Riding the Rails

Riding Advice
1

Today I was trying to ride along my local rail tracks and i can ussually
get between 2 and 4 revolutions, but does anyone have any tips or ideas
that might help me get a little farther along the tracks. Or should I just
keep trying?

-Max A. Dingemans
2

I’ve been practising the same sort of thing, but riding along kerbs
instead of rail tracks. I’ve tried two styles on my 24", and they have
similar results. I think it would be easier on a 20" because you travel
smaller distances with each revolution.

One method is to just go for it. Throw caution to the wind and keep up
your speed and just let your reflexes do what they do best. This actually
lets you keep your body more flexible and looser, so you can respond
quickly anyway. Typically I’d be looking about 3-5 metres ahead, since
this is about all I can cope with.

When I go slower, I tend to tense up in my legs, and try to make minute
balance adjustments all the time. This is a lot more stressful, but in the
end, should be safer than falling from a brick wall six feet up in the air
because I’m going too fast. you need to move your arms and upper body
around a lot to compensate and only focus on the region up to 2m in front
of you. Ideally, I guess you could be doing brief standstills with each
half-revolution and adjust the orientation of the wheel to point it
straight down the track.

Railroad tracks have the (dis)advantage that they are effectively
straight. Thus you miss out on the pleasures of doing tight turns and
corners on narrow paths. I’d give kerbs and walls a go as well.

nic

On Wed, 12 Sep 2001, dingeman wrote:

> Today I was trying to ride along my local rail tracks and i can
> ussually get between 2 and 4 revolutions, but does anyone have any
> tips or ideas that might help me get a little farther along the
> tracks. Or should I just keep trying?
>
> -Max A. Dingemans

3

dingeman <dingeman@citilink.com> wrote in message
news:3BA01CC8.E4E3CD90@citilink.com…
> Today I was trying to ride along my local rail tracks and i can
> ussually get between 2 and 4 revolutions, but does anyone have any
> tips or ideas that might help me get a little farther along the
> tracks.

The threat of a train works wonders.

xADF

4

Andrew Feldhaus wrote:

> dingeman <dingeman@citilink.com> wrote in message
> news:3BA01CC8.E4E3CD90@citilink.com…
> > Today I was trying to ride along my local rail tracks and i can
> > ussually get between 2 and 4 revolutions, but does anyone have any
> > tips or ideas that might help me get a little farther along the
> > tracks.
>
> The threat of a train works wonders.
>
> xADF

Actually I do this riding at a rail that is a dead end and is only
used for storage, it also crosses a street, which is where I start,
and then I go for the Dead end. -Max Dingemans
5

Actually I do this riding at a rail that is a dead end and is only used
for storage, it also crosses a street, which is where I start, and then I
go for the Dead end. -Max Dingemans