Flying Dismounts

Whichever technique works for you is the way to go.

Keep at it, it will start to feel less shaky the more you do it. I've never considered keeping a cheek on the saddle. I'm trying to picture how I do it, there is a slight lean of the bike away from my body to keep balanced. A couple of tips:

1. When you swing your leg over and have your weight on the one foot, make sure you don't twist your foot one way or another. You could accidentally unclip the shoe. I haven't done this myself, but I can only imagine how ugly that could get.

2. Once you're approaching the dismount line, keep an eye on your speed. Its easy to get to the line with too much speed and you might hurt yourself jumping off.

I've been doing the dismount for a couple seasons now, but I never cared to try the flying mount.

That requires some series flexibility and reflexes. Nice!

Do cyclocross and next season you will be break-dancing on your bike. Nothing teaches you how to throw your bike around like cyclocross.

The dismount part is easy. Only time it can be an issue is if your left leg slips off your shoe. If that happens, you're screwed. Thus pay very close attention to how your foot is situationed on top of your shoes. I've hit the dismount line as some pretty high speeds (slightly above all out sprint). Once my feet hit the ground the momentum will carry you a bit until you get to your normal running speed. I've scared the hell out of volunteers. I just make sure they can hear say I'm dismounting and I'm not bear hugged like I was at a sprint tri. If the dismount line is busy I obvisouly adjust for conditions.

The flying mount is easy as well, as long as you don't have bottles on the back. I can do it with smaller waters bottles behind the saddle but it's risky with other people around because you really have to throw your leg which can cause a momentum shift into another rider. Larger bottles behind the saddle I just alter the mount a little. As I'm running instead of stricking my left foot on the ground I put it on top of the show and pedal down. I then throw my leg over and make sure you get it ALL the way over or your picking up water bottles.

By all means practice. One fall and you've lost more time than you've gained. It's an excellent skill to have. If you don't cyclocross, a moutain bike works just as well for practice.

When we were kids we did this all the time with BMX. Just reach for your inner child.

I swing my leg over the back which I've noticed is easy for short distance races because it doesn't give your body time to tighten up. I've thought about switching it to over the cross tube for half and full but haven't practiced it yet.

You can see in the picture that you lean the bike a bit to keep your balance.

I've seen put people put the foot between the outside leg and the bike but I tend to swing it out so I'm almost cross legged when I land.





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Great picture above.

What I would call the postmans dismount.

You do come off the bike a bit cross legged. But that is resolved very quickly. Once the trialing leg goes down you can qucikly get running as you still have your grip on the handle bars and the front wheel as a third point of balance.

A good thing to practice on a bike with flat peddals.

Yeah, practice, practice, practice. Because if you do this and fail and end up crashing into me I'm gonna be pissed.

Youtube cross and ITU dismounts. That's where the magic happens.

Andrew,

Those Juniors you saw putting their leg across the top tube are doing it very very wrong. I help coach the SE Junior Elite team and this is the first habit we break them of with flying dismounts.

Reason: If you have your leg across the top tube and something happens (ie you hit something or someone runs into you) you WILL get injured. If you dismount properly with the leg over the back of the bike AND bring that same leg inside your left leg if something happens you let go of the bike and you land on your feet.

The big trick to a flying dismount is to have your feet out of your shoes. Doing a flying dismount while still in your shoes is not a smart thing to do and you've just removed your biggest advantage to doing a flying dismount (ie saving time). You want to be able to run after you land and you can't do that in bike shoes. Instead, you leave the shoes on your bike and you run in your socks. Time savings of unclipping, having to stop at the line and not having to take them off when you get to your bike rack.

Tip to stay stable:

1) always maintain your hands over your brakes. Slow down only using your back brake
2) When you bring your leg over the back and back through, trap your hip against the saddle. You will have your left foot on top of your shoe, your right foot inside the left but just slightly forward and your hip will be against the left side of the saddle.
3) When you hop off, grab the bike by the saddle and run for your bike rack

Practice! This saves you a ton of time. I come off the bike at about 15 mph and never miss a step. But please practice!!!!

The key to a step around dismount is "Three points of contact"

1. Left hand on handlebars
2. Right had on the top tube
3. Hip making contact and pressure to the saddle.

1. allows you control speed through brake (which is way some guys that race CX route their brakes moto, that don't want to kick the bike up if they grad a handful of brake)
2. Allows you pick up the bike (suitcase) and allows for faster running off the bike
3. Hip contact keeps the bike stable and you won't dump it.

Never knew about the hip on the saddle. I guess I'll have to work on that. But I also know I'm not in that position very long, I wait to the very last second to do it.

Good to know!

As you've seen, others will disagree, but I ALWAYS take my leg over the tube. I have short legs, and have a difficult time going over the back. I feel very off balance and uneasy doing this. Going over the tube is quick and easy for me. I may change my tune if I wreck due to it, but I say do what works best. No need to be doing anything in a race that you are not extremely confident you can execute.

But don't do it like this - Look at the 1:36 mark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gPJ4hx1wqY&list=SPhRwvsB2Dpml8qgl3k...

If I could race like that, I'd take it.

I don't think I've ever seen a triathlete grab the top tube. This is a CX move purely to balance while you unload the still clipped in foot, then lift your bike all in one fluid movement when negotiating obstacles. On a tt bike, your feet should already be out of your shoes and when would you ever carry your bike?

I want the most control of my bike when jumping off at 12-15 mph. This lets me control the back end.

This is also how I do it (for all distances), except I put my right leg in front. This way when you hop off the bike you are ready to take a stride. Just jump to the side a little so you don't catch your pedal on your calf.

You can easily practice this by coasting around the neighborhood or a parking lot in this position. Wear tennis shoes to save your feet. The hardest part is getting the speed right. This is really one of the easiest things to learn.

To do a flying mount, you can do the same thing except put your leg over the seat and sit down. Much easier and safer than the 'jump on the moving bike and pray' method you see so many people do.