Top 7 powerful tips that will improve your bike handling skills - A STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS (2021)

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR  BIKE HANDLING SKILLS - A STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS (2021)

Improving your bike handling skills is one of the major upgrades that you can do to yourself for improving the performance and ride quality on the bike without spending much money. 

Working on your bike handling techniques will not only make you a better rider on the road but also a safer rider, Which everybody wants to become for sure.

Most of us want to look like a pro on our bike, but have you seen them very close?

Well, I did once.

And what I found was their awesome level of confidence on their bike. 

Of course, they are faster but apart from their speed, you can clearly observe how well they handle their bike at high speeds which a normal cyclist can hardly do.

The secret behind this is that they are extremely skillful on their bike. That's why they have such a high level of confidence in their bike.

No matter how speed you go or how powerful you're on the bike, If you lack your bike handling skills your speed can sometimes lead you in danger too.

 So like you even I decided strictly to work on it regularly and guess what?

After practicing for a long time on bike handling drills, you won't believe that know I am way more improved 

And also now I can do all kinds of stuff like crossing a pothole instantaneously, picking up my water bottle even at high speeds, changing my jacket on the move and ultimately I am building my confidence on the bike every time I ride.

 But to develop all these changes takes a lot of time and hard work.

So today, I will share discuss the secret of improving bike handling skills and also share my experience as sharing experience will give you a superb clear idea about our topic apart from the techniques that I followed.

So if you're a beginner and wondering how to work on your bike handling skills, as I did before, this blog can help you to a great extent, let's get started and stay tuned with us.

MAINTAIN A PERFECT DIET FOR PERFECT HANDLING

Before you start, make sure you maintain a proper diet.

Because working on bike handling skills is not an easy thing, trust me.

It requires a great amount of riding on your bike and stamina. So to meet up the requirements of the training, you must follow a perfect diet. 

so firstly you should take care of your diet to improve your bike handling skills, if you're wondering how to maintain a proper diet for cycling, check out this article, A PERFECT DIET FOR A CYCLIST  

Referring to the article will guide you to make your diet perfect and balanced.

so, after a perfect fuel, it's time to rev your engines and work on the bike handling tips.

The first bike handling drill I would recommend is 

GO HANDS-FREE ON YOUR BIKE

one of the basic and simplest ways to improve your bike handling skills is going off with your handlebar.

practicing this drill will improve your stability exponentially on your bike, and if you master this drill you can most probably do all the stuff on your bike which before seemed very difficult to you. 

when I was new to cycling I had so many problems because of poor skills on the bike. 

When I am at high speeds I had to slow down my speed purposely for simple things like, picking up my water bottle, adjusting my clothing, and pretty much for every simple and tiny thing I had to slow down myself just because I had very little confidence on my bike and it just ruins my riding experience.

But no worries, if you feel the same situation or if you feel you may lose your control suddenly on your bike at any moment, practicing this drill will make some awesome changes in you.

Let's see how to do this simple but effective bike handling drill step by step.

STEP 1. maintain a proper and comfortable cadence and make sure you're not over-speeding on your bike.

STEP 2. once you feel everything is in your control, slowly try to lift any on one hand from the handlebar and try to balance yourself.

If you feel at any moment you may lose control, immediately get back your hand to the handlebar.

 For even more proper guidance, you can follow the continuous white line which runs on the road, by which you will follow a straight path and balance yourself by preventing any sudden movements on your bike.

STEP 3. Now do the same procedure with the other hand, keep doing this for a few minutes in your ride daily. and also try to avoid sudden and large movements on your bike when you're practicing this drill.

STEP 4. Once you feel everything is set, try to pick your water bottle from your bike and do this action repetitively with both hands. 

STEP 5. After you feel some confidence in riding with one hand, now try to lift your both hands gradually from the handlebar and ride few meters. 

STEP 6. While you lift both hands do not change your cadence or shake your upper body suddenly, as you are developing your skills try to give enough room to your body and mind to pair with your bike handling.

STEP 7. Last but very important, make sure you practice this bike handling drill in an open area or on a lonely road where you can be in less contact with other vehicles and always carry a first aid kit with you and as well as your helmet. These things are a must.

Practice these above-mentioned steps daily on your ride and see the difference in you.

Let us see the next bike handling drill.

TRAIN SLOW TO GO FAST 

Sounds weird right? but that's true. Many of us want to go fast on their bike, but did you know that high speed comes with high responsibility.

When you're at high speed you're expected to have high risk too. 

Many of us believe that achieving an incredible top speed or average speed is all pro-cycling about.

