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Cross country bike skills: The trackstand
Editor’s note: Ashwin’s first entry in this series was pretty popular so I thought I’d follow it up right away with the first tip dedicated to a particular skill — the trackstand. After this one, you’ll get a piece describing a new skill once per week for the next little while.
Ashwin’s note: Before you start practicing trackstands, you may want to switch over to flat pedals because you might find yourself falling over a bit when you first start. Also, if you have a suspension fork with platform valving, it’s a good idea to lower the platform pressure. I’ve noticed that a high platform causes a real ’sticky’ point when trackstanding and, like clipless pedals, it can throw you off when you’re first learning.
The trackstand is not just a stupid bike trick that riders can use to wow and impress people. Rather, it is a fundamental part of a mountain biker’s basic skill set.
It’s important to the cross country rider on climbs, where speeds are low and it’s sometimes necessary to stop, get your balance, and then move your bike around an obstacle in order to move forward. On descents, the relatively small amount of travel found on xc bikes means that you must pick your way through rock gardens instead of blasting through them like you can on a longer travel ride.
And while the trackstand is sort of counter intuitive — most riders want to charge through things instead of working slowly around them — I’ve found that practicing track stands also helps my stability at higher speeds.
What is a trackstand?
Cross country bike skills: The trackstand. WMV format. 2.7 mb.
Before we jump into a step by step, you have to understand exactly what is going on with a trackstand. A lot of people think that when you trackstand, you are standing still. The really good riders give this impression because their trackstands are pretty darn close to motionless but the reality is that you are always in a constant state of motion — remember to rock back and forth, back and forth.
Lots of beginners hold the brakes tight when first starting out, but dragging the brakes, and pulsing them on and off is actually required in some situations, and they’re never completely locked.
In the attached video — see above — I’ve tried to exaggerate the back and forth motion. No really… I can hold a motionless track stand if I wanted to.
The mechanics of a trackstand. Most mountain bike drivetrains utilize what is called a freehub mechanism in the rear hub. As the rear wheel rolls backwards, the freehub will rotate the cassette counter clockwise. To illustrate this to yourself, place the bike on the ground and roll it backwards. Notice how the cranks rotate backwards. They do this because the chain connects the crankset to the cassette — so when your cassette rotates counter clockwise, so do your cranks.
A trackstand is the constant back and forth battle between keeping enough pressure on the pedal to overcome the backwards rotation of the rear wheel. At first, the rear wheel may rotate a few inches and your pedal may move the same amount to counter that movement. Eventually you can reach the point where you can apply constant pressure to the pedal that is equal to the opposing force and you will have a motionless trackstand.
Step 1: Find your ‘Chocolate’ foot. Hans Rey, has a video called Monkey See Monkey Do (which is a great video by the way) where he describes how everyone has a strong foot. For most riders this is the foot that will be the furthest forward when you coast. For some reason that escapes me, he calls it your ‘chocolate’ foot. My chocolate foot is my right foot.
Your chocolate foot is the one that you will have forward when you are learning how to track stand.
Step 2: Find a slight uphill grade. It is much easier to learn how to trackstand on a very slight uphill. Face your bike UPHILL and wait for gravity to start pulling your bike backwards. The idea is to apply pedal pressure to overcome this rearward movement.
Basically, the goal of this exercise is to equalize your pedal pressure with the force pulling you backwards. A grassy hill will provide more rolling resistance, slowing things down, which can help when first learning.
Step 3: Stop. Go. Stop. Go. Make one or two pedal strokes uphill, slowly. Then, keep your pedals level and keep your ‘chocolate’ foot forward (and level with the ground) before applying the brakes very lightly until you eventually come to a complete stop. Before you fall over, jab the pedal with a half stroke to stabilize yourself by moving forward. The goal here is to get used to the feeling of coming to a complete stop. Do this over and over, until you can extend the time you are at a complete stop.
You will most likely want to be in the middle ring and granny gear in the back when you’re doing your trackstands. You also have the option of doing this while staying seated or while hovering over the saddle — I usually feel more comfortable standing off the saddle. Also, a seated trackstand seems to be a more advanced skill so it might be something you want to try later.
Try to resist the urge to look down at the ground. Keep your head up with your chin level.
Step 4: Stop, and then let the bike roll back. As you feel more comfortable with the movements involved in a basic trackstand, practice turning your wheel about 45 degrees when you come to your stop. You can turn your wheel in either direction, away from your forward foot or towards your forward foot — I learned by turning the wheel away, even though this is a bit of a problem when I am on a bicycle with pedal overlap (like my road bike, with its 700c wheels). I need to learn how to trackstand with the wheel turned toward my front foot like this.
Let the force of gravity pull your bike backwards slightly. You can exaggerate the back and forth motion by shifting your weight backwards as in the video. Counter act the shift by applying more pedal pressure. Eventually, you will feel the chain get tight and pull your crankset and pedal backwards as the bicycle moves backwards.
At this point apply light pressure to the pedal of your chocolate foot. Try to alternate between applying pressure to the pedal and letting off for a split second.
Step 5: Balance the force between the pedal and rolling backwards. Strive for an even, constant force on the forward pedal — this is what creates the motionless trackstand I mentioned earlier.
Step 6: Shifting your weight in relation to the bike. In the video you will see me move the bike to my left while my body goes to the right. At any time, the goal is to keep your center of gravity over the bottom bracket.
More advanced trackstands. Once you have the basic track stand down, go for a one handed or no handed trackstand. With the one hander and no hander you need to use the saddle to help stabilize yourself much more than with a regular tracktand. Sitting in the saddle sometimes makes this easier to accomplish.
Note on practicing. Learning a new skill can be frustrating and time consuming — have patience. Gene taught me to attempt a skill 3 times, then take a break and revisit it later. Set some defined goals for yourself; do things like stop-go sequences 3 times in a row without putting a foot down or start timing your track stands and try to break your personal records.
Taking the skill to the trail. Sometimes you will surprise yourself on a ride and pull off a trackstand instead of putting a foot down at a section that you normally would. Other times, you have to make a conscious effort to practice the skill to get better at it. Either way, you WILL see an improvement in your riding when you use the trackstand.
Reccomended reading and resources
- Team Estrogen *Great article*
- Charlie B
- Tredhed
- 63xc
- E how
Conclusion
The trackstand is a very useful skill for cyclists from any discipline — it gives you some basic bike control skills that can be built upon to give you more technical ability as you get better. Remember that it takes patience and perserverance to learn, but you’ll find that trackstands well will help your everyday riding in more ways than you think.
1. Posted by Cory | 7:46 am, 2 March 2006
The trackstand is pretty much THE most fundamental move in trials riding as well. Everyone I know who’s involved with it has identified that move as the first one they learned…
Maybe look into Ryan Leech’s Fundamentals DVD (I think that’s what it’s called). There are also a bunch of good trials sites out there…