Anyone had a go on a reverse steering bike? Reverse steer as in steer one way and go the other, rather than rear wheel steering. How are they to ride? Also, anyone have an idea how much one would cost? I've had a brief look elsewhere, but there's not exactly loads of info on them.

Work out a way of tensioning the headset, put a cog on the steerer, and mount the handlebars on a dummy steerer, with another cog on it.

Like so:
http://www.bikemagic.com/news/images/ib06_cdalereversedetail_hi.jpg

Ooooh, stylish and nad friendly 🙂

I'm more looking for an idea of whether it'd be worth me flogging one or not. I've been offered two of them by a mate, for nothing as they need some minor work. I should be getting them tomorrow. I want to keep one, but the thought of flogging the other has crossed my mind.

How much do you want for it?

I would be interested for an alternative bikes thingy we are doing for an open day at our sustainable futures thingy….

Also where are you?

Cheers
Andy

If Andy ends up not wanting it, and you still want to sell (either before or after doing the work needed) then let me know as I'm after one of these for a school fair.

what is the point of these?

the point of reverse steering bikes: go down the pub with one, offer a ten pound prize for anyone who can ride twenty feet on it, a quid to have a go.

free beers.

Not too sure at the moment, I had a brief look at the bikes earlier, both are a tad tatty looking at the moment and in need of work. I'll check them over a bit more thoroughly as soon as I get them. I'm on the Isle of Wight.

I'll keep that in mind paule.

Swing-bikes would also be good for that too bassspine.

There was a guy with one at the bike show one year and the prize was £20 if you could go 10 yards.

My mate who is a bit of showoff on a trials bike had a go and wheelied it the whole way.

Bloke wasn't happy and didn't think it was in the spirit of it….still paid up tho

Ken my thought was no handed but a wheeley works too……

We used to have one outside the shop (Bike Shed in Crediton) once in a while a local drunk would attempt to steal it. <muttley>Hehehehehehehe</Muttley>

one lad I worked with got quite good – he could bunnyhop the RS bike after a bit of practise. I could roll along but never managed to pedal.

There was a guy making a small fortune with one at a pound a go on Douglas prom a few years ago. And the distance was only about 3 or 4 bike lengths. Funnily enough the no-hands seems to be difficult to initiate.

Switch hands on the bars?

I remember seeing Paul Daniels ride one of these on his TV show.

I have tried riding loads of them but never got very far: no hands = too hard to set off, reverse hands = too dangerous, just going for it = fall off faster.

The theory is to make big adjustments to the steering and waddle all over the place rather than try and keep it in a straight line. I guess it like riding a unicycle – seems impossible at first but then you start to get a feel for it.

A buddy of mine made one out of skip bikes. Great for village fairs and the likes. I seemed to get the hang of it quite quickly. Just needed to concentrate really hard!

A friend of mine made one and his son could ride it like a normal bike.
I got about 3' 😳

Paule, Andy is unable to get the bike, so it's up for grabs.

I've had a go on one at a village fair, only had to go about 20 feet but couldnt do it.

One young lad came along, rode it the 20ft, turned around without stopping and rode it back, no sweat.

Then did it again to prove it wasn't a fluke.

Little bastard.

They used to have them at Thorpe Park when I was little, good fun. I'm sure I managed to ride along a bit.

We did a reverse-steering car game on a stag trip once. Everyone was really bad apart from one guy who just drove it like a normal car.

Some people's brains must be wired differently.

Lurchenstien, you dont travel to Winchester college a couple of times a week do you?

Nope, the furthest I go on the mainland is Fareham and Gosport.

Wait, you've got a reverse steering bike you're looking at getting rid of, and you're often in the Fareham area?

I recently sold one of the reversed steering bikes, but I have decided to sell the other one. I'm occasionally in Fareham / Gosport, I've family in both places.

Is it in decent condition? Have you got any pictures? How much are you looking for it?

A mate of mine has a couple that he use to take round the local fete's, one has eccentric wheels and reversed pedalling (you have to pedal backwards to go forwards)too.

one has eccentric wheels and reversed pedalling (you have to pedal backwards to go forwards)too.

Cool..

It's running, though would need a paint job, and I think the threads in one of the crank arms may be buggered. The first one wasn't running and it sold for £70, so I'd say £70 again. As for pictures, my e-mail is on my profile, bung us a mail and I'll reply with the pictures. Funnily enough, it's been in bits for a while, I just today built it up to have a go on it.

Where are you on the island chap?

Nah sorry I'd love one, but if the cranks are knackered and it looks rubbish then I'm not gonna part with £70 for it. Although if you do bring it into Fareham let me know and I'll buy you a drink in return for a ride (oo-er).

No worries. It won't be along to Fareham with me, I'm on my bike when I'm over there, a second bike would be a hassle, specially if it were a reversed steering one, but ta anyway.

Bigyinn, I'm in Ryde.

You should take it down to the bmx track in gosport on a saturday, tons of kids there who would be willing to pay a quid to give it a go, and they're all armoured and full faced up, so no worries. You'd make a fortune.

Also, if you're ever in Fareham on a tuesday night, we do a fast paced night ride from wallington carpark at 7pm, its good fun.

I had thought about taking it to the Isle Of Wight festival, as I work there each year, but I'd rather get some parts for my mountain bike than put the money on this. As it is, I've literally just sold it to the guy who bought the other one off me.

I'm over Gosport sometime for the weekend, if I can make it a long weekend then I'll keep that in mind.

Me too!

Heh, it's a small island.

Entirely unrelated, but I have a vivid picture in my mind of a bloke on a GSX1100S radically reverse steering it through a race-track bend somewhere and wondering how it didn't fall off the face of the earth (given that they didn't handle *that* fantastically reliably anyway).

Having seen it, and being young and very likely to heal much more quickly, I tried to corner like that on my [similar enough :wink:] GS1000, and was greatly surprised at just how well it worked, and just how much it freaked people out who'd not seen it before. Properly done it was great, but it always felt like a horribly thin line, and I dread to think now, what would have happened if you'd had to recover from it, you'd not really stand much of a chance of getting it back.

Anyway, funny how these things come back to you … I guess that'll happen more and more as I get older, the line between what I can remember, and what I think I remember getting more and more opaque … I'll start rambling and telling dull stories about the time when … et cetera.