If you're still believing that just maintaining high speed on your bike is the only way you can be a pro,  then you must change your thinking now. 

Achieving a top speed on your bike doesn't make sense until you can handle it properly.

 If you have the speed in your control you have the fun but if you fail you have the pain.  just try to understand the depth of this line because,

Many cyclists encounter an accident because of poor handling at high speeds and sometimes it can even lead to death.

So before you pedal fast, make sure you're ready to face any problems with your speed

Lets us see how you can enjoy the speed comfortably on your bike.

Trust me, training at slow speeds can improve your bike handling at high speeds.

Now don't confuse yourself that if I train slowly I would increase my average or top speed. Training at slow speeds can only improve your bike handling skills at high speeds. It's that simple.

But how does it improve? let us see it now.

STEP 1: when you're on your bike lower your gears and start to pedal as slow you can.

STEP 2: when you start to do this you will feel some instability with your bike and that's where the sweet spot is.

STEP 3: Try to balance your bike and do not step off your legs from the pedals.

STEP 4: Ride as slow as you can to a few meters. and each time you practice keep increasing the distance.

STEP 5: As you keep on practicing this drill you will improve your high-speed stability because this drill improves the coordination of your body with your bike, which is the most needed part while you go at high speeds. so you can easily be stable and solve all your obstacles easily at high speed.

once you do this drill perfectly its time to take it to the next level that is,

THE FIGURE OF 8 

Cornering in a bike is a very important bike skill. Moreover, the most interesting part of a bike ride is going through the corners isn't it?

But corners can be dangerous at times. This is the place where many accidents are expected to happen.

well despite being dangerous it's the only part of the ride where you can feel some true adrenaline rush in your body. 

Most of us slow down while entering a corner and accelerate as it gets over, which makes your ride sometimes exhausting and inefficient. 

weak cornering skills can be trouble, especially when you're into a group ride where everyone just glides through the corners like a Formula 1 car except you.

poor bike cornering skills can not only ruin your riding experience but also sometimes it can easily be a reason for an accident.

so to make this situation better, we will see a simple and effective way of improving your bike cornering skills.

STEP 1: Get your bike into a lonely place or in an open area where you can find less interaction with other vehicles and people.  

STEP 2: Now place two cones or a big stone in the same direction with a distance of a few meters between them.

STEP 3: After you place it, take your bike and try to make a pattern of eight with the help of the cones/stones that you placed.

STEP 4: And while you practice this drill try to avoid stepping off your legs from your pedals.

 STEP 5: While you make the pattern of eight make sure you shift your gears lower. which will help you to practice the drill comfortably.

STEP 6: Once you feel comfortable doing this decrease the distance between the cones/stones and perform the pattern of 8.

STEP 7: Each time you practice this drill you will improve your cornering ability. 

STEP 8. When you're in a corner and you want to slow down yourself for some reason, only apply the brakes before cornering or after cornering. Do not apply the brakes when you corner in a turn. This is a very common mistake that all beginners do and the result of this mistake may be very dangerous.

STEP 9: When you're at a ride, always enter the corner as close as possible and leave the corner as wide as possible which makes you catch the perfect corner line and while practicing the drill parallelly practice to corner in real turn with different speeds where you can actually use the advantage of the drill and also be confident at turns. 

BONUS TIP: When surfing through a corner, always keep your eyes on the road and try to focus on the end of the corner which will help you to corner more confidently. As your body will subconsciously control your handling according to your focus.

While cornering your full attention should be at the end of the corner. If you focus somewhere else while cornering you will automatically tend to go in that direction and the consequences might be dangerous.

 If the above-mentioned steps are followed properly, you're going to love the corners instead of getting afraid of them.

let us see some more ways for improving our bike handling skills.

BRAKING 

Now you may be thinking that, is braking a skill to be mastered?  As it's very simple to do right everyone can do it without any practice. All you have to do is pull the brake lever and tada! you have stopped. But it's not like that as you think.

Believe it or not, this is the only skill that acts like a behind the screen for every other skill you perform. And this is sometimes the most sensitive part for beginners, so we just have to see how to use the brakes properly and improve our bike handling skills. 

Understanding the usage of brakes in a ride can be complicated as you apply different forces to the brakes every time and also it mostly depends on the environment you ride.

so we will see how to use the brakes in some common conditions.

The first common condition will be:

Applying brakes when you're at high speed

You have to be super careful with your brakes at high speed. One wrong move, you will be at the hospital or with god.

The first golden rule when you're at high speed especially when you're a beginner will be is,

stay away from the front brakes as front brakes can develop serious instability for a beginner at high speed.

