Riding Your Bike in a Straight Line
It may sound a little odd, but some new bike riders find it difficult to ride in straight line. This may not be the end of the world if all you do is ride your bike alone on wide open roads with no traffic, but that unfortunately is not the case for most of us. Typically, we find ourselves sharing park paths with joggers and other folks or riding with groups of other cyclists whilst sharing the road with motorists. In either case, riding predictably (i.e. in a straight line) is not only courteous, but it is also critical for your safety as well as those around you. Surprisingly, most wobbly riding comes from upper-body tension. Consequently, if you can relax your neck, shoulders, arms and hands while biking, you will find that you are a lot less likely to weave.
Two things that can help ease tension are regularly shrugging and dropping your shoulders, and bending your elbows. What happens is, as you tighten up during a ride, your shoulders ride higher and lock up close to your neck. Shrugging every 15 minutes or so and relaxing your arms really helps relieve this stress.
A good gauge of relaxation level is upper-body fatigue. If you finish rides with stiff arms, sore hands, tight neck muscles and hurting shoulders, you are definitely riding with too much tension in those areas. Ideally, when riding, it feels like the legs are doing all the work and the upper body is as relaxed as can be. In fact, the only times the upper body comes into play is on steep sections when you must stand and muscle the bars a bit to get over the hills and during sprint-like efforts.
Remember that all bicycles are designed to track straight with no help from you. The less you try to ride straight, the easier you may find it to be to actually head straight. It is great practice to try to follow the white line on the road. But, don't stop paying attention to road hazards! And, don't ride directly on the white line, which can become slippery in certain weather conditions.
It can also help a lot to ride with friends who are better cyclists because you'll see how easily they ride straight and you'll be able to follow their lead. Following a wheel and having someone behind tracking your steadiness may help, too. Try some of these tips and see if they don't improve your riding skills!
About the Author:
Alan is an emarketer for an online bike shop that carries over 30,000
bike parts and bike
accessories for road bikes, mountain bikes, commuters and
cruisers. Visit us at bikepartsexpress.com
Article Marketing
2 people like this article
