Drinking on the bike...the old fashioned way

If you're riding a road bike, grab the bars right next to/on top of the stem with your steering hand, before you reach for the bottle. You'll have less leverage on the bars so it's less likely to swerve and less drastic if you do.

The rollers suggestion is great. If you can drink from your bottle without wobbling or crashing on the rollers, then you should be good enough to manage during all but the fastest pacelines.

HTH,

Dave

Don't take this the wrong way, but you need to learn bike handling skills.  You should definitely be able to grab a bottle without swerving.  Here's a set of drills that might help:

     http://www.active.com/cycling/Articles/Bike-Handling-Clinic_-Drill-that-Skill.htm

I respect but disagree with the poster who recommended gripping the bars near the stem when drinking.  When you're drinking keep your driving hand on the hoods or horns within easy reach of the break lever.  Also recommend you get in the habit of holding the bottle in your left hand. In an emergency you will want to grab the rear brakes first and avoid grabbing the fronts.  Better to be ready than Superman without a cape?

Cheers.

x2

I also heard the same advice in this post from some more experienced guys. I'm left handed so I'm already used to that, also squeezing to the side is good, something I don't do yet but should start. Also I think that having your hands wider on the hoods makes things more stable, the narrow grip makes things less stable. Maybe drill by reaching farther than you need to like down to your foot and focus on staying straight then do some where you reach for the bottle and go through the motions. Do this while you're outside on the road, it sounds like you spend a lot of time on the trainer and I know that may be out of necessity due to weather and other things but getting outside would be good.

I third the use of rollers, as they provide immediate feedback and many people don't realize they aren't holding their line until they really make a big swerve.  However, you can also practice on your bike outside, working on keeping your wheels on a line on the road.  Start by practicing just parts of the movement.  Ride with one hand off the bars.  Ride with a hand behind your back.  Reach down and hold your ankle while you are riding forward.  Throw each move in to your rides frequently (during warmup, cool down, or recoveries between intervals). Practice drinking, practice looking under your elbow, practice looking over your shoulder...

Single-leg drills on a trainer, core exercises in a gym, and such will not suddenly make you able to handle a bike.  To get better at a skill, you have to practice the skill.

X4 on the rollers.  Honestly, there is no better way to learn to ride in a straight line.  When your in a paceline and the speeds get into the upper 20's to low 30's, it is easy to tell who has ridden rollers and who hasn't.

A bonus with the rollers, when you can grab a bottle and drink or ride no hands, you know your bike handling skills have improved.

It's been a while since I've had an "old fashioned", but I've never tried drinking one on the bike.  Some entrepreneur has already come up with a special holder, cover and straw attachment (and perhaps an extra large old fashioned glass).

Ingredients

• 1 sugar cube
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters
• club soda
• 2 ounces rye whisky

Instructions

Very informative article for me.  I have never done any drills and whatever handling skills I have are simply because I have ridden a few thousand miles.  As soon as the weather breaks enough I will add these drills to my WU's and CD's to become more proficient and I hope to start riding in groups for the first time since I started riding 2 years ago.

I am a fairly good rider but the rollers still scare the crap out of me.  So if your like me and are chicken , before I even got the rollers I am oh so scared of, I use to use the white line.  Don't do it in the rain of course, but I use to test how well I was holding my line by staying on that white line.  Oh, and don't do it in heavy traffic.