Can you ride a bike?

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Thank you for all your replies this has been very interesting for me! Although this poll is definitely not scientifically valid in any way I think it is a good indication that there seems to be a higher rate in the number of people who can't ride a bike on the autistic spectrum than in the general population. From your responses I can see that there was definitely more difficulty and more time spent learning to ride a bike than say in the general population. I believe that most kids learn to ride a bike at around 4 years old. From a lot of your responses I'd hazard a guess that the average age of people on the autistic spectrum who did succeed in learning to ride a bike was around 8 years old.

anyway this isn't very scientific but was just for my own curiosity. I feel that the mini-results of this poll show that there definitely are some difficulties with advanced motor skills with people on the spectrum! (but we all knew that anyway haha).


Also Bicycle Guitarist guy - you are a legend! I love what you're doing, it's ingenious

Exactly the reaction I get! I usually just get laughed at! And then everyone assumes I can't swim either. But I can swim!

Tbh with you I don't think not being able to ride a bike is not that big a deal. I'd think something like not being able to swim would be a bit of a more pressing concern haha.

I also don't drive but people don't really bother me about that since I can't afford a car and don't even have enough points to get an id so I probably couldn't get a license either.

I can't really swim either. At best I can do a weak dog paddle. I would have had lessons but had to drop out because I can't put my face in water without a noseplug. Once I had friends wanting to get a blowup boat and go on the river in it. I wouldn't go and they never bothered getting one and doing it. There is no way I would have done that. It would have been very unlikely that we would have had life jackets and my being afraid of water that isn't clear, is moving, or is over my head would have made things worse.

I've had people want me to ride a horse when they know I can't stay on at faster than a walk.

I don't even like walking down hills because I feel like I'm going to fall.

I have poor balance and am uncoordinated. Even people more athletic and experienced get hurt. I have a friend that rides and had years of lessons yet still managed to break her wrist riding and mess up her leg by going on too long of a ride with stirrups that weren't broken in enough. I had an uncle that rides bikes a lot fall off and break his hip.

Last edited by hanyo on 17 Apr 2012, 11:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

I had a tricycle when I was 3. I remember having difficulty riding on that. My mother says I couldn't even steer the trike. Needless to say, with my poor visual-spatial abilities and lack of balance/coordination, I never learned to ride a bike. Another big part was that I simply didn't care (and still don't). Bike riding was a big social activity in childhood, and I had no interest. But it's no surprise that I can't drive when I can't even ride a bike.

I don't drive either, and that's part of the reason. I can't imagine focusing that long. I always said I'd learn if I had kids, for safety reasons (I think I could focus long enough to get my kid to the hospital, for example), but since I don't really see kids in my future, I may never learn.

I never got off training wheels, as something on my bike "broke" and was never repaired. I've have since tried ridding on other people's bikes, but never adapted to them. It didn't really matter much to me as I never really liked ridding bikes even when I was little. But it still makes me feel left out when my "friends" go bike-ridding together.

Yeah, I can ride a bike. Took me until I was a teen to completely learn though.

Why thank you

You are the second person who's said that to me in the past year or two. The other person was a hot young blonde who I played a couple songs for and she said "Oh my God! I can't believe I have The Bicycling Guitarist in my living room! You're becoming legendary!" Note she said "becoming." According to your comment, it's happened! YAY!

None of my dozens of original songs (some are quite good in not just my opinion) have ever been recorded properly by someone who knows what they are doing using proper equipment. The very best recording so far of me singing and playing was done on a Blackberry (it is that YouTube video I posted on the first page of this thread). I am currently at the top of my form musically even if my bicycle endurance is less than in previous decades of bicycle guitaring. I badly need to be recorded, as opposed to being recorded badly which is all that has happened so far! Please, please, if anyone who reads this has any connections with talent scouts, agents, recording companies, music studios, television shows, newspapers, or the like, please hook me up so I can get recorded before my talents fade.

On my limited fixed income I cannot afford to pay the going rates at local recording studios, plus my car has been broken since 2007 so I can't travel anywhere else easily (and even if it were running, gas is over four dollars a gallon here). Alex (the founder of this web site) once mentioned he'd love to film me doing what I do. Alex, I'm ready for my close-up!

Peace out

Yes I can ride a bike, and I find it very enjoyable.

I learned when I was 13. It was a source of great shame to me, and I kept it a secret although a lot of people knew because they never saw me ride.

When I finally did learn, I couldn't even be proud of my accomplishment, since I knew I was so late in learning.

I remember being about 6 or 7 years old and I rode a bike that had training wheels. When the training wheels came off it seemed very difficult to learn to ride the bike and I skinned my knees quite a few times. Now that I realize I may have some motor coordination issues I realize why it was difficult to learn to ride a bike.

Me too! It's good for exercise and -more importantly- being a cheapskate with gas money!

I can, but I don't do it very often, but I voted "yes" because the OP was asking if you COULD ride a bike, not if do it all the time.

I believe that I learned how to ride a bike when I was 7. It took me a while longer then NTs) to learn to ride but I did it. Heck I didn't know how to write my name until third grade.

I was late learning

And could not swim until 21.

And took 4 attempts to pass my driving test.

Still can't dance.

I never thought of myself as having any motor problems, but the more I look at it... My hands feel like they want to drop things all the time as well.

Eh, dancing is something you kinda "get" or you don't. Some aspies here love to dance, some don't. Some NTs can dance great, and some have two left feet. Of course, motor problems don't help.