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Is it possible to ride a bike standing? I mean properly standing, not sitting up straight. Your feet are on the pedals but you do not touch any other part of the bike. If not, is it possible to roll/steer while standing?
For maximal clarity I added this handcraftet picture. You may only have contact with the blue parts, and especially not with the red parts:
I have seen that done with monocycles, but I am afraid that doing it with a bicycle is going to be more difficult if not impossible.
The reason I think so is that when you stand up and pedal you are also unbalancing your bike right and left. If you do it while holding the bar, you can compensate it in a certain way. (think cyclist standing while going uphill or sprinting, see how most of the cyclists in this picture are standing and their bike is tilted)
If you are not holding the bar, your bike will start zig-zagging and the only way to control it would be using your hips. But that can happen if you sit and can transfer your hips movement to the frame via the saddle.
It’s possible to stand and roll, I’ve done it, but with knees touching saddle for stability, which is currently against the rules. See YouTube for similar.
I wouldn’t rule out someone more athletic than me being able to comply with the rules after practise, for rolling at least.
As Daniel points out, the bike must be cooperative, so stable and balanced. Some bikes will be more difficult than others.
Also see this for ideas of what would seem impossible being done..!
It's possible, for those who can do the seemingly impossible, at least if you allow the rider to do a wheelie at the smae time.
Artistic cycling (YouTube link) seems to be a big thing in Slovakia, and merely riding standing with no hands would be a bit basic for these people, but they do pass through that position a few times (and fixies mean they must be pedalling if their feet are on the pedals. Certainly if you allow enough leeway for things like thighs in contact with handlebars, or holding hand with another rider, you can see them do that (while wheelie-ing) at 3:45. Though the wheelie may mean you count it as more of a unicycle trick.
Again, while wheelie-ing here's another (1:34) -- and the rider has someone standing on his shoulders.
If the only contact allowed is your feet on the pedals, I do not think it is possible to balance for any sustained amount of time. It only becomes possible when you allow a third point of contact to leverage against, such as a thigh against the top tube. This is because the pedals are offset somewhat from the center of the bike, so you will not be able to use them without falling over if those are the only points you are in contact with.
Only touching the pedals, if you try to push down on one pedal, the whole bike will go in that direction, and quickly fall over. There needs to be another point of contact in order to have forward motion. If you are holding still/doing a track stand, you control your side-to-side motion by holding the wheel at a ~45 degree angle and manipulating your forward-backwards motion as necessary. If you can't redistribute your weight on the pedals to go forwards/backwards slightly without falling over, you will not be able to do a track stand.
If the bike is already moving and you have really good balance, you might be able to stand up for a second only on the pedals, but any need for corrective balancing will require at least one more point of contact.
