First Practice Session

[Trekster]

Last night I was so happy to finally get all the loops and tangles out of the chain, that I put on the derailleur and front wheel - without noticing the shifter cable was wrapped once around the fork. After examining the situation this morning, I removed the front wheel and derailleur and then did an unwind of the cable and put everything back together.

The rest of the assembly went pretty well, and by lunch time I was ready to take the Quest to a non-busy (flat) parking lot for the first practice.

I've watched the "Parker" video on YouTube several times, and was confident I almost had it memorized.

With the seats folded down, and by loading the rear of the bike first, it fit just fine in the back of my Honda CRV.

My first practice session went rather well, I thought. It was pretty warm and humid this afternoon, so my total practice time was only about 2 hours. I took about 4 small breaks but just to get out of hot afternoon sun for a few minutes.

Not unlike others who have described their first practice, I started out just doing the "Flintstone" walk and gradually got just a little coast time in without placing my feet on the pedals. I did that little exercise several times, and naturally I was a little shaky to begin with, but was determined to keep the hands "open" and relaxed.

Once while doing a longer coast, I tried to put my feet up on the pedals. I tried several times, but always upset the direction and balance to the point where I had to stop and put my feet down. Finally, when I decided the feet should just barely be on the pedals, I actually coasted a short distance in that mode. Once I was able to coast with my feet on the pedals, I then tried to pedal some. Ha! That action once again upset the balance and direction of the bike.

But, I kept trying, hoping that my old body would begin to get the hang of this new and different way to ride a bike.

Eventually, during about the last 15 or 20 minutes of my session, I was actually able to ride around in the parking lot, pedaling in circles and figure 8's. Some of my pedaling was pretty shaky, and tight circles are not my thing yet - but at least I felt very pleased with my first session. I'm no where near ready for actual bike trail riding yet, but hopefully I won't need too many more practice sessions.

One thing for sure, you certainly use more (and different) muscles than a DF bike, or my Catrike.

Really looking forward to early tomorrow, when it's not so hot, and my next practice session.

 

[Eric Winn]

Woohoo! Good job! Just keep

Woohoo! Good job! Just keep at it and you'll find it comes pretty fast, especially based on your progress so far.

-Eric

 

[chrisblessing]

Keep it up...

Good work Trekster. My approace was the same as yours, although I did find a big, soft football pitch to practice on. A couple of sessions out and I was ready for the road. It keeps getting better.

 

[Trekster]

Second practice sessions

Today I got two separate practice times - both of them in a "fairly" flat parking lot that is seldom used. Now that I'm able to peddle around the lot, I'm working on relaxing the upper body, doing some tighter turns and keeping the bike on a straight heading as will be required on a bike path. Also worked on starting from a dead stop, on a flat and on a very slight incline. Most of my starts were successful.

Not sure how I will ever start on a medium incline, but perhaps I'll get better at it; or maybe there's a trick to it that I haven't learned yet.

Other than being extremely hot and humid in the Midwest right now; I was satisfied with my progress and have found the more I ride it - the more I want to ride it.

My next goal is to try riding some on the local bike path, probably early in the morning before it gets warm and sticky.

 

[richa]

doing great

Sounds to me like you are doing great.

For me, getting started is the hardest part and is the skill that seems to be developing the slowest. But even it is improving over time, albeit slowly. In the meantime I'm just careful where I stop, and ocasionally push it to a flatter spot to start.

Just keep practicing!

 

[Ian Smith]

Just you wait

Just wait until you have a pesky MTB (or road) rider have a go at you before you toast him on the Quest.

 

[Eric Winn]

When I was doing my parking

When I was doing my parking lot practices I also did a lot of slow speed figure 8s, steadily increasing acute turns - e.g. greater than 90 degrees and various other things, slaloms, abrupt hazard avoidance type of maneuvers, panic braking, etc.

Then I would repeat at different speeds. In particular I slowly worked to doing a figure 8 as slow as possible and in as small a space as possible. This helped a lot with this one 180 degree hairpin on a bike path that I take to go underneath the interstate to get to another riding area.

One thing I didn't do was find soft sand, soft mud, a hill on a dirt or gravel road, wet road, etc. and practice on those types of environments. Those caught me a bit by surprise when I encountered them when I was out riding more. Skinny tires on slush with harder pack under it doesn't work too well either...

Obviously not much fun deliberately getting out in messy weather but I would at least try practicing on some poor surfaces including some hill climbs to see how you handle wheel slip. Flat soft sand can also be entertaining with both wheel slip and getting bogged down.

-Eric

 

[Kenneth Jessett]

Is it fair to say that the

Is it fair to say that the lighter the front end is the more stable the bike is going to be?

I know with my standard bike with clip-on aerobars, that the extra weight over the front wheel does require some adjustment in allowing the handlebars to have their head.

I think when - and if - I can ever afford a Vendetta or Silvio that having the front end mostly built of carbon will be a great help.

 

[Trekster]

First trail ride/practice

This morning I tried the Quest on a small part of the local bike path. I got along pretty well riding on the flat portion of the path. Being it was Sunday and the heat index was to be 100 later in the day, I had quite a little traffic to contend with since everyone was trying to get their ride in before the hot part of the day. (I didn't hit anyone) Starting from a level start still proved to be somewhat of a challenge, though towards the end of my session I found if I pulled straight back on both handgrips while pushing from the top of my right pedal - that worked better than anything else. Has anyone found a better way?

I did have one major problem. There is a short distance in the trail where there is a grade maybe 60 feet long and fairly steep (perhaps 10-15% grade). Going down was no problem; coming back up I shifted down into my lowest gear and attempted to power up the grade. Within 10 feet of the top one foot slipped off a pedal and I was forced to brake and then walk the bike to the top of the grade. I was pretty disappointed that I did not make it up the grade. My usual ride on the path will require that I come back up that grade - so I hope I can figure how to do it. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Maybe I'm expecting to do too much on only my third day of practice.

 

[richa]

Pull

Pulling on the bars allows you to get a lot of power to the pedals.
Clipless pedals also make riding easier and would keep your feet from slipping off.
And lastly, lower gears. You can get an 11-34 cassette for around $35, and Installation is quick if you have the right tools. And I find the lower gears also help with the starting process.