How many of you have learned to ride a bike?

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To reiterate: I learnt when I was 4, just as easy as walking to me; had a long break for twenty-two years due to hurting myself one too many times (I broke my first BMX when I was 4). I recently got a BMX and I'm having much fun. I wouldn't even bother with a car if I lived closer to society, rather than on the outskirts.

I've been trying to refrain from hopping and bouncing onto and over things; I cannot help myself however.

i learned when i was 7,
did a tour from belgium to portugal and back when i was 22,
and my bike would be the last thing i'd keep (the second last thing is my computer of course, or my trumpet, hm, maybe it would be paint, sigh ... i just hope i'll never have to choose)

I used to go bike riding in Central Park when I lived in New York. Now I live in California and I'd like to ride a motorcycle.

I can't ride a bike. I never have an I never will.

My parents tried desperately to get me to teach me when I was younger. They even bought me an expensive new bike with all the trimmings, but even that couldn't do it. What a pathetic waste.

ive learned but i currently dont have a bike. mountain bikes are my favorite brand

so did i, (trying to drive without hands that is)
till it came out that it depends on the bike ...

Last edited by lemon on 30 Sep 2007, 3:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have! But it took a lot of time and practice.

That is something I've always wanted to do too, but haven't yet. Have fun!

While I would not describe it as having been easy, I learned to ride a bike due to the use of training wheels. It still took a fairly dedicated effort on the part of my parents. I doubt I would have learned without training wheels, or that I could have learned to ride even with the training wheels had my parents not insisted and assisted in my doing so.

Since I did get a lot of joy out of riding a bike, I cannot commend training wheels highly enough and would recommend them to any parent who wants to help their child overcome co-ordination difficulties in order to achieve bike riding proficiency. Adults unconcerned with the opinions of others (or at least more concerned with learning to ride a bike than with the opinions of others) could probably also benefit from training wheels.

Last edited by pandd on 30 Sep 2007, 5:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.

ooh! I am so jealous!! !! !

Quoting my first ever post on WP :
Two tips: One, take the pedals off and lower the saddle until both feet can reach the ground easily, and you use a bike like a Draisine (the precursor to the bicycle, named after its inventor, von Drais). Purpose built draisines are now being built for kids to learn. See http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/like-a-bike.shtml The idea is that you (or the kid) can first just walk, then take longer steps with both feet off the ground between steps, and so on. You can easily put one or both feet down at any time, and so long as you don't go faster than you can run, you should never have any problem. Kids who have serious trouble learning with either training wheels or with someone holding them up can use a draisine to learn balancing in a day or so (kids are fast at that sort of thing, count on taking a bit longer). I am not aware of any such machine being built for adults, but removing the pedals from a bike with a low enough top tube (most mountain bikes will do just fine) should do the job, be cheaper, and you can turn the thing into a bicycle once you have learned to balance.

Oh, and you will need a chain tool, to take the chain off as well, because the front chain ring will come off with the right pedal. If you are unfamiliar with bikes, there are several bike maintenance books. I learned that sort of stuff as a kid, so I haven't used a book, but I once saw a copy of Richard Ballantine's book, which looked pretty good. Or just get it all done at a bike shop. Taking pedals and chain off should take somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes. If you want the bottom bracket spindle (the bit to which the pedals are attached) out as well, to protect your ankles, that should be another 15 minutes job.

Alternatively, just give up on balancing. If you look elsewhere on the Kinetics site, you can find recumbent tricycles (http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/scorpion.shtml and http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/kettwiesel_ride.shtml). There are other brands as well, Greenspeed and Trice both have very good reputations, but are not cheap. Upright tricycles exist as well. They tend to be cheaper, but you need to be more careful when cornering because of the higher centre of gravity.

i teached myself to ride my bike what i did was take the weely things on the side to make you balence staberlisers or somthing took the bike on the street got on and pedeled down the road and and hav been doing it ever since untill my bike seat was stolen the only troble i had was stoping the bike and getting off before i ended dead in the main road on some truck lol

I can cycle but its not my cup of tea as i prefer cricket or tennis den cyclin.

I finally learned to ride a bike when I was twelve or so. Much later than most kids who learn it by age 7 or before.

I learned when I was 7 or 8. But I always rode a bike that was a little too small because I hated bikes where it wasn't possible to sit on the seat and plant BOTH feet flat on the ground. And I never learned to pedal while standing/leaning forward, like most of my peers regularly did.

I can ride a bike but Im really unsteady on it I learned when I was ummm 10 I think