Being comfortable on the bike takes time and some work, but once you are comfortable you are better able to react to situations that occur around you, like a crash in front of you, a rogue water bottle skittering across the road or a pothole you did not see ahead of you. Below are a few good drills to practice in a park lot of area that is closed off to traffic.
The biggest piece of advice is: Look Where You Want To Go (Not Where You Don’t Want To Go)
1) Slalom - Place a few small cones, or water bottles, or pieces of bark mulch, or anything else softer and moveable (not rocks or other hard objects) in a line. Practice weaving in and out of them. One of the first things you will notice is that going slow and actually turning your bike is much harder than going a bit faster and leaning your body. As you get better move the cones closer together.
2) U-turns – A lot of races have u-turns and unless you practice them they can be quite foreign. Set up a cone, or use the end of a line as the turnaround point. When approaching the turn try to do most of your braking before you start to make your turn, the allow you bike and body to flow into the turn and around it. The biggest thing is to look OUT of the turn, not down at the ground in the turn. Attempt to stay off the brakes while you are in the middle of your turn.
3) Rocking the bike – While riding in a straight line start to shift your weight one way and then the other. Moving your bike out to the side. Although you feel like you are moving your body, in reality you are more moving your bike, because your center of mass has to stay in the middle and you weigh a lot more than your bike. As you get better with this drill and much more advanced, you can try to reach down and touch the ground on the side opposite where your bike is.
4) Stay in Your Square – In a parking lot use one or two parking spots and start to do circles trying to stay in the spots. The tighter the circles you can go and you can stay in one spot. The key to this is actually to use your brakes to counteract the force of your pedaling. What??!?! Yes, try slowly engaging your brakes while you are trying to pedal forward and you will see that you actually can control your bike with how much pressure you put on your brakes. Just remember to let the brakes go if you get in trouble, not squeeze them!
5) One Leg Drills – While riding your bike un-clip one shoe and just pedal with one leg, try to do this for 20 seconds, then 20 with both and then 20 more seconds with the other leg. Try to keep a smooth stroke while pedaling with one leg and focus on the pull back along the bottom. This also will help with balance on the bike.
6) Follow The Leader – Once you have advanced and feel confident, find a friend and take turns following each other around the open area. Reacting to somebody else and their moves makes you learn to be loose and confident, as opposed to being stiff and rigid. Try to follow them as close as is possibly safe as they go through u-turns, corners, and slalom. It is a great way to learn to react and move your bike without really thinking.
Although those are just a few good drills, they are great to start the learning process of how to feel more confident riding your bike. Take some time in a parking lot or closed off area to get yourself feeling more confident on your bike and it will show in how loose and comfortable you can ride. A great example is riding with a cross wind, did you know that the more tense you are the worse you will do when gusts of wind push you, instead you should be loose and relaxed allowing the wind to push you are you to react.
Have fun and be safe!
