Knog Skink lights, tool and gloves

Never mind wheelies or no hands, I haven't even managed to find reverse gear on mine! I have laughed off many wheelie requests; I feel no need to - on my recumbent (IIRC someone has). But... I'm not entirely free of the feeling I *ought* to be able to on at least one bike...

I can't wheelie and only recently have managed to cycle no handed - and only on my Tern GSD, not my road bike. And even then, I can't do anything like undo a top or open some food whilst cycling no handed.

Chapeau for finding the Hans Rey pic, the chimp looks properly appreciative of his skills. I used to be able to ride no hands on my Peugeot racers in the late 80s and early 90s, I could cycle all the way home from Camberley McDonald's to my home in mill lane, yateley, without touching the bars once, thumbs in my rear jeans pockets, after a close, post and very post midnight, only with no other vehicles about. But when I got run over in 92, clock house, Farnborough, and went MTB, the front end was just a bit too nervous, and then the late 90s Raleigh 650 ti was even more, but of course that meant it was a very responsive xc racer. I could ride my surly ogre no hands, much more stable platform, and I have gone as far as sitting back, but wouldn't want the foolishness of hurting myself if I got it wrong. Moved to Brum in the late 90s, obtained the getting to work bike, marin pine mountain 91, and because I was very much urban, for the first time ever really, lady pool rd, top end of Moseley, I would ride down the hill to canon hill park, drop the seat all the way down and worked on trying to develop my bike skills. The wheelie being the one most wanted. I did alright, easy to pull, but keeping it going for distance was the one thing I never got, handful of seconds at most, never went over the back badly, just the fear would get too much. For some reason I found the endo easier to do and hold, still not for long mind, and could do a good 180 endo. My bunny hopping developed nicely too. There are rigs that allow you to practice finding the balance point while stationary, LBS had one on their Halloween open evening one year. I refused to embarrass myself in public. Found this. https://mtbhopper.com/products/balance?srsltid=AfmBOoqXEZN_Jg1Hx-qgpqmxXCz5U3OR2qD-xCDx5-LTEB4RfloiwmkC Their bike stands are very good. Highly recommend,

I can do no hands, eat, rain jacket on/off but the wheelie evades me. It's sad and I feel like I'm a bit shit at bikes because of it.

With modern bikes the front assembly is so much lighter and more likely to rotate if it hits a minor imperfection in the road. There are so many potholes, cracks etc these days. I have nearly crashed a few times after hitting potholes with both hands on the handlebars. It isn't worth taking the risk.

@mdavidford The J - Ʞ combo with the picture of a Queen is the best one, followed by the Λ of clubdiamondspades, then the 8/7 of hearts.

@SecretSam I agree about the real Raleigh dying years ago - when I worked in a village bike shop in Cape Cod in the US in the late 80's, lots of the local homes had a few US-market Raleigh 3-speeds from the 1950's or 60's still knocking around the shed/garage/basement (with the script "Made by Raleigh of England" on the chainguard) and the quality was amazing - the steel items like the stem and cranks were stamped out of really high quality steel and had razor-sharp edges, like parts of a gun, whereas on my own eighties-made Raleigh at home those parts looked like they were stamped out of fondant icing...

@Rendel Harris Yes, I agree. I like the study because it highlights that it is possible for badly designed cycle paths to kill, something, I assume, was not known in the post-war years when the Berlin cycling network was built. It appears to me that the problem with this part of the cycle path is the wide corner. It allows traffic to enter the road far too quickly and the angle of the traffic puts the cyclist in the vehicle's blind spot. Would a tighter, more 90° corner solve the issue?

@mdavidford I only discovered GC during their (not short-lived enough) prog rock phase. "The False Equivalence of Conspiracy Theorists and Electronic Charlatans" (you remember, the 97 minute disco funk opera) was pretentious, confused and self indulgent, yet entertaining, albeit at times extremely repetitive. Seen at Brixton Academy in the mid 80s. The PA was awfully distorted & the merch overpriced. I did get into a fight with a yuppie over a pint of Mild though, so every cloud...

Try it with no hands, apparently it is easier https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db804Pxty3y/