In my experience; you don't ride a trike hands-off. The attempt can be a r eal heart-thumper! With a bike, some are different but doable. It just ta kes a little practice to familiarize oneself with the new handling. The sa me thing applies to track stands. Except that you can do them all day hand s-off on a trike. :-)
Paul Patzkowsky
Longmont, Colorado> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> From: biankita@comc
ast.net> Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 05:52:16 -0500> Subject: [CR]Riding no-hande
d> > One of the main contributors to being able to ride without hands is >
practice. Years ago I used to ride for a few minutes at a time on > straigh
t smooth roads without hands. Nowadays I wouldn't attempt it, > and there a
re a few reasons why. I'm older and my body is more delicate > than it was
when I was a teenager. Little accidents like twisting my > ankle, getting k
nocked down in a wrestling match or hitting the > pavement take weeks not a
day or so to recover from, so now I'm more > cautious. I've tried to ride
hands free on every single one of my "new" > old steel classics and was abl
e to do it, but there was always that > added element of fear, so I only at
tempt it for a second or so. My > current old bikes may have tighter geomet
ry than my old Atala of > teenage years but I still don't think that's the
deal breaker. I think > if you payed me enough and if I were wearing a padd
ed suit I could ride > any well tuned road bike a mile or so down the road
without hands. I > would just need to practice it the way I did four decade
s ago. > Nowadays, I just don't see the purpose. My body is more delicate a
nd > the bikes I'm riding are rare and need to be preserved. If something >
happens to them, all the money in the world can't bring back their > origi
nal paint. We are riding bikes which will never be made again by > mass pro
duction. Yesterday, I removed the bottom bracket on my > neighbor's Gianni
Motta. He bought the thing for $300 bucks complete > with Campy kit and ful
l pantograph from someone who didn't know any > better. He and I know that
even if these old bikes could be purchased > for $3 dollars, we would still
be in awe of them and have to work on > them very carefully, padding the b
ottom bracket with rags when removing > the grease and filth encrusted Camp
y lock ring. We are archeologists > carefully scraping the dirt off Archiop
erix or Stegasaurus bones. We > are the curators of the lost art of pinned
and brazed tubing. You don't > just thrash around with these bikes anymore.
If you break one of them, > that's one more piece of history that will nev
er spin down the road. > Most of us are living the last half of our lives.
Some of us are living > the last quarter and some of us are on the last ten
th. You go with more > care and more caution the older you get. I can still
reach into my back > pocket or take a drink of water with one hand on the
stem or the hood > while riding in a tight pack, but I do it very carefully
. Who I am, and > what I ride are collectors' items now, worthy of a little
extra care.> > Garth Libre in Miami Fl USA > > ___________________________