Your raw opinion: Good idea, bad idea, no idea?

Topic of the day:

Taking your bike down to the local public use trail & riding it around with no hands on the bars.

Good idea, bad idea, no idea?

Raw: Bad

Considered: Depends on the activity level of the trail (other users count and frequency, not to mention relative speed), straight vs curved nature of the trail, surface condition of the trail, rider ability to control bike location in a narrow 3’-ish width, motivation for doing so, duration for doing so… and like more considerations.

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Bad. But I’m the guy that rides at an A level, that isn’t comfortable taking his hands off the bars.

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Bad idea.

I don’t want to be the person whose irresponsible behavior gets a kid or toddler or an adult injured. Don’t get me started on the people going 20mph weaving and dodging around families walking together…

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No-handed cat 6 MUP racing is the gateway to the cat5 salute.

It does depend on the bike though… I have a bike I outright can’t ride no handed, one that’s okay, and one that’s practically made for no handed. So that’s a factor too.

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BAD.
i can ride no-handed without any issue, but what’s the point? ok, if you are grabbing nutrition or messing with arm warmers but dont do it while there’s others around. Absolutely triggers me when people ride no handed with the arms crossed across their chest or even behind their back while flying down a MUP. Who do you think you are impressing?

Depends if there’s people around you could endanger, surely?

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If there’s no one around and you’re taking gloves or arm warmers off then it’s fine. Might still be a bit sketchy depending on how wide the trail is. But as long as you are sure you can finish whatever it is you’re doing by the time you encounter someone else then I see no problem with it. But if it’s even remotely busy then just pull over and do whatever you need to do before you keep riding.

Even on normal rides on out of the way roads I’ll still just stop on the side of the road to do things like putting a vest on or taking arm warmers off. Could I do it while still rolling? sure. But it would be kinda stupid to crash and hurt myself just to not have my average speed drop .1 MPH or whatever.

Exactly this. Honestly, when I go out early in the mornings, this is where I practice riding without hands, but that’s because no one is around, the path is smooth and straight where I try it out, and there are no cars. If there’s someone nearby, I do not even try. There are a couple of guys I see who are always in the opposite direction as me, and they seem to ride 100% without hands (and they are riding quite fast. But again, the path is very empty when we are out, and I don’t know what they do when they run into anyone else in the same direction. I don’t have an issue with them. They have great control, and they’re only going to hurt themselves if something goes south, as far as I can tell.

Depends on your opinion of where you stand in the gene pool…

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Good idea of you’ve got excellent skills, terrible idea of you don’t. Bad idea if you’re anywhere in between :joy: