Beirne says:
> If you don’t ride with the balls of your feet on the pedals, now is a good
> time to start.
Why is this?
Huby (n): A half-erection large enough to be a publicly embarrassing bulge in
the trousers, but not large enough to be of use to anybody.
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Here is the skill file for riding with the seat out front.
Beirne
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Ride with the seat out front for 10m.
While riding forward, put your weight on the pedals, rise up off the
seat and pull the seat out to the front of you. Hold the seat with one
hand and extend your other hand for balance. Keep the seat against your
body or close to it so you will have more control.
Ride a bit, and then stand up high on the pedals and put the seat back
underneath you.
As you practice more, move the seat farther away from your body
while you ride.
Notes and hints:
At the beginning you may find it easier to hold onto the seat with both
hands and rest your weight on it. Switch to one hand when you are
comfortable using two.
When you are using one hand, extend the other hand for balance. Hold it forward,
swinging right or left to correct for leans when riding straight ahead. When you
start doing turns and figure-eights, you can use the arm to help steer by
pointing your free arm in the direction you want to go.
Lower your seat an inch or two so you can put it in and out more easily. Don’t
lower it too much or you will have a hard time holding it against your body when
you are first learning.
In general you will want to remove and replace the seat quickly. This gets the
instability over with and lets you continue riding.
When you hold the seat away from your body, try bracing your elbow against your
rib cage for stability. This keeps the seat moving as little as possible in
relation to your body.
If you don’t ride with the balls of your feet on the pedals, now is a good
time to start.
Don’t wear baggy pants; they will catch the seat when you put it back.
Ride with your back straight and look forward.
Try to keep the pedals moving so you don’t have to try to recover from a stop.
Keep a smooth, balanced pedaling rhythm.
Placement of the feet on the pedals is critical. If one foot is resting a bit
further out on the pedal or canted more than the opposing foot, it causes
imbalances in pedaling.
As you improve you will be able to rely less on the seat, and hold on to it with
one hand, if you have been using two. Try reducing the amount of fingers you
hold on with until you are down to your thumb and one finger.
This is an excellent calf exercise. Once you get the hang of this you may find
that you have to get off because of exhaustion, just like the beginner days.
Beirne Konarski bkonarsk@mcs.kent.edu Dennis Kathrens d.kathrens@genie.geis.com
Ken Fuchs kfuchs@icicle.winternet.com
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Re: Riding with the seat out front (fwd)
Forwarded message:
> From wjedwd@isl.com Thu Sep 8 10:16:31 1994 Message-Id:
> <m0qijKy-0000Z3C@fatfreddy> From: wjedwd@isl.com (Julian Edwards) Subject: Re:
> Riding with the seat out front To: bkonarsk (Beirne Konarski) Date: Thu, 8 Sep
> 1994 14:16:23 +0200 (BST) In-Reply-To:
> <199409081313.JAA09824@condor.mcs.kent.edu> from “Beirne Konarski” at Sep 8,
> 94 09:13:19 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text
> Content-Length: 561
>
> Beirne says:
> > If you don’t ride with the balls of your feet on the pedals, now is a good
> > time to start.
>
> Why is this?
>
> Ed
In the case of riding with the seat out front, you want to be able to stand as
tall as possible to make it easy to push the seat in and out. Having the balls
of your feet on the pedals will give you more height than your heel or the
center of your feet.
As a general issue, you have more control of the pedals if the balls of your
feet are on the pedals. You can then do the fine adjustments with your ankles,
which are easier to control, rather than using your legs, which is what happens
when you put your heel on the pedal. There are obviously some issues of degree
here, but the farther the pedal is away from the balls of your feet, the more
flat footed you will ride and control will be stiffer and more awkward.
Beirne