Learn to Bike
MoBikeFed President Rachel Ruhlen is a community blogger for Gatehouse Media. This article appeared May 10, 2015.
I had the opportunity to observe a Learn to Bike class, so that I could learn how to teach someone to ride a bike. Our student, Anna, is in her mid-20's. She never learned a bike, she said, because she was too busy reading books. She's in a PhD program as well as holding a full time job. Joe, the instructor, took the pedals off her bike and lowered her seat all the way down.
Normally I tell novice bicyclists to raise their seat. We try to position our seat so that we can sit on it with our feet touching the ground. That is a recipe for knee pain! Your seat should be high enough that your thigh is not quite parallel at the top of the pedal stroke, and your leg is slightly bent at the bottom of the pedal stroke. If it is that high, you will not be able to rest your feet on the ground when your butt is on the seat. You must get proficient at the 'power pedal position' to start your bike, and stepping down smoothly when you stop your bike. If those fellows could do it on those big wheel velocipedes, you can do it on your bike with a little practice.
Learning how to ride a bike is different. Joe lowered Anna's seat all the way down so that she could sit on the bike with her feet comfortably and stably on the ground. With no pedals to get in the way, she pushed her bike around as she learned to balance. Joe uses the same approach when teaching adults or children how to ride-- no training wheels!
"How do you do it?" she wanted to know, watching Joe coast down the hill holding his feet off the ground.
Joe explained that it's impossible to explain. It's a complex neural algorithm, and riding a bike is so complex that it is one of the most challenging things to program a robot to do. Your brain simply has to learn it, and it can't be learned by consciously understanding how to do it.
Anna wants to ride a bike so she can bike to work and so she can do a triathlon! "Do you have a triathlon picked out yet?" I asked. I thought she might be aiming for next years' Trizou.
"Yes, ShowMe Games in July," she answered. She is learning to ride a bike so that in 2 months, she can do a triathlon!
"I guess you know how to swim already?" I asked.
"Yes, I learned last year."
Anna is certainly ambitious!
Joe had selected a quiet parking lot with a gentle slope. Anna let the slope take her down, touching down with her feet to catch herself, then pushed with her feet to go up the slope. She did this over and over for an hour. She practiced on her own over the next couple days, and then we met again. This time, she was holding her feet off the ground for longer distances before catching herself. She practiced feathering the brakes to control her speed.
Next week when Joe meets with her, he'll have her go back and forth down the slope in a serpentine pattern, which trains the algorithms for turning the bike. We turn the bike, not by turning the handlebar, but by leaning. Even experienced cyclists assume that turning the handlebar turns the bike, not realizing that it is their lean that turns the bike. After that, she'll be ready for pedals!
Joe says it takes most people 2 to 4 hours of practice to learn to balance. Kids learn more quickly than adults. Anna, who has never had any experience riding a bike, may take a little longer than an adult who just hasn't ridden a bike since she was 6.
Read more of MoBikeFed President Rachel Ruhlen's articles on the President's Blog page.
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