In this article, I’m going to give you five things that will elevate you from noob to pro. Many of us want to go fast, but sometimes it takes slowing down first. Now, this will help with your control and balance of the bike. Relax, bend your elbows, and look straight. Now, you might feel a little bit wobbly at first, but with a bit of practice, you’ll improve really quickly.
Now, why not take it up a level? Find a white line or a straight line and try to stick on it. The better you get, the slower you can go. Now, this really helps your balance. It’ll help your control when you go to junctions, but it also helps when setting off. It won’t just help going slowly, too; it’ll help descending at speed as well. Seems simple, but it does work.
A really important skill to have up your sleeve is being able to ride one-handed or even no-handed. First off, riding one-handed is really important. It allows you to drink on the bike without stopping. It will enable you to signal to cars or any road users behind you, and it’ll also help let your fellow riders know what’s coming up, like a pothole or anything in the middle of the road.
So how do we do this? First up, look forward, keep a nice brisk pace, engage your core, and slowly but surely try to take your hand off your handlebars. The more confident you get, you can then start to reach for a bottle or even some food out of your back pocket.
Now, if you want to take this one step further, you can try taking both hands off. So, use the same technique, engage your core, look forward, keep a nice brisk pedal to help keep your bike going straight, lift your hands just a little bit away from the handlebars just in case you catch a bit of wind or maybe your wheel hits something. The more confident you get, the further away you can get from the handlebars. And before you know it, you’ll be celebrating those wings you have.
Now, with these two previous skills, your balance and confidence will be much improved. But how can we build off confidence when cornering? Now, something I like to do when waiting for mates or going out on a group ride is to find two objects that are 10 feet apart and do a figure of 8 . Start off going nice and slowly, look where you’re going but look through the corner, so don’t look at your front wheel. Use the speed to keep your balance, but you can also use your acceleration too. This is really good when you’re learning to control your bike and learning to use your body weight to balance it. The better you get, the tighter you can make your figure-of-eight and the quicker you can go. Right, let’s speed up now, It’s also a lot of fun.
Now, you might think that the bunny hop is reserved for kids and mountain bikers, and the thought of leaving the safety of the tarmac will send shivers down your spine. But the bunny hop is actually a really useful skill and it can get you out of danger.
So, when it comes to bunny hops, bend your arms, lift that front wheel up, and as you’re doing so, lift your back legs too. That should kick up the rear wheel. When it comes to landing back onto the tarmac, bend your arms and use them as shock absorbers so you get a nice smooth landing. It might be worth practicing this on the grass somewhere soft so if you do get it wrong, you don’t land on this tough tarmac. But when you get confident at it, take it to some stones like this or even over a manhole or a pothole. You might even try doing up a curb. It is worth mentioning though, make sure your bike is set up correctly. So, make sure your quick release is nice and tight so it can take the landing. But do practice this because it will give you a lot more confidence when it comes to riding and you do come across things like this.
Lastly, venture off-road. Not just to practice your bunny hops but for riding in general. If there is a gravel cross or even a mountain bike that you can borrow, riding off-road massively increases your bike handling skills. In a safe environment, the different slippery surfaces will teach you how to react when the bike wants to change direction without any notice. It gives you instincts to deal with your front or rear wheel losing grip. And as an added bonus, it puts a big smile on your face.
There you have it, five things to build your confidence and ability on the bike. But make sure you practice these, like taking one hand or both hands off the bars, riding slowly in a straight line, doing a figure of eight, maybe even lifting your front wheel, or venturing off-road. Now you can do these wherever, whether it be on your commute or on a group ride. The more practice you put in, the better you will get, and you’ll have some silky skills. If you enjoyed this article, leave a comment.