Just like riding a bike...

[Phantom1]

So, odd question stemming from an odd story.

Today I learned that my best friend of ten years, AKA my twenty-two year old best friend, never learned how to ride a bike. He said while we were learning to ride bikes he was playing with a chemistry set. Either way, it was like a moment of silence for our friend who missed a huge part of growing up!

Yep, he can drink beer, but can't ride a two wheeler.

Of course, once he announced that it was decided that we would be teaching him in the near future. (Imagine teaching an adult how to ride a bike... lol!)

Do you remember learning how to ride a bike? Do you really never forget? How old were you when you learn? Or are you like my friend and never did? Is it really a milestone in growing up?

And yes, we are SO recording us teaching him. And putting it on youtube.

 

[Overlord Drakow]

My father tried to teach me how to ride a bike. I started off with the training wheels but one time he took them off and I cycled all the way down this hill and crashed into a pole or something, if I recall correctly. That pretty much put me off cycling forever . . .

Until around five years later or something when I saw my cousin riding his bike and it just kind of inspired me to give it another go. My uncle ended up teaching me how to cycle and when he took the training wheels off I was OK for a while but then I fell off and planted my hand onto a large 'u' shape piece of glass. Miraculously even though I was placing a large amount of downward force onto the glass, it didn't penetrate my skin. I was completely fine and though my uncle finished that particular riding lesson at that stage, I think I had crossed a bridge at that point. Getting myself into an accident and not suffering any real injury alleviated my previous concerns about cycling.

Nowadays, cycling is a pretty big part of my life. I try to cycle at least once a week and often do end up going twice a week. It forms a core part of my fitness training for the martial arts I do, I feel happy while I am cycling and it's a great alternate method of transportation to the set of wheels I have. If there is one thing that I am forever grateful to my uncle for, it would be for him teaching me to ride a bike. It's a life long asset for me now.

 

[Crunch Punch]

Learning to ride a bike was painful for me.

When I was around 11/12 (can't quite remember) once my dad came home with a rusty old bike he found and suddenly challenged me to ride it for some reason. Obviously not knowing what to do I didn't do so well and fell quite a few times. My dad was shocked and then came an intense week of him training me how to ride a two-wheeler on a grass field, so that the ground would cushion my fall.

It was probably one of the worst weeks of my life.

 

[Shining Raichu]

Speaking as another 22 year old man who never learned how to ride a bike, I don't think it's that weird myself lol

 

[Kikaito plush]

I can not ride a bike due to lack of coordination.
It's no big lost I that I can not ride one

 

[Sweets Witch]

Ah, yes, I remember very clearly. I learned when I was 5. At the time my family lived in a house with a very steep hill in the backyard. My dad slammed down a few beers and bought my brother and I a couple of bikes. No training wheels, of course. Those would only get in the way. Instead, he put us on the bikes and pushed us down the hill, telling us that we would learn to use the brakes if we really wanted to. It was a terrifying experience and every time I did it I hit a tree.

Eventually I learned.

 

[Sirfetch’d]

I was never a really big bike rider as a kid so it took me a while to learn when I did attempt to do so. I don't remember my exact age, but I do know that I had to use the training wheels longer than expected and even when I did take them off I was horrible at it. I probably couldn't ride a bike well today because I haven't done so in over 6 years :I

 

[Avishka]

I think I was around four and a half when I learned to ride a bicycle without the training wheels. I learned it in less than half an hour while my sister took almost an hour to learn it xD. It was a fun experience and of course my dad was with me and I don't know about my mom...

 

[Plumpyfoof]

I loved riding my bike, my 13 year old self and a few friends would ride our bikes up to Hungry Jacks where they had free self-serve refills with your drinks and buy like one small drink between us and just try and clean them out for $2.25. The most we got was 17 before we were asked to leave.

A few years later I broke both my wrists faceplanting from the 6' box after attempting to nose manual it in a game of BIKE and haven't got back on since. Not because I'm afraid I just found other things to waste my time on. Besides I wasn't any good at freestyle anyway.

 

[Trev]

I've never learned how to ride one.

I think when I was, mmm, about 10 or 11 was when my mom first tried to teach me. She didn't like that I was walking everywhere, so she decided to give me her old bike and teach me how to ride it. Long story short, I fell off and the bike rolled into traffic and got destroyed by a conveniently passing semi truck.

Good times.

 

[nimbo]

Painful memory for me, omg. My dad is not a patient man and I was always a very timid child. So I never really wanted to learn, but he'd make me. I just remember a lot of falling, yelling and crying. I was probably 4-5?
I do know how to ride one, but I'm not very good. And my sister never learned because my dad couldn't go through that again haha

 

[Legobricks]

Oh... I made a thread about this many years ago. You'll find there are a surprising number of people whom can't ride a bicycle; about ¼ to ⅓ in my poll.


