Track Standing...

Yeah you can also trackstand a freewheel bike on a downhill by rocking the bike back and forwards underneath you while tapping the brakes to stop it going too far down the 'hill'.

I also found sitting easier first.

I don't think there are too many tips really. Once you know the technique it's just practice. Try at every set of lights and gradually you go from 1-second-wobble-and-frantic-foot-down to something a bit more effortless and skillish.

I find it easiest to track stand no-handed leaning with all weight at the back arms dangling.

Like that I can stay forever.

But at lights for some reason it always feels 'wrong' to do so, instead I stay leaned fowards hands on the bars wobbling in tension for the few mins before the lights change.

Awesome! With all this advice I think I am going to be standing proud in no time. I think its good to have this thread lying around in the archives as well for us noobs.

Cheers all.

Me no mook.

We are plural.

Awesome! Just nailed my first stands due to this thread. Things that helped the most...

Turn the same way as your forward foot.
Upward slope.
Moving the bike underneath your weight, not just moving the whole thing (including you).

Cheers and Merry Christmas all.

^^what they all said...and also I found that having good chain tension helps. If your chain is slack then whenever you nudge the pedals forward or backwards you have to take up the slack first. With a nice tight(ish) chain you kind of learn to take up the slack in your leg muscles. At least that's what it feels like to me!

Get your invisible friend to follow you around and hold you up when ever you stop.

Don't trust him though, he always pushes me off after a minute ;)

http://www.63xc.com/gregg/101_1.htm

Part eleven how to track stand

Saw someone today trackstanding a brompton near oval...

is that more impressive, or do the smaller wheels actually make it easier?

Less distance to fall, perhaps psychologically easier.. but I've never ridden a Brompton so not sure.
Sam's your man.

Doesn't matter, I was impressed either way...
I can manage at most about five seconds I recon... and only fixed...

I've ridden a brompton once... by a canal... while drunk... it felt generally unstable to me...

Brompton easier for some reason though i still can't TS for toffee really.

There's a good tutorial by a US mtb chick online somewhere, i adapted the principals in it for a short skills coaching session i delivered once - got 3 of 8 TS'ing within 20mins. I'll look for the link when i'm on proper net again and can follow / post links more easily.

practice practice practice

pffft I sleep trackstanding

everytime I cycle to work or back I've got a mission not to unclip till I get there. it works most of the time.

clip in + coat

Brompton easier for some reason though i still can't TS for toffee really.

There's a good tutorial by a US mtb chick online somewhere, i adapted the principals in it for a short skills coaching session i delivered once - got 3 of 8 TS'ing within 20mins. I'll look for the link when i'm on proper net again and can follow / post links more easily.

^that one I've seen too; recommends pedalling in slower and slower circles and feeling for the balance point when pedals near flat and stand as long as you can then roll around again. Rinse and repeat.

what dimi3 said/

the desire not to unclip is what keeps me upright at lights.

i can trackstand for ever on flats o nteh MTB, clipped in i get 'the fear' and have to unengage one foot.

^that one I've seen too; recommends pedalling in slower and slower circles and feeling for the balance point when pedals near flat and stand as long as you can then roll around again. Rinse and repeat.

Link for anyone interested:

http://www.teamestrogen.com/content.ep?file=asa_trackstand

I often keep both feet in, keep left hand on the drop bars and the right hand holding the wall of the velodrome ;) (only done it 3 times to be fair, but practice makes pefect)

Its quite easy once you get it:) but it take a kind of breakthrough. Doing it on a slight uphill helps on the freewheel bike but for fix just on flat, natural habit is to pedal the bike forward if you lean to the same side as your wheel but when you go the other direction you normally tend to turn your wheel the other way and pedal forward, the trick is to stop that habit, a bit of courage and pedal back gently, thats it once you get it it easy.
On freewheel bike its similar, slight uphill for the start, keep practicing on your way to everywhere and you will find out that irregularity of the road and sometimes the end of slope on the road disallows you to go back, grab your front brake quick, push your hands forward to give back motion to your body and let the brakes go and there you go backwards again, at least usually enough to get the balance. The key is to calm down. dont try to ride one meter back and forth, just try to be near motion less.
That way you can do a track stand on freewheel on flat as well.
Usually i dont unclip at any time on my freewheel when going to work and that.
Iam not convinced to the rule where you have to turn your front wheel to the same side as your front foot. Its just what you get used to, with clipless you can track stand with your crank arms almost vertically as well as long as you keep a calm balance and the road is flat.
Learning to do it with your feet in any position and turning your wheel to any direction helps as you can trackstand in any situation then.
hmm

pffft I sleep trackstanding

everytime I cycle to work or back I've got a mission not to unclip till I get there. it works most of the time.

clip in + coat

what dimi3 said/

the desire not to unclip is what keeps me upright at lights.

Right :) sometimes if feel like its disgraceful or shameful to unclip ;) - sick
Same with gears, when i ride my geared bike (well, the only one i have at the moment :D) i feel like cheating if i change the gears, so i dont, no point anyway :)

This thread reminds me of something I read about Giovanni Pettenella who holds the world trackstanding record of 1 hour 5 minutes...

*"*In Varese on that hot August day in 1968 the commentator covering the event for Italian national television ran out of people to interview, and a crowd of curious spectators slowly started flocking to the velodrome to witness the event. Pettenella's adversary on that occasion was that same Bianchetto of the Tokyo Olympic sprint final, a rider who after one hour and three minutes of trackstanding under the fierce summer sun collapsed to the ground, unconscious. In a drawer of his office desk Pettenella still has a photograph of the final minutes of the race. Bianchetto is lying unconscious on the track with Vanni still trackstanding and waiting for the doctors to validate his victory in the first sprint."
http://204.73.203.34/fisso/eng/pettenellaeng.htm

Badass

Thats a great story - trackstanding your opponent unconscious. Badass indeed...