Riding No Handed Over 50 or 60

[Scott Adams]

Bike stability, road surface, rider skill, how empty or crowded the road or trail is...

There are definitely times when all of these align and it is a great way to stretch on 3-8 hour rides.

 

[Deacon Blues]

I do it all the time when shedding a layer or adjusting equipment... just a matter of experience and competence.

I guess Froome didn't have enough of one, or the other, or both.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I cannot ride no-handed anymore. Besides, I ride with at least one finger resting on the brake lever, each hand. Feel safer. It has saved me for several times.

 

[Al P]

On occasion, I have ridden the Mongoose with no hands, but only under certain conditions, and not for very long. It is a stable bike with enough front-end weight. I wouldn't dare do it with the Evelo.

No, I don't ride hands-off the handlebars.

Not sure why Court feels the need to do it as part of his reviews, either. Speaking of, I'd feel alot better if he kept both hands on the handlebars instead of having one hold up his camera. Especially when he is on a Haibike All MTN or something, going down a trail at speed.

Court, I think it's time to think about putting that go-pro on top of your helmet for all bike riding videos!

Court likes to video action shots like suspension seat posts at work and motor noise while riding. That's hard to do with a helmet mounted camera.

 

[Smong]

I still do it at 64 y.o. under the right conditions only. My fat 4.5" tires at 4-5 psi are very forgiving for no hand riding. On open trails or farm roads I can text and strip off or add layers without much care. Same bike with 27.5" 3" tires at 35-40 psi, not so comfortable pulling off a sweatshirt and swirming around on the bike with no hands. Definitely I would not ride 'no hands' on pavement with traffic.

 

[rvehock]

I am 63 and I have doing it since i was 6 years old, love the feeling............it's all about balance

 

[Deacon Blues]

I am 63 and I have doing it since i was 6 years old, love the feeling............it's all about balance

it's all about balance.......until it isn't. It does feel nice though, especially on really smooth pavement.

 

[steve marino]

Would you drive a car w/ no hands?

 

[FlatSix911]

All the time... it's called Tesla autopilot.

 

[Mike_V]

Would you buy a car that is not 'kneedrivable' ?

 

[Marcela]

I would do it on my Mother's 1946 Firestone bike, that was stable as a rock. I could plow through potholes or across railroad tracks no handed, no tendency to go anywhere but straight. Same 26x2" tires I'm riding now, but much more centering force. These "fast response" forks will whip sideways if they go over the least bump, even piles of gravel. I checked 220 frames in 2016, they all had the same trail even though there were some tipped back fork frames available. The standard trail is not enough IMHO.
The handlebar has ripped out of my hands on bumps and whipped sideways 4 times in the last 10 years, throwing me on my chin. Tried to buy a high caster (bicycle speak "trail") fork from a frame builder, he A. had no idea what I was talking about and B. absolutely refused to consider anything "custom" about the fork. Ended up buying a stretch frame cargo bike for $1600, that puts most of my weight on the front axle. No problem with that one yet.

Somewhere they took the trail out of the steering, prob when everybody thought twitchy was the thing, along with the curved steel front forks, and the schrader valves. We can adapt though. Think that was back when a 10 spd was a 10 spd.

I was out of riding for a looooong time, started up a few yrs ago with a Trek Crossrip. Trying to no hand with that was not good. The next bike I was at the lbs and told him I wanted something I could ride without any hands...., he just kind of looked at me and I knew right there the meaning of generation gap.

No handed riding and grabbing the windbreaker at the bottom and holding it up over your head and sailing with the wind.....

 

[MechaNut]

I was never able to master the black art of riding with no hands. I'm absolutely fine with one hand on the bars though. If I need both my hands for something I'll just stop the bike and take care of it. Its not like an e-bike has any particular difficulty in accelerating from a stop or anything.

 

[ruffruff]

If I deflate my fat tire a little bit I get a lot of self steering on tar. Could probably do it.

But my buddies call me Steve Austin 3:16. Three falls per 16 miles.

 

[DouglasB]

It comes down to some bikes being easier to no hand than others. I've had bikes I would never think of riding no handed. How about riding backwards? Now there's a talent. It took me about a week of continually falling over before I mastered it. I'll leave wheelies for another lifetime.

 

[FlatSix911]

Single Speed or Fixie?

 

[teskow]

I happen to be one of those who can ride backwards on pedal a bike. I was at our little airport at San Manual airport AZ one day when the airport managers young son came by on his bike. I asked him how do you ride one of these. He was so excited to show me. I got on his bike backwards and he got really excited and said no, no, no not that way. I started riding around in front of our hanger in large circles. I can still se the expression on his face. Years later he will still mention it once and a while.

 

[DanInStPete]

The only ebike crash I've had was riding no hands on a Juiced CCS (2 years ago when I was 50). I was going about 18MPH and hit a small bump. As I reached down to put my hands back on the bars, my saddle spun to the right, the grips moved, and my hands missed them.

I was thrown backwards somehow, and I remember well the impact to the back of my helmet on the pavement. It was like a whipping action and I'm pretty sure it could have cracked my skull. I had a little road rash but nothing serious.

So I learned a few things:

1) When you go down you have absolutely no control of how, or on what part of your body, you land, because it happens too fast to react in any way
2) Don't over-grease your seatpost (I had been trying to identify and fix a creaking sound)
3) Wear the helmet...

Oh, and maybe don't ride with no hands

 

[Cyklefanatic]

I am 64 years old and ride no hands at least once every ride. It’s nice to change position and stretch a bit. I can recover from unexpected bumps and go around corners if they are gentle all while keeping control. I’ve ridden that way my whole life so maybe I’m just used to it. On a charity ride once I met a guy doing 100k on a large wheel unicycle, that guy was super fit.

 

[ElevenAD]

I'm 49 I ride no handed all the time, if my hands freeze ill put them in my pockets or sometimes I want to sit perfectly upright for a bit to relax my back, I only do this on my cruiser because its so stable,my Fatbike has speed wobble so my hands don't leave the bars for long.