I can’t do a proper track stand for toffee, but instead like to impress and amaze my fellow commuters at the lights with my pseudo trackstand where I hover on the bike, wobbling on the bars and inching forward about 1cm at a time (hopefully slow enough for people to think that I’m not moving).

So today I was riding back from london with my cousin. The roads were mobbed due the tube strikes as performed best pseudo trackstand at a particularly busy light. Then I spied my cousin alongside me, a fixie purist of many years performing a perfect seated trackstand, with his front wheel at a right angle while he gently rocked the cranks back and forth.

It was at that moment, I felt like the ugly sister next to the prom queen and was exposed for the fake that I am. So should I keep living the lie or do the right thing and plant both legs on terra firma?

Keep at it, great for balance, core strength, and it is still quicker away from the lights
A

Cheers Alex, but really I just want to look like a biking god in front of my fellow commuters. Now that the fixie craze has brought in a whole new demographic, I’m faced with better looking, cooler dressed competition on nicer bikes and I NEED AN EDGE!

it’s a lot easier on a fixie as you can stop the bike rolling forwards
if you’re not fixed, you just need to make sure you are going slightly uphill, try not to use the brakes and just relaaaax

stick the brakes on and sit at the lights backpedalling

Sitting down on the seat and slowing down to stop, turn front wheel to perpendicular, take both feet off pedals and place a foot on either side of the front wheel. Move front wheel using feet to keep your balance 😉

That’ll show them fixers!!

just shout “get sum gearz you nob” as you ride past.

anyway, no handed trackstands is where its at.

Just jump the lights like all the other pr1cks seemed to be doing yesterday.

i’m gettign into the havvit of snaping away from the lights, probably gets me away slower as im waiting for the green, but nice and fun 🙂

Just keep at you will get there eventually plus doing it on a fixie is so much easier 😉
I find that i can do them seated so easliy on my mtb but its harder on the road bike and when facing down hill endup doing as you do and creaping forward.

Practice, practice, practice. I’ve been commuting for 15+ years now and it’s got pretty instinctive. Took me best part of 10 years of wobbling before I could get it right though. Working on one handers at the mo.

Mountain bikes are the easiest to do them on – more stable geometry and slower rolling, fixies are pretty easy once you’ve got your head round the concept (and doing trackstands DH is pretty cool), doing them on my roadbike is still pretty hard work. Seated is difficult as your ability to rock the bike sideways is hugely compromised.

The real fun comes when the lights go green and you’re first to leave the junction despite all the other knobs having jumped the lights by varying amounts. Good 4x gate practice. 😀

Agree about it being easiest on an MTB, I had one of those trancendental moments at glyncowrg car park where I was facing up a slight incline and by god, I was doing a proper trackstand…not creeping forward but instead rocking back and forth against the gradient. Then a big van loaded with bikes pulled out of its spot and I had to move on.

Good to see that there’s other folks out there who obey the lights. Its not so much about being a law abiding goody-goody as about not giving the motorists an excuse to hate on cyclists.

Try it on a moped. Used to do that in town all the time – gets the people behind you very confused. Guess I must have good balance, but I found it easy to just stop, stay upright then go as required.

I find on the commuter it’s actually a bit slower away from the lights cos I’m running flat pedals – I can push off as the light goes green and not have that slow first stroke if I put my foot down.

When I’m on the road bike with 1 sided SPD’s it’s practically a necessity though!

It’s always good for developing your balance and is probably a good part of the reason that I’ve not had any drunken mishaps…

This guy impressed me.

BTW I can’t…

If you only creep a cm or two you will always be better than me at trackstands. And apparently its easy onm my mtb that i commute on.

Good to find a thread advocating stopping at lights as well. I do sometimes feel I am in a minority of one on this isse and as mingsta says its not not about being legal but doing some PR for cycling and not giving motorists and pedestrians an excuse to hate us and behave badly themselves.