# can people do trackstand on a NON-fixie?



## ivzhao (Jul 5, 2006)

i have a road bike(non-fixie) i wonder if i can do trackstand on it. if so, how? any tips or external links to tutorials?

thank you


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## Cory (Jan 29, 2004)

*I can't, but PEOPLE can...*

There's been a lot written about this, and I've been trying to master it for 10 years. So far I haven't, so it's useless for me to explain...but the gist of the descriptions I've read, and from what my trackstanding friends have said, you start on a small incline, like the crown of a paved road, and turn your front wheel uphill, and balance by letting the bike roll back slightly, then pedaling it forward, just a couple of inches at a time. My personal record so far is about two seconds, but I've seen it done through a whole traffic light cycle.


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## fleck (Mar 25, 2005)

Its really not hard to master.
I even got decent at doing it on my cruiser with a coaster brake.
just practice.

If you have a mountain bike, try it on that first. While standing, keep your dominant foot forward and with light pressure rock between the pedal force and light force on your front brake. Keep your eyes fixed on some object on the ground a little ahead of you. You'll inch forward so backpedal partial strokes to keep that dominant foot in position. Keep it higher if your tire overlaps your toe. As if they catch eachother you'll find yourself on the ground pretty quick. Also learning with platform pedals helps to minimize the embarasment of falling at a red light. 

Its also easiest when you aren't tired and your legs are fresh. Shaky legs = tough track stand.

just keep at it...


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## wankski (Jul 24, 2005)

yeah, the trick is to judicially use your brakes for the required "backpressure" on the cranks as you slightly push forward....

not to rub it in, but i picked it up quickly and stand during lights all the time, believe it or not to save my cleats which I really manage to mangle pretty quickly... pretty handy skill, gives you something to do at the lights, and pedestrians staring at you is pretty amusing at times...


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## Zwane (Jun 30, 2006)

I find that it's easier to trackstand using the rear brake on a road bike, whilst on a mountain bike i prefer using the front. I think it may have something to do with the body position since standing using the hoods puts my weight really forward.


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## Keeping up with Junior (Feb 27, 2003)

*Yes*

Looking out my office window right now as my kid is enjoying yet another summer ride. He is track standing outside my window making faces at me. He can trackstand through an entire red light be it a road bike or a track bike.

My wife and I can trackstand for most of a red light on our tandem. We cheat a little as it is really more of a very, very slow forward roll. We can make it through about half of a red light moving less than a foot forward.

Practice makes perfect but if you simply stop about three or four feet before the intersection and just pedal forward a couple inches at a time whenever you feel yourself tipping you can stay clipped in. As you do it more and more the forward roll nearly disappears.


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## asterisk (Oct 21, 2003)

There's a couple tricks to it. The first is to have the prawls of your rear wheel ready to engage immediately when your cranks are at the 3 and 9 position. I don't use any brake, just very slightly forward pushes (just pressure more than actual movement of the crank) and backward rolling.

The second is a cheat I picked up while learning but don't use anymore: when out of the saddle lean your top tube on the inside of your left leg. For some reason this gave me the extra stability to balance. 

It helps to have learned on a fixed bike so you know what it feels like then you just have to adapt to the freewheel.


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## Cycle_Spice (Jun 28, 2006)

I don't use brakes at all, I do have the front wheel kicked at a pretty severe angle though. Took me, personally, about 6 months of practice to get it. But I would practise in my house with sneakers on - not in my riding shoes. Now I think I could trackstand for an hour if I had too. Longest I have so far is 10 minutes to prove it could be done to a bloke at work.


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