Re: [CR]Riding no-handed

(Example: Framebuilding)

Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 08:18:38 -0500
From: "Barb & Dan Artley" <hydelake@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Riding no-handed
To: "Classic Rendezvous" <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


There will always be people who can't or won't ride a bike no hands. I think some bikes just balance so much nicer that they work well with no hands. One of the things I like to do with a bike when I first ride it to get an idea of it's stability by lifting the hands off. And some bikes may surprise.

A lot of gas pipe '70's bikes were good no hands, but alignment wasn't constant with them so test riding bikes in the shop gave different results. I had a Woodrup crit bike that steered like thought. You could go no hands but scary, you needed to pay attention every second, even with hands on the bars. An old beater Raleigh Pro I picked up for change is a wonderful no hands machine. The Jack Taylor curved tube short wheelbase bike I expected to be squirrely rides no hands at impossibly slow speeds, a wonderfully balanced bike.

Peter Weigle once told me that needle bearing headsets (which I love) sometimes compromise that ability. Once changed over to a ball bearing headset, the perfect no hands tracking came back.

Happy trails,

Dan Artley in Parkton, MD