If you want to slow down at high speed, firstly see the condition of the road and apply the brakes parallelly. Do not apply the brakes blindly on your bike.

Because once you ensure the condition of the road you will subconsciously start to operate the brakes according to it. 

This case happens many times where some riders apply the brakes without even seeing the road and the result is, they have an accident with other vehicles so always keep eyes on the road while applying brakes and try to maintain some distance from other vehicles while braking   

Now, what if you want to perform a sudden stop especially at high speeds. Well, Many beginners or sometimes even amateurs start to lose control of their bikes in such situations.

It's very difficult to act in such a situation where you're at high speed and suddenly you see an obstacle and to get over this situation all you have just a few seconds or less than that sometimes.

As soon as you see an obstacle suddenly on your way, get off from your saddle and lean backward which makes you shift your body weight to the rear side of your bike

once you push yourself backward and make your body posture stiff apply the brakes.

The reason why I said you to do all these steps before applying the brakes, is for a safe and perfect stop.

When you apply the brakes suddenly at high speed your body will tend to move in a forward direction due to inertia.

As to counter this situation you first lean your body backward and shift your body weight to the rear side of the bike which makes the inertia neutralize. Hence you make a safe stop.

Now, of course, this is not possible for everyone to do these steps all of a sudden naturally in such a sensitive situation. that's why I recommend you practice this drill virtually.

Arrange for a dummy obstacle, ride yourself fast towards it, and apply the brakes with those above-mentioned steps.

By doing this drill repetitively you will start to develop this skill into your muscle memory and when you face a sudden obstacle you will subconsciously perform the drill. So training is the only way you can do this skill perfectly. 

so our next condition will be:

Applying brakes in wet conditions 

When you are riding your bike in a wet condition you have to take care of a new buddy called TRACTION.

Riding a bike in wet conditions is all about playing with traction. The traction can be of the tires, brakes, or road, etc...

For a perfect ride in wet condition, you have to know how to play with traction properly. 

So let's see how to use your brake in wet condition now.

STEP 1: When you're riding in any wet condition you're most likely to have less grip with the road and there is always a risk factor, so avoid overspending.

STEP 2:  When cornering, forget the brakes, especially in wet conditions. This will help you to maintain your grip on the road and avoid skitting.

STEP 3: Do not apply the brakes with a sudden jerk because if you apply a sudden brake the friction between the brake pads and the wet rim can exponentially increase causing you to perform a beautiful skit which can be painful.

STEP 4: Apply the brakes smoothly and when you touch the brakes do not perform any other action like turning or leaning your body to one side. Try to make your body posture stiff while breaking in wet conditions. Each small movement you give on your bike while braking is an invitation for an accident in wet conditions.

STEP 5: Before you ride check for the tire pressure. low tire pressure is always favorable to wet conditions as it increases the grip of the tire.

STEP 6: When applying brakes see for the road condition. Try to avoid breaking in wet mud and shattered leaves because they can be extremely slippery in wet and try to keep a maximum distance from them.

The next skill you must have is 

BUNNY HOP

This one is my personal favorite. 

The bunny hop is a bike handling skill that every beginner dreams to master.

Bunny hop not only makes you look like a pro but can come really handy in many situations.

For those who don't know whats bunny hop is? I will try to will explain it shortly.

It's a skill where you do a hop/jump with your bike without getting off your bike. You clear an obstacle just by jumping with your bike instead of crossing it manually.

Imagine you are on a ride and you see a line of rocks on your way. probably you will cross the rocks by slowing down your bike and then manually lift your bike over the rocks and resume pedaling. 

Well, that's a boring way to clear an obstacle. So let's try to make this situation more interesting

Now the same situation but things are different this time. Now you have done your homework and mastered the bunny hop technique.

You see the same line of rock on your way but instead of slowing down, you do a bunny hop and show your signature style in the air and after clearing the obstacle you resume pedaling, while your fellow riders are still crossing the obstacle. 

Wow, that would definitely make you look like a pro, and also you didn't even ruin your cycling experience. 

Now I can also hear some voices, wish I can do this in reality. And guess what, you can do this in reality.

No matter if you're a beginner or an amateur you can still learn it easily, and believe me it's very simple to do. 

So let's see how to do this right now 

Bunny hop seems to be more complicated but it's very simple to do. This is done by combining three simple steps. 

1)  Lift up your front wheel.
2)  Raise your rear wheel.
3)  Combine the above-mentioned steps at the same time, And you have learned bunny hopping.

 But that's an overview let see these steps in more detail.
 

HOW TO DO A PERFECT BUNNYHOP

PART 1: LIFT UP YOUR FRONT WHEEL.

let's see how you can prepare yourself for a bunny hop wheelie.

