- In this video, we are gonna show you five essential skills
that will help make you more confident on the bike.
These skills do take practice, but they will make you
become a more well-rounded rider.
- The good news is that they are not too difficult to master
but it is really important to work on them
if you're just starting out on the bike,
particularly if you're going to be riding
out on the open road or in groups.
(upbeat music)
- The first skill we feel is important
to get started is braking.
Now this could give you sleepless nights
of images of you flying over the handlebars
in a very unflattering manner.
- But you should not be losing sleep
over this very simple skill.
Coming up we're going to show you some very easy-to-learn
tips on how to make sure your braking is controlled,
effective, and also safe.
- Whoa! (screech)
- Hey!
- [Daniel] The first thing to remember when braking is that
it's your front brake that's by far the most effective,
so you want to progressively apply pressure
to the front brake whilst feathering the rear.
Although don't squeeze so hard
that your rear wheel is lifting or that you're losing grip
on the road or locking up.
It's your body position that's really key to this,
and if you have it towards the rear of the bike
there's almost no chance of going over the bars.
The more pressure you apply on the front brake,
the more you will need to move your weight backwards.
This stops your rear wheel from wanting to lift off,
and by keeping your weight low and over the back of the bike
you will also prevent the rear wheel from locking up.
- So now we are going to demonstrate the emergency brake.
- Now hopefully this is not a skill
you're going to have to use too often, but nevertheless
it's still important to learn for when you do need
to use it, plus it's going to give you more confidence
and control over your bike.
When you're trying it out though, make sure you do it
on a really good road surface
and on a road that's very quiet too.
And what you'll find is that very quickly
your stopping distances get a lot shorter.
- [Oscar] With practice, will become second nature.
- Being able to stop fast is a really important skill,
but it is something that you want to avoid
out on course if you're in a group like this.
There are times when you are going to need to do it,
but in general in a group, especially with modern brakes,
you really need to feather with one or two fingers
just on the front brake, and that's another skill
that's worth working on, making sure that you can
adjust your speed really minutely.
- Riding out of the saddle is a skill
you want to become well-accustomed to.
Not only does it give you respite from those long rides
in the saddle, but it also helps you get maximum power.
- Whether you're sprinting, climbing, or descending,
by getting out of the saddle you're able to use
your body weight to drive down through the pedals.
- First thing you want to think about is hand position.
The most comfortable place to put your hands is on the hood
if you're on a road bike.
- Try this with other hand positions.
For example, leave your hands in the drops
and follow same steps.
- And the more and more comfortable you get
with getting out the saddle, the more pressure
you can put on the pedals.
It is also worth saying use your arms
to lever the bike across and that will help you
get maximum power out of yourself.
Come on, mate!
- The next thing that you're going to want to concentrate on
are your gears, because if you get out of the saddle
in the same gear that you were in
when you were in the saddle,
you're going to be spinning uncomfortably fast.
So what you want to do is prepare for that,
knock it down a couple of gears harder
on the rear cassette like so, then get out the saddle
and you should be in just the right gear.
- [James] In terms of the technique,
you want to get out of the saddle
just at the very top of the pedal stroke,
and you're probably going to have a favored leg.
Say, for example, if you're right-handed,
you might find that you like to get out of the saddle
when your right foot is at the top of the pedal stroke.
Then when you're out of the saddle you can drive down
through the pedals and what you'll find is that the bike
leans slightly into the opposite direction.
So when your right leg pushes down,
your bike leans to the left.
- Cornering is one of those skills that will not only
give you confidence when you start to get it right,
but it's also, quite frankly, blooming enjoyable
when you get it right too.
And it doesn't matter where you are in the world either.
If you're descending down a mountain,
or if you're in the city,
or if you're in some quiet country lanes like we are today,
you're always going to come across a few corners.
- [James] It's a super simple skill to learn
but it's easy to get wrong.
The key thing to really concentrate on is looking way ahead.
By focusing on where you want to go
you're able to scan the road ahead
for holes and rough surfaces.
But most importantly, where you look
is where your bike and body will go.
- The other really important consideration
when it comes to cornering is your pedal position.
So when you're going through a left-hand turn
such as this one, you want to make sure
that your right-hand crank is at the very bottom
of the pedal stroke, and vice versa
if you're going round an opposite corner.
Just as they've ably demonstrated now.
The first reason for this is that it will prevent you
from clipping your inside pedal on the tarmac
and bringing your back wheel off the ground,
which is basically what James did here.
The second reason is that by putting weight
through that outside pedal you should be increasing
your grip on the surface of the road.
And lastly, it's also going to help you balance
and distribute your weight through your bike
as you lean it into the corner.
- If you can, try to find a quiet piece of road
with a gentle corner.
Concentrate on these few points and you will find yourself
gaining more and more confidence in taking corners at speed.
- Riding one-handed is a skill every cyclist should have.
Not only is it essential when you want to eat and drink
on the bike without stopping, but it's also really useful
for being able to signal to other road users.
- Of all of the basic skills that we are teaching you today,
this is probably the easiest one to practice.
One again, you just need to find a nice,
straight, fairly quiet piece of road,
get up to a comfortable cruising speed,
at which point when you're ready just take one hand,
slide off the bars for a short period of time.
Now as you get a bit more confident,
take your hands a bit further off the bar
for a slightly longer period of time.
- As you get more and more comfortable,
practice drinking from your bottle,
taking a bar out from your back pocket,
or pointing out a road furniture to all of us to avoid.
- One of the things with riding one-handed
is that when you first get into cycling
it doesn't feel like a skill that you're going to need
an awful lot, but the more cycling you do,
the more you'll realize that you need it.
- And lastly, another important skill
we feel you should master is observation.
Whether you're training, racing, or even just going out
on a ride in your local roads, it's important
to look out for those unexpected surprises.
- And this applies no matter what type of cyclist you are,
whether you're a mountain biker or a road rider,
but since we're the latter we'll talk about that.
What we mean is scanning the road for anything
that could pose you a danger,
whether that's something actually on the road
or it might be that it is other road users,
because the more you cycle, the more you can begin
to predict the movement of those other road users.
And once you've mastered this skill of observation,
what you'll find is that your rides are both safer
and more enjoyable.
- So look out for those potholes, loose gravel on the road,
manhole covers, or even oil that can be really slippery.
- Yep, and when you do master the art of finding
all those hazards on the road, if you're on a group ride,
point them out to the others on there as well
and you could avoid a lot of accidents.
- We hope this short video will help you
to feel more at ease when you are out on your bike.
Be sure to keep practicing these skills
and they will become second nature.
- At least they should, and if you do perfect
all of these skills and you'd like to take one of them
one step further, just down here we have got a video
dedicated to all things cornering.
- And if you have enjoyed this video
then don't forget to give us a thumbs up.