Bike riding...

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....that....is genius...I'll definitely tell him about this, he's smart, so this will probably be right up his alley...

I like bike riding. Really though, I didn't learn how to do it until I was 5 or 7 (I don't remember which it was). I had a trike before then, so I couldn't really fall over on that, but an actual bike didn't work until that time. The only reason I learned at all was because I decided I wanted to...

My husband is an Aspie and he had a terrible time learning to ride a bike. He ran into fences and curbs and was eventually found unconscious in the middle of the street after a bad fall! He said learninghow to balance on the bike was the hardest part.

But for some reason he just wouldn't give up and eventually became a professional mountain biker! He primarily excells at uphill riding, though, and to this day has a hard time with the descents. He says he just doesn't have the coordination to go downhill at high speeds.

He says that bike riding clears his head and relieves his anxiety. He also says that the physical pain he endures on a bike is nothing compared to the daily mental hardship of being an Aspie in an NT world.

Plus, cycling has become one of his fixations and he can talk for hours about particular cyclists and their various racing victories and defeats. He also enjoys building and repairing bicycles.

Perhaps your cousin could become interested in bicycles as machines (they are the most efficient man made machine, you know) and some of the trivia related to cycling, then trying to actually ride a bike may become more appealing.

And for some inspiration, here's a famous Aspie riding a bike: (I know, I know, it hasn't necessarily been proven that Al was an Aspie, but the sake of argument, let's just assume he was.)

IS there any way to spark an interest in biking for him? Maybe that's the problem, he just needs to find a way to get interested.

i know one extemely aspie-like character who cannot ride a bike or drive a car.
He heven has a comic called "walking man"
i feel kinda bad for him..he always seems sunburnt and dehydrated.

why doesn't this forum have a search feature???

Training wheels sounds like a good idea, until he's comfortable enough with it to move to 2 wheels. Not everyone can ride a bike, either, or do it well. Maybe try and encourage his strong areas ( you said he's a good wrestler) so thatg he'll feel good about himself there.
I learned to ride my bike when i was 7 ( a late 7). But no one taught me how to stop. So I was riding in the parking lot of the apartment complex where we lived and rode right into our neighbor's new Pontiac Firebird. I scraped myself up good, and was annoyed that our neighbor seemed concerened only about her car while I sat there bleeding. Knowing what I know about cars and how expensive body work is, I don't feel so bad anymore about her reaction...

This seems to be a recurring subject. Here is an instruction manual on how to ride a bike.

http://asperger.dissidentcongress.com/bikeride.html

It does, sort of. On the left, all the way past the ads and "people online", there's a Google search for this site.

I am 16 and still can't ride a bike. I got my first bike when I was 12, it had training wheels. I would still put my feet on the ground when I rode it, even with the training wheels on. When I was 13 I decided to take them off, I couldn't even ride down a hill, with my feet still on the ground without falling off.
I have tried a few times after then, but in the end, I just realised that Riding a bike just simply isn't something i'm good at.

Jackal, does your cousin enjoy the outdoors and is there any neat bike trails in the area? If he enjoys the outdoors, show him or tell him about all the cool bike trails he could enjoy if he learned to ride his bike. Also, it might help to explain to him that learning to ride a bike gives you independence-my Dad routinely bikes 8-9 miles to work, and last summer sometimes biked to a job that was 15-18 miles away.
Riding bikes is so much fun! I can't ride mine for awhile, though-my tire exploded on a bike ride Sunday.

I think the only way an aspie will be able to ride a bike is if it’s something he wants to do. It was something that I wanted to do, so I asked questions, used training wheels, made sure that I knew what people were talking about in terms of centering my weight - then one day I just did it. Training wheels don’t really do anything in regards to riding the bike, so maybe it’s better that he doesn’t want to use them. Learning to ride a skateboard was similar, except that skateboards were very uncommon on the East coast in those days, so it turned into a multi-year process for me just to find one.

I cannot remember the exact age I started to ride a bike but it was about 6, I don't think I ever used training wheels but while I could ride I was never very good at it. I stopped riding when I was about 10 and did not really ride a bike again until I got a new upright road bike in 2001. I rode this two to three thousand miles between then and jan 2005. While I could ride it I was never very good at balancing it and had several accidents.
In jan 2005 I gave up with the upright and went out and bought one of these http://www.ice.hpv.co.uk/ . It was a revolution, so much more comfortable, no balance required, no butt pain, no neck ache even on a 128 mile ride.
Now after over 20,000 miles of laid back riding I won't be going back to the upright. I cannot understand why more people don't ride trikes.

I have AS and learnt to ride a bike when I was 9 (without stablizers) and I like to do long rides... like 12 miles and upwards each time I go out on it, has become one of my big interests.

3 years for me. Just like thumb sucking, my father tried to fix the problem through humiliation.

I never ever could learn how to ride a bike, my family bought me a huge tricicle wow i misspelled that haha, and i couldn't still push it sometimes, so i had ppl petal and i sat in the basket lol, best times of my life hahaha.