddle height is a common mistake I see being made. Typically no one has their seat too high, but tons of folks have it too low. Does this look right either? The answer is no. I see many people struggling to climb hills or gain speed because of low saddle height. You are restricting the movement of your legs, and as we all know that is what is powering your road warrior. Now look at this! Looking good! Without going into too much detail, your knee should be slightly bent at the bottom of your pedal stroke. If your knee locks out…lower the saddle. If you feel too much strain in your thighs…raise it up a bit. If you’re having trouble getting it right, go to your LBS and get a proper fitment. Otherwise you can sit on the bike against a wall to hold yourself up and get a pretty good set up by checking your knee. Starting and Stopping: Have you ever seen someone fall while stopping? I have. It’s usually because they want to stop completely while staying seated. That’s fine and all if your saddle is too low at improper height, but at its proper height it’s inefficient to stop seated. What you need to do is stand up off the saddle and move your body over the top tube. As you slow down, go ahead and get your foot ready to land ever so gracefully on the tarmac. Looking good slick. I’ve also seen people try to get going from a dead stop while seated. I tried for the sake of this video and found it overly challenging. Since you dismounted properly, to get going again, just push off with your foot that is on ground, and once you have enough momentum for the bike to balance, go ahead and plop yourself on the saddle and ride away like a freebird. Cornering: This is pretty self-explanatory, but a common mistake that we’ve all probably made is our pedal placement. See how when your inside foot is all the way down in 6 o clock position that it dosent take much leaning to strike your pedal on ground? That isn’t good. Especially for sharp corners, you’ll want to drop your outside foot. So if you are turning left, you will want to drop your right foot. Look how much room for error you have now! This also creates counter balance weight so you don’t just topple over. It’s also ok to take mild curves with your feet in the 3 and 9 o clock positions, but just make sure your toes don’t hit your front wheel. Riding straight lines: You won’t make any friends at a group ride if you’re riding like this, and you probably won’t be invited back either. When starting out you may be more comfortable looking down at your wheel, but break that habit early. Scan a good 20 feet ahead of you at all times. You will then see danger well before your front wheel strikes it. Looking ahead will also help you maintain a straight line. Practice this in a parking lot. Just ride along the white lines in parking spaces. Try to hold the line at different speeds. You can also practice on a small curb where the stakes are low if you ride off, but only do this if you are able to catch yourself while bailing. I even twisted my ankle a bit on this one. When riding with others, hold a straight line, and be predictable with your riding. Call out any hazards or if you need to swerve. Your fellow 2 wheeled comrades will appreciate it. Keep practicing and soon you’ll be like an arrow off Ms. Everdeens bow. Bike Control and Balance: This is probably one of the more fun things to practice. I won’t go into too much detail about this, but I like to just practice my balance on the bike without putting my feet down. I have sloppy looking trackstands, but these really come in handy at stop signs. Even if you can only do this for a couple seconds, it is far more efficient than stopping completely, putting foot on the ground, and then taking off again. Turn your front wheel at a 45 degree angle and find your balance point. These are easiest to learn on a slight uphill. As the bike starts to go backwards, just nudge your pedals a bit to stay balanced and still. I obviously need work cause I change my wheel position a lot, but you know it works for me. It is also beneficial to practice your slow speed maneuvering. Use some rocks, a backpack, or even your sibling to just circle around. Keep the pedals at 3 and 9 o clock and just rock them a bit to keep momentum and balance. No need for full pedal strokes. You can even have a slow race with your friends. Rules are simple: Start from a dead stop. First person to put their foot down or reach the finish line first loses. Alex beat me both times, but it made practice more fun. My Brothers Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCme4ODHxAAmwyRXl3q1GCcQ