backwards circles are a fine place to apply the old rocking chair adage: it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere. the geometry of the bicycle is designed for forward motion, and when you ride backwards it will tend to turn you around in circles. if you can maintain your balance – substantial practice waits patiently before that “if” – the best you can hope for is to end up right back where you started. around you go and the skill of it is revealed in the execution, in the delicate balance of approaching something from the wrong end and riding it out successfully. but is that worth it?