Look Ma, No Hands!

[B607]

Do you test the balance of a bike by riding with no hands? I have 7 or 8 rideable bikes. On a couple of them I could almost ride to town and back (7mi.) without touching the bars. On others, no way. So is it all in the fork? Perfectly straight or bent a bit? Fork design? Fork and frame and wheels...a combination of everything? None of my bikes have any visible damage to the forks or frames, although I guess they could be off by just a little as they are all built from old well used parts.

What kind of bike or combination of parts do you have that gives you a rock steady, dead straight, no-handed ride? Gary

 

[deorman]

Careful alignment of wheels can help, but some perfectly straight bikes are hard to ride hands off. Wheelbase, geometry, and center of gravity all come into play. :|

 

[X-RAY]

at the end of riding season last fall, i was doin figure eights without my hands on my mountain bike. my daughter wanted me to teach her how to ride handless, i told her lean back & the faster you go the easier it is to balance. now that you brought this up, im thinkin i better try it on her new bike before i let her try it. all bikes are different, and i dont want her to crash because she listened to me. perhaps my double-boinger handles different than her freestyle, its worth checkin out. my buddy asked why we practice handless riding behind the school. "wont it hurt if you wipe out on the pavement?" i replied "yeah, but noone will see you when you wipe out."

 

[bicycleguy]

I can ride for days with no hands on my tall bike and it has a coaster so you don't have to grab to bars to slow down.

 

[aka_locojoe]

Being able to ride with no hands makes or breaks a bike with me. I have one bike I really like but the fork was bent so I straightened it but it still must be tweaked some as I can't ride it with no hands so I seldom ride it at all.

 

[icyuod2]

its all in the bearings.

good bearings, no hands no problem.

 

[XC204]

The tire tread pattern also makes a huge difference I can ride about 6.5 of my 7.5 mile ride to work no handed the steep hills mess me up for the full ride. but certan tread patterns can really mess that up I'v had some tires on the same bike I could'nt ride 50 feet.

 

[JoKeR63]

It's all it the trail. More positive trail means more stability at higher speed. Headtube angle comes second. More vertical headtubes tend to be more stable. And last there's tiller, the more tiller there is the harder it is for trail to control the swinging of the handlebars.
See Sheldon's site for more detailed info on this stuff. You can build a good handling bike by following certain rules of bike physics.