Do you remember learning how to ride a bike?
No.

Do you really never forget?
That seems to be the case. I still claim to be able to ski and ice-skate since I can, within minutes, rekindle my familiarity with the activities. Humans are long-lived, so it does well for us to remember; forgetting things which one only occasionally does, but may at the time need to do in order to survive, would bare a profound evolutionary oversight. And what does this mean with respect to my answer to the preceding and succeeding questions here? Well, when and how I learned aren't relevant — only that I did learn and can thus teach others.

How old were you when you learn?
Don't remember.

Or are you like my friend and never did?
N/A

Is it really a milestone in growing up?
No, but it probably ought to be for the sake of a child experiencing the learning of a skill, as it's likely to be their first to which they must apply conscious effort. I think learning to swim is more important. Regardless, it's a useful skill. If one is willing to use a bicycle into their adult life, it can prove very cost-efficient compared to any other vehicle, and is still far faster than walking. In the end I appreciate having been given an extra choice over how I get places.

 

[Kotone]

i don't remember really learning how to ride a bike. i just remember running into my fence a lot. so yes, i know how to ride a bike :P

 

[Synerjee]

Do you remember learning how to ride a bike? Not....exactly. I do have faint wisps of memory floating around in my head though.

Do you really never forget? How could anyone ever forget how to ride a bike? I mean, riding a bike is something one will always remember for life even if you get amnesia and forgot what a bicycle is. It's already embedded in the mind the same way how one will never forget how to tie one's shoelaces.

How old were you when you learn? Around 8 or 9 if my memory serves me correctly.

Is it really a milestone in growing up? Yes, I believe. Learning to ride a bike is like one of life's many important lessons. You start off and you can't seem to do it right. You fall down and scrape your knees and feel like giving up, but your parents give you encouragement and support and you get back up and keep on trying. One fine day you hop on up there on that saddle and give the pedals a push and all your hard work and practice finally pays off. You learn indirectly that you have to Never Give Up in whatever you do to achieve success. Not that most of our young selves are able to think like this at that stage, but yeah.

 

[Dott]

I never learned how. It's not really a problem for me though, because I live too far away from town to just be able to cycle to it. Plus, I've never really had any interest in learning; when I did, it was short-lived.

I don't know why everyone is surprised when I tell them I don't know how to ride a bike. It's not like it's an essential skill.

 

[Treecko]

Of course, once he announced that it was decided that we would be teaching him in the near future. (Imagine teaching an adult how to ride a bike... lol!)

This part reminds of an episode of Friends where Ross tries to teach Phoebe how to ride a bike. God such a hilarious show. If anyone knows what I'm talking , you get 1000 Internets.


Anyway, I learned how to ride a bike (without training wheels) at a late age of 10. I was very scared about riding a bike without training wheel cause I thought I'd fall and would have to go to the hospital. But once I saw that both my brother already knew how to ride bikes, one of them being 6, I decided it was time to get over my fears and learn to ride a bike myself. Even when I finally knew how to ride a bike, I was still a bit scared of riding very far, but I was happy knowing I could ride.

 

[Aeroblast]

I learned to ride two-wheeled bicycle when I was in like... second grade, pretty much. It was difficult at first but once I got the hang of it I went outside to ride my bike every day.

However it's been like 7 years since I had a bike and since then I've rarely ridden, I can probably still ride it if I get like 10 minutes to get adjusted.

 

[gimmepie]

My family tried teaching me when I was younger but I lacked the balance, coordination and core strength required. So we gave up and I have never technically learned, although I *could* do it now if I wanted I'm just not interested - I prefer to walk and I'll be driving soon anyway.

I really don't see the big deal or why it is a milestone, nor do I get why it is so enjoyable to some people to spend hours peddling. To each their own though I guess.

 

[Paladin]

I thought myself how to ride a bike when I was around ten/eleven, which led to a lot of cuts, scrapes, and dents. Luckily the bike was fine. =D
I haven't even rode a bike in over a year (flat tire) but I think it just boils down to muscle memory, in the end.

 

[Hiatus]

I learned to ride bikes when I was five. I first started out with training wheels, so that I could learn how to balance myself. Few months later, my dad decided to take the wheels off and see how I could handle it. I couldn't get it done during the first couple of tries, because I kept falling off every five to six seconds. Eventually, after a few more tries, I was finally able to do it. It was such a great experience, haha.