How to wheelie a road bike?

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Maddie
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Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2017 5:44 am

by Maddie

How good you’re at with rollers will mainly depend when and how you learned it. Teach’em young. Of course, 9 year olds will adapt quickly and it looks seamless. As a kid, you learn it faster. Has nothing to do with being a pro or not. I see plenty of cx pros in winter on rollers and even amongst cx pros, there are some that look as clumsy as any amateur. And I’m sure cx pros have better handling skills than most roadbike pros.

Bunny hops are a good example that handling skills of pros are sometimes not really awe inspiring. Many have difficulties to jump obstacles that are 10cm high. And if they jump, front and rear wheel lift off the ground simultaneously and not front first then rear like you see it when cyclocrossers jump 40cm obstacles. Track stand the same, many can’t do it because they never practiced it. Reflexes of roadbike pros are not that different either. One touch of wheels and they all go down when riding in a peloton.
Handling skills of cx, bmx and mtb pros are far more advanced than those of roadbike pros.

But yes, riding bunched up in a peloton is a difficult skill to master and won’t be possible for most amateurs. Simply because no one does it outside of racing. Jens Voigt, ex pro and commentator on GCN for Germany, often talks about riding in the peloton and how stressful that can be for the pros. Especially on narrow or bad roads.

Marin
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Location: Vienna Austria

by Marin

Riding no hands on the rollers is about as hard as riding no hands on the road. I only use my rollers to fine tune my shifting bc I don't "ride" indoors but once you get used to it you can do everything like out on the road.

I totally agree that many (not all!) world tour pros have only mediocre handling skills, and you can witness this whenever commentators point out that someone is a good bike handler because they have "a CX or MTB background".

Well many amateurs have a BMX, MTB or bike messenger background (I know I have) and will thus have decent handling skills - better than the weaker half of the peloton .

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iheartbianchi
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Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2019 9:17 am

by iheartbianchi

Marin wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:39 pm

I totally agree that many (not all!) world tour pros have only mediocre handling skills, and you can witness this whenever commentators point out that someone is a good bike handler because they have "a CX or MTB background".
It's all relative though. The average pro road cyclist will have far greater handling skills than an average amateur. And perhaps an average CX/MTB rider will have greater handling skills than a pro road cyclist.

Regardless, no matter how bad you are at bike handling within the pro peleton, they'd still be miles ahead of a typical Cat 4/5 rider. You just can't be a bike handler and survive the training demanded of pros, let alone the dangers of racing within a peleton.
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Andrew69
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by Andrew69

Marin wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:39 pm
Riding no hands on the rollers is about as hard as riding no hands on the road .
I spent a few winters here in Australia racing on a velo (Dunc Gray in Sydney) and it always amazed me when someone would casualy ride their track bike up to a set of rollers, bunny hop on, start riding, the ride no hands, the ride only one foot clipped in while they played with the other shoe, then change feet, eat, drink, get dressed/undressed, what ever, all while I had to hold on to a rail while on the rollers :mrgreen:

And Ive got pretty good balance. I work in construction and think nothing of walking along the ridge of a partially constructed roof, just like Im walking along a path, but stick me on a set of rollers...nope!

I think I need to get them out and practise. I find a turbo trainer extremely boring

ghostinthemachine
Posts: 780
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 9:18 pm

by ghostinthemachine

iheartbianchi wrote:
Fri Aug 20, 2021 3:14 am
Regardless, no matter how bad you are at bike handling within the pro peleton, they'd still be miles ahead of a typical Cat 4/5 rider.
Not always, everywhere I've raced there's always been a core of riders that everyone avoids because whenever there is a crash, they're the cause of it. Or at the bottom of it.
Their names get known, they get recognised. (Quite often by bandages)
Unfortunately, one feature of people who crash a lot is that when they don't crash, they tend to place well or win (or they wouldn't be pros).
Typical 3rd/4th cat might only hit the deck once/twice a year.
A guy I raced with when I started out used to leave about 50% of his races battered, bruised and/or concussed. The other 50% he'd be finishing top 5. Or doing monster turns on demand. He'd already done ~5 seasons as a pro when I met him, and he quit a couple of years later after a massive crash that gave him some quite serious brain injury.
Last I saw him he was stacking shelves in a DIY superstore in France.

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Miller
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Location: Reading, UK

by Miller

Andrew69 wrote:
Fri Aug 20, 2021 9:06 am
Marin wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:39 pm
Riding no hands on the rollers is about as hard as riding no hands on the road .
I work in construction and think nothing of walking along the ridge of a partially constructed roof, just like Im walking along a path, but stick me on a set of rollers...nope!
I think I need to get them out and practise. I find a turbo trainer extremely boring
Riding no hands on rollers may in theory be about as hard as riding no hands on road but it takes a lot more nerve.

blaugrana
Posts: 457
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 9:49 pm

by blaugrana

Miller wrote:
Fri Aug 20, 2021 3:15 pm
Riding no hands on rollers may in theory be about as hard as riding no hands on road but it takes a lot more nerve.
This is interesting, because I always found riding no handed on rollers (and doing stuff like changing clothes, eating, etc.) much easier than on the road. Once you find the balance point, it's just much more predictable and you don't have to worry about potholes, corners, wind...

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Miller
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Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:54 pm
Location: Reading, UK

by Miller

I htink a lot must depend on rollers setup. I've always found my bike very twitchy on rollers, much more so than on road. I've briefly experimented with changing rollers length, although the adjustment was coarse, but found little difference.

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