Balance Part 1 - Two Wheels

(*****It is NOT recommended to have any type of foot restraint (devices holding your feet to the pedals while learning these skills*****)

Get on your bike and get in motion, stand up, knees slightly bent, weight distributed equally over your feet and hands. That’s right, lean on your hands some. Start braking and come to a slow stop, keep your favorite foot forward and pedals level to the ground. As you come to a halt lock up front and rear brakes and make an effort to balance in place. You can alter your balance significantly by turning the front wheel in the direction you feel you may fall towards. When you start falling over, release the brakes and kick the pedal to get moving again. Start over. Come to a slow halt and lock up your brakes. Try to get a feel for which side you are going to fall over to (it's usually the same side). Start anticipating the fall by turning the front wheel into the fall. As always, whenever you actually start falling, kick the pedals and get back into motion. If you practice for a while (maybe 30 minutes) you should be able to stop, 'almost' lose balance, start moving, stop and 'almost' lose balance, start and so on.

At this point you should know what your balance is like and which direction you tend to fall towards. And you should be able to do this. When you are stopped and trying to balance, start keeping some extra pressure on the forward pedal. When you start to lose your balance, instead of kicking the pedals and moving forward, just release your brakes a little bit for a second. Try to move just an inch or so, into the direction you are losing your balance to. This will correct your balance without you having to move hardly at all.

What you are developing here is called a ‘track stand’. With practice you will be able to come to a complete halt and balance using your front wheel and pedals as controls. In observed trials, a competitor is not allowed to touch anything besides his / her bike. That means NO rest at all until the trap is finished. Getting into a track stand is a good way to rest for second before tackling a particularly hard part of a trap. And it’s excellent for fine-tuning your balance. Or maybe you just want to show off. One other thing before we move on. You can always kick out your leg for balance, like in this video clip (http://www.discovermountainbiking.net/download/Crash_Bruise/crpipedm1.avi) from the Observed Trials Crash and Bruise section. This is my friend Dan trying to keep his balance and failing. But kicking your leg out can frequently save your balance and keep you on your bike. Another way to impress people, if that is your sort of thing.

Another technique to maintain your balance while stopped is hopping. It's a bunny hop while not moving and this technique is actually very useful. Instead of using your front wheel and pedals to keep your balance, you can opt to keep your front wheel pointed straight ahead and your brakes locked. When you come to a halt and lock up the brakes, immediately attempt to do this: lean a little extra far forward onto your hands, point your feet down so toes are pointing towards the ground, push against the pedals with your legs, now pull up on the handlebars and your legs (while pushing against the pedals). Does that make sense? You learn forward onto your hands so you have much less weight on your feet (Hans Rey calls it ‘unweighting’). You point your feet down so you can push back against the pedals and that gives you traction on the pedals even though you are using no foot restraints. You pull up on the handlebar and your feet simultaneously.

For beginners this results in the front wheel being pulled off the ground and the back tire not moving. You need to lean forward over the handlebars a little more. You need to point your toes down and use your legs to push against the pedals (towards the back of the bike). You should find that only several minutes practice will enable you to hop two or three times before you fall over. BUT don't fall over, release the brakes, kick the pedals and save your balance by getting back into motion.

Most folks can hop six to ten times after practicing for no longer than 20 or 30 minutes.

This technique is different than a track stance because it can be applied usefully in many ways on the trail. For instance, say you want to pull off the trail ‘just for a second’ to let another rider past from the other direction. You can pull off the trail, hop two or three times while they go by (it may take the other rider longer than normal to go past because they can’t believe what you are doing), pedal right back on the trail and continue your ride. No need to take your feet off the pedals. Or say you are trying to make a VERY tight corner and can’t make it. Come to a stop, start hopping and HOP your way around the corner. Or if you get caught in sand and can’t make it through, but you WANT TO MAKE IT THROUGH. Come to a halt, start your hop and HOP THROUGH the sand and out the other side.

Now learn to hop on NON-level ground.

Even when climbing steep hills, if you can’t make it, stop before you lose your balance, start hopping. You will be able to hop to the top (if you made it somewhat near). That’s the great thing about the hop, because with practice you can move in any direction, even backwards!

Perhaps these things don’t matter to you. That’s fine. Learn the basic balance techniques because you will need them. If you don’t want to be maneuverable while balancing, that’s your call. It’s a fantastic tool for more advanced riders and a requirement for observed trials.

Speaking of observed trials, the next article in the balance series is in the Intermediate area and will train you to balance and maneuver on ONE tire, the back one. There are many examples of this in the Video Search Engine in the Observed Trials sections.