It's just like riding a bicycle...
- Thread starter ndivita
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Redfish Hunter
Gone Fishing
Pretty neat but... Why?
wfooshee
O, Woe is me!!
I saw a guy at a local fair-type event with one of those, you paid a dollar to try to ride it 10 feet, you would get 100 dollars if successful.
The one I saw was smaller, child-sized (but with a tall seat and bars) and besides the backwards steering head it had an eccentric crank so pedal effort changed with rotation. The guy would get on it every few minutes and ride circles around his little area, but I never saw anyone even get a full turn of a wheel.
I did not waste my dollar......
The one I saw was smaller, child-sized (but with a tall seat and bars) and besides the backwards steering head it had an eccentric crank so pedal effort changed with rotation. The guy would get on it every few minutes and ride circles around his little area, but I never saw anyone even get a full turn of a wheel.
I did not waste my dollar......
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That's an interesting concept. Something that would seem so simple to overcome, being so difficult, even with all the thought put into it before one tries. It goes to show how our brain works, to bring and maintain consistency.
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infrared
Well-known member
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I would have taken the man's money, and never looked back. Once it becomes obvious that the hands are not working correctly, the simple answer is just to ride "no hands," which would not be affected by his ridiculous modification. You would need to hold the handlebars straight at first, but if you hold the center stem, not the handgrips, it's not hard.
The problem got hung up on his "method" of operation. The problem is to ride the bike, not to ride the bike while holding the handgrips.
Cheers,
Infrared
The problem got hung up on his "method" of operation. The problem is to ride the bike, not to ride the bike while holding the handgrips.
Cheers,
Infrared
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HotRodZilla
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Yeah, except with the geometry of that bike, riding hands free for the first few feet would have been a *****. Actually, unless one is very skilled at it, starting off hands free on any bike is very difficult. I know I can't do it, and I almost live on one.
The way to make up for the lack of hands is rider input, and with the steering head geared backwards, your inputs would have to be backwards. Keeping a bike balanced is partly centrifugal force and the gyroscope created by the wheels, but it is also the "wobble effect" that is basically input from the rider to keep the bike upright and on track.
Since we have learned, for as long as we can remember, how to operate a bike, and much of that is subconscious, we would have to fight our deeply engrained muscle memory to operate a backwards bicycle. A person who has never ridden a bike would find it much easier to learn to ride backwards than a person who has been riding for years.
Had you tried that, all that would have happened is you would have fallen on your butt and he would have kept his money.
The way to make up for the lack of hands is rider input, and with the steering head geared backwards, your inputs would have to be backwards. Keeping a bike balanced is partly centrifugal force and the gyroscope created by the wheels, but it is also the "wobble effect" that is basically input from the rider to keep the bike upright and on track.
Since we have learned, for as long as we can remember, how to operate a bike, and much of that is subconscious, we would have to fight our deeply engrained muscle memory to operate a backwards bicycle. A person who has never ridden a bike would find it much easier to learn to ride backwards than a person who has been riding for years.
Had you tried that, all that would have happened is you would have fallen on your butt and he would have kept his money.
bluesdog
Well-known member
First time I drove an ATV, I couldn't initially turn the darn thing!
I was so used to leaning in order to maneuver a handlebar-equipped vehicle, it took me a focused, conscious effort to use those bars instead. It was as if there were a palpable force resisting my desire to make a turn.
Muscle memory is indeed an astonishing phenomenon
I was so used to leaning in order to maneuver a handlebar-equipped vehicle, it took me a focused, conscious effort to use those bars instead. It was as if there were a palpable force resisting my desire to make a turn.
Muscle memory is indeed an astonishing phenomenon
Uncle Hud
Just another blob of protoplasm using up your oxyg
Wow. That pretty much blew my mind. I can certainly understand that a backwards-geared handlebar would put me in the ditch immediately -- but 8 months to unlearn your childhood "reflex" riding habits seems a bit long.
I'll just say this ... he was wearing an Alabama hat in the video.
Knowing myself as I do, I'd probably fart around with it for 20 minutes and quit. And he didn't, because ..... he's wearing an Alabama hat.
I'll just say this ... he was wearing an Alabama hat in the video.
Knowing myself as I do, I'd probably fart around with it for 20 minutes and quit. And he didn't, because ..... he's wearing an Alabama hat.
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HotRodZilla
GOD BLESS AMERICA
"If at first you don't succeed, quit! No sense in being a dammed fool about it."
---Murphy
---Murphy
