Badger6

Ja wohl. Und es ist ein Strava Club. #fullforcevoraus!

WhyFi

Oh, I'm not concerned about falling off, I'm concerned about the well-being of the bike frame, being clamped in and subjected to stresses that it wouldn't necessarily see in use on the road. Maybe I'm being too conservative, but the few times that I've sprinted on the trainer made me cringe and back off before reaching full ham.

WhyFi

Okay, so it sounds like practicing with an artificially confined bike on your trainer got you to where you are now - lower power IRL and sketched-out because you're occasionally lifting your wheel. Dial it back, work on form, then build back up. Keep in mind that, ultimately, sprinting is a whole-body coordinated effort to put more torque through the pedals than your body weight alone can provide.

JohnDThompson 

Are you on the drops when this happens? If not, perhaps going to the drop position on the handlebars for sprints will shift enough weight forward to prevent this from happening.

Eric F 

I get where you're coming from about different stresses. I'm going with the belief that high-quality bike frames are built to handle a lot more power than I can put out, even if it is somewhat different. So far, so good. I understand it you don't feel so comfortable with it, though.

WhyFi

I mean, some of us have guads of thunder.

Eric F 

I left those in my other bibs.

tomato coupe

If I broke a frame sprinting on my trainer, I’d hang it on the wall and brag about it on some silly online forum.

growlerdinky

wall forums

smashndash

I've lifted my front wheel when sprinting before. I'm not Sam Bennett but I'd say I have pretty good technique.

I believe this happens when you imitate a standing start like a trackie. Basically doing a proper lunge and pulling both ends of the bar up. Hopefully the front wheel is only lifting when you first accelerate. Quite frankly, this sounds like a problem caused by you adapting your technique to sprinting on a trainer, where you cannot sway the bike. Stop sprinting on the trainer - or at least stop using trainer sprinting technique on the road. They are not the same.

Like someone said above, you should be pulling on one end and pushing on the other. It helps to sway the bike a little. You don't have to do an MVDP sprint but it doesn't have to be a greipel sprint either.

Maybe try recording your sprint and seeing what your form is like. I'd say cavendish and bennett are good examples.

tomato coupe

No, those forums are way too political. All heck would break loose once someone realized it was an imported frame.

SoSmellyAir

As it turns out, I have been doing it all wrong; I have not sprinted, I have merely lifted my bum off the saddle to hurry a bit.

Kimmo 

Yeah, I've actually had the front wheel jump a bit sometimes when I give it some from the drops, but only on my weight weenie bike...

alo

I do the same thing. When I accelerate quickly, the front wheel comes off the ground. This is on a fat bike, with handlebars higher than a road bike. It's fun.

I recently spend a little time in the city. When the traffic lights turn green, I accelerate with the traffic. When It is busy, they might get up to 30 or 40 kph before slowing down for the next set of traffic lights. I go with the flow of the traffic. If it is only a minute or two before the traffic slows down for the next traffic lights, you don't need massive endurance. But it is dangerous riding at high speed in busy traffic. If I stayed there too long, I might get killed.

genejockey 

If that's true, it must be entertaining to watch you walk or run.

ZHVelo

What % of the population can move a hand and leg in a circle in opposite directions?

genejockey 

Everyone I've ever seen stand up on the pedals has done the same thing - pull up on the bar on the side your leg is pushing down. You do this automatically because your leg is pushing the bike to one side and you automatically correct it back. Nobody has to think about it, you do it right the very first time you ride a bike and stand on the pedals.

But, the comment is about walking. Try walking with each arm swinging forward with the leg that's swinging forward. If you can manage it, it will feel really strange. Also, it will LOOK really strange.

ZHVelo

Your comment was, I didn't mean walking when I made my original comment to which you replied with using walking as an example.

ZHVelo

So I tested it again and this time it was no issue. However, I output quite a bit less watts in the drops and leaning forward to push weight forward.

smashndash

Is this on the trainer or outside?

ZHVelo

Outside.

smashndash

If you're changing your technique, you're definitely not going to fully realize your gains instantly. I'm assuming you're trying to do the whole opposite arm/leg thing and it's generating less power than pulling straight up on the bars?

What cadence are you sprinting at? I imagine that the cadence must have been quite slow if you were pulling straight up. Like 70-80rpm?

Try loosening up, swaying your arms and hitting 110ish rpm.

ZHVelo

It was actually 93 average with 101 max, 98 average if you just take the first 300m (18 seconds roughly I think).

I was not specifically looking to practice the opposite side arm push/pull. I was going to do it on my long weekend ride with multiple sub 100% sprints, but then I ended up doing a route with a lot of climbing and I did not want to add extra stress. But I did want to try one sprint on a local segment with leaning forward. So that is what I did the next day, basically one very easy ride with that one effort.

Koyote

This.

I don't understand why this is something the OP needs to practice. It's about as natural as breathing.

colnago62

Depending on how skilled you want to become at sprinting, there is a fair amount of technique to be able to do it and actually go faster. I was out at the velodrome and the sprinters were working on their accelerations. They would accelerate down the banking and ease up after the 200 to go line. I was on my road bike and one of the sprinters joking saying I brought the wrong bike today. I told him it was going to rain tomorrow and I would rather do my endurance ride in the sunshine and do my speed work on the trainer. He replied he would rather work on all the intricacies of sprinting in the sun. He could sit on a trainer and crank endurance miles.