STEP 1: Get your bike to a lonely place where you can find less vehicle interaction.

STEP 2: Put down your saddle low as it will make this drill easy for beginners.

STEP 3: Now search for a small dummy obstacle like a rod, pipe, or draw a horizontal line on the road.

STEP 4: After doing all these arrangements it's time to get on your bike. Ride to the obstacle at a comfortable speed. Just make sure you are not overspeeding.

STEP 5:  When you're about to reach the obstacle pull back your handlebar with your elbows and shift your body weight backward parallelly and perform a wheelie.

STEP 6: Always do the wheelie over the obstacle and try to avoid hitting it. Now practice this at different speeds until you feel comfortable and build up concrete confidence in yourself.

STEP 7: After repeating this drill several times and you're done with this, let's jump to the second part that is,

PART 2: RAISE YOUR REAR WHEEL

Many of us believe that raising the rear wheel is the most difficult part of doing bunny hop but actually it's easier than doing a wheelie.

Have you seen those offroad experts or the BMX guys?

 If yes, you would have probably guessed how these guys can lift their rear wheel so perfectly.

well, there is not any rocket science behind it but there is a secret trick hidden.

And believe me, once you have understood the trick any beginner or amatuer can do it easily. So let's unlock the secret trick especially for you and become a bunny hop master. 

STEP 1: Ensure you're packed with all the safety equipment like a helmet, gloves, first aid kit, etc...

STEP 2: Ride towards the obstacle but don't do a wheelie this time because this time we are going to lift the rear wheel instead of the front wheel.

STEP 3: When your rear wheel approaches the obstacle, get up from the saddle and push your pedals backward by tilting your ankle slightly. This will tend to lift the rear wheel 

STEP 4: When practicing this drill, both pedals should have an angle of 90 degrees to the seat tube.

STEP 5: After you're in the position, as said before slightly tilt your pedal backward and exert some force by your legs and you will experience that your rear wheel is lifting.

STEP 6: If it's too difficult you can skip the obstacle part and just practice it alone at low speeds repeatedly. Just try to keep the bike stationary without any support and do the drill.

STEP 7: Remember one thing although the trick is easy to do it perfectly takes a lot of time, effort, and patience especially for beginners.  

STEP 8: Do not use the brakes while doing a hop this can cause damage to your bike and also it's an improper way of doing a hop.

STEP 9: Last but not least you should have a ton of patience. Skills like this develop into you organically so it takes its own time. Chances are more that you will get frustrated and quit but that's the spot you become a loser.

To finish our drills into a perfect bunny hop let's explore the next part.

PART 3: COMBINE THE ABOVE MENTIONED STEPS 

Now, this is the most interesting part to do and you will feel like magic came true.

 We have learned the two main parts of bunny hop and let's see how to merge them.

STEP 1: As you have learned how to operate the front and rear wheel to do a bunny hop
It's time to do it together.

STEP 2:  Ride to the obstacle and lift your front wheel. After your front wheel gets landed now lift the rear wheel.

STEP 3: Both wheels can touch the ground but not the obstacle. Practice lifting both wheels separately.

STEP 4: After you do it perfectly you can do the real magic. This time ride towards the obstacle and lift the front wheel and rear wheel at the same time instead of doing separately. 

 this step can be complex for some people but the only solution is to do the practice.

STEP 5: While practicing the drill, always follow the correct way of doing it as we discussed now because doing a bunny hop in the wrong way can damage your bike.

STEP 6: Bunny hop is easy only if you practice so be consistent and practice and each time you fail, try to figure out what's stopping you to do a perfect bunny hop and work on that.

So these were some bike handling drills that a beginner must know. we shall now have a short and sweet recap of what we learned to have a clear vision for our training.

So now you have got :

1. Perfect mobility on your bike. 

2. Superb stability at high speeds.

3. Incredible cornering performance.

4. Powerful braking ability.

5. And an ultimate getaway skill which comes in handy in every situation 

Now, this sounds like now you're a fully armed soldier ready for war but are you really one of those?

and the perfect answer to this is- PRACTICE.

 Nothing can be achieved overnight so stay focused and practice with consistency.

And try to improve your strategy each time you fail instead of quitting because if you are willing to quit that's where you lose.

 So have patience because as mentioned earlier skills grow into you organically and they take their own time to grow on you.

Once you have mastered the skills you're no more beginner. 

so develop your bike handling skills today and pedal like pro. obey the traffic rules, ride safe and enjoy pedaling. 

Let me know your opinion and queries through the comment section below. And if you like this post do share it with your fellow riders. Have a good day.