Does anyone have issues riding a bike?

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My Aspie son just learned how to ride (he is through a program called "Lose the Training Wheels" that they had at our local YMCA. He has problems with motor planning (one of his AS symptoms), so learning the typical way was not really an easy option for him. This program taught him in 4 sessions! For real!

The first thing that they did was to remove the pedals & teach him how to sit on the bike & glide along by pushing himself with his feet. It helped him to learn how to balance on the bike. The next step was to add back one pedal, while still pushing with the other foot (the one foot was on the pedal). Finally, they added back the other pedal & he did it!

This must be a common problem because this program was created for kids (I think it's ages 8-15) with Aspergers or other diagnoses that make motor planning difficult.

I recently made a thread and a poll about this on this forum. I found that it seemed there was a greater percentage of people who can't ride a bike with AS compared to the general population. (It wasn't totally accurate but it seemed to make sense. We do generally have a lot of motor-coordination difficulties afterall!)

Me personally, I'm 18 and I've never been able to ride a bike.

I have issues with inflammation, which affect my ears, past the point at which my eardrums burst, and fluid drains down my cheek. It is painful and muffled. Air whistles through the small hole, left when the membrane bursts. Then, everything is unbearably loud and heard, as through a drinking glass, against my head.

My bicycle is my only mode of transportation, right now, but I have driven.

I was able to manage, by using visual frames of reference with points along the vehicle, rather than any sense of balance.

The day before yesterday, I had the distinct sensation that everything was approaching me, on the diagonal, from the front, left, and underneath, even though I was traveling in a straight line. I could tell because I had oriented my body, parallel to the street signs.

I lean, from side to side, in a tractor, to avoid being hit in the face by the jagged, low-hanging branches of fruit trees, sometimes, so low, that the blunt tread of the wheel rubs the back of my head.

I stand on tall ladders with one leg, have noticed myself in free fall, landed on my feet.

People tell me that I look very sharp, or stern, when performing these feats, but I notice that my emotional response is delayed, until the after the completion of a task.

To be honest, this does scare me, but much later.

I'm good until I have to stand up or let go of the handle bars

I had a difficult time learning as a kid...I remember all of my bad wrecks on my slime green banana seat bike.

But now, I ride a motorcycle...daily. Like someone else said...it doesn't come natural...I too have to concentrate meticulously and if I get distracted it is BAD. I tried to listen to music once (set something up in my helmet) while riding, and this caused me to become distracted enough that when I was trying to PARK it, I dropped it. So, I ripped out the system from my helmet immediately. Also, it requires super focus...because if I drift off in my mind and miss that pothole coming up, or that dog that decided to run across, it can mean disaster.

OP, if you have doubts about your ability to concentrate like it would be required...I wouldn't advise a scooter either. People are even more careless driving around scooters because most drivers see them as an nuisance on the road...well, if you are in the U.S. However, if you are overseas where scooters are the norm, perhaps not so much.

Never managed to ride a bike.My friend tried to teach me,but gave up when I almost crashed her bike into the lamp post.

I never learned to ride a bike as I never had that sort of confidence in my balance. But considering I've just spent £80 on a fold up bike which is coming through the post today I think it's time to learn.

I'm OK on a bike but where I come from you have to ride on the road, otherwise you get told off by a policeman, and riding my bike on the road makes me very anxious. I remember my cousin getting told off for riding his bike on the path, and he was only 12. So if a 12-year-old kid could get told off for not riding his bike on the road, surely I could too.

The only problem right now is going uphill. I just get so tired and I get scared that I'll fall. I learned to ride when I was twelve.

Can't ride a bike at all. Ok with stabilisers; but can't ride with just the two wheels.

My father and my sisters taught me how to ride a bike when I was 10. I took a fair amount of teasing from a kid in the neighborhood over the fact that it took me until then to learn...

I took about 4 extra years learning how to stay balanced on two wheels. A friend showed me a trick that worked, unlike my parent's attempts.
Frankly, I always seem to have balance issues doing things like this, I still cannot skate(ice or board!)to this day. Also, sensory overload often happened.
I love bicycle riding now, though I seldom have time to do it.

Sincerely,
MMatthew

At 6 years of age I taught myself to ride a bicycle. It was my best friend's bike and her family had just taken off the training wheels. Must have crashed it five or six times before I got the hang of it.

Now I ride motorcycles but a couple of times I have come to a complete stop and forgotten to put a foot down. And down I went.

I'm such a klutz.

No. Not for me. I'm currently riding a pretty sh***y bike with messed up brakes ans can get around in traffic in the city core well. Need to fix s**t.