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No hands riding

alannodolf@yahoo.com

Member
Member
I know it is inherently unsafe and foolish to ride with no hands, but with my first road bike, a 1978 Z1-R, I did a lot of commuting between northern and southern California. Most of the riding was on I-5, boring as hell, and after working night shifts on a drilling platform, catching a 20 minute nap on the boat ride in to the beach, and then jumping on the bike for a 560 mile ride, I had a problem staying awake. It is real scary when you awake from a short doze to see the rear of a semi coming at you real fast. I started riding with no hands to help stay awake. I had a thumb lock on the throttle, a small duffel bag strapped to the gas tank that I would rest my arms on, and to change lane position or change lanes I only had to tilt my helmeted head a little bit to one side or the other. I used to try to ride from one gas fill-up to the next with no hands, but usually would come on slow traffic in both lanes, and had to flip off the thumb lock til one lane opened, then flip the thumb lock back on. My longest NO Hands ride was 69 miles, from north of Sacramento to north of Anderson, California. Sometimes when I passed cars I would put my hands behind my back for added shock effect.  My current 03 Connie has too much windshield buffeting for comfortable no-hands riding. I do not recommend no-hands riding for obvious reasons, but if anyone else has done some crazy stuff and survived, I would like to hear it.
 
At 63 I still go hang gliding. Is that crazy enough?

 

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Rastus said:
...if anyone else has done some crazy stuff and survived, I would like to hear it.
I ride a motorcycle in I-5's rush hour corridor.  Many think I'm crazy.  And I'll spend all day tomorrow in prison.  Again, many think I'm crazy for doing that too.  ;)

Chris
 
Daboo said:
Rastus said:
...if anyone else has done some crazy stuff and survived, I would like to hear it.
I ride a motorcycle in I-5's rush hour corridor.  Many think I'm crazy.  And I'll spend all day tomorrow in prison.  Again, many think I'm crazy for doing that too.  ;)

Chris

Definitly more scary than hang gliding.
 
Back when I was still stupid,  when I got real sleepy to the point of nodding off I would  ride with my eyes closed for a few seconds. On a straight road with no other vehicles in sight I would close my eyes for as long as I dared. Scared the hell out of me and would perk me up a good bit. :eek:
 
I've never done it.  Even when I was a kid, I couldn't do it with my bicycle.  I don't have the courage to even try to do it now.

Irene
 
I did it a lot on the bicycle.  On the moto it is usually just short fun distraction as you say, to stay awake with hands at the ready.
Now standing with no hands....  I'm not admitting nothing.
 
I can't ride without hands as I tend to drift left no matter what bike I am on bike. I can do it on the bicycle, however. That is one mystery I cannot solve.

Harry, have you tried hand gliding without hands? ;)
 
RoadKillHeaven said:
I can't ride without hands as I tend to drift left no matter what bike I am on bike. I can do it on the bicycle, however. That is one mystery I cannot solve.

Harry, have you tried hand gliding without hands? ;)
my 09 wants to go left as well.
 
lather said:
Back when I was still stupid,  when I got real sleepy to the point of nodding off I would  ride with my eyes closed for a few seconds. On a straight road with no other vehicles in sight I would close my eyes for as long as I dared. Scared the hell out of me and would perk me up a good bit. :eek:

Fall asleep for real riding... that will scare the crap outa ya.

I ride with no hands on the slab if I'm eating on LD rides. Of course, with no cages or trucks around. YMMV
 
...Then there's this guy.  Every October.  :-\

https://wwmt.com/news/local/michigan-man-attempts-longest-no-hand-motorcycle-ride-to-help-raise-money-for-charity
 
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