Meme-oires 25: A First

[jamesq]

When I was a kid my Dad tried to teach me how to ride a bicycle. Now the problem is the way I learn, and the way my Father taught things, are entirely different. I have the same problem with my Brother, who also tried to teach me how to ride a bicycle. They both failed (or, more accurately, I failed to learn).

My Dad (and Brother) were (are) both "dive into it" people. If they wanted to build something, they just built it. If they wanted to learn something, they just did it. So when they both, in turn, tried to teach me how to ride a bike, the had me saddle up and start peddling while they held the bike steady. When I had sufficient forward momentum, they'd let go. This was how they learned to ride. I just panicked and fell down. After several attempts at this I dug my heel in and refused to continue.

Note that it wasn't entirely about injury. I was dimly aware at the time that there was something fundamentally wrong with how we were going about this. Also, not getting it made me deeply embarrassed.

I like to learn things on my own, and I hate asking for help about anything (because, to the 8-year old that still exists in my mind, asking for help opens you up to ridicule). I also like to explore worst-case scenarios and other edge-phenomenon before proceeding. thebrucie can tell you about the deeply-weird understanding I have of American football due to my trying to figure out the game with the most outlandish questions. Stuff like "Is the end-zone a rectangle or is it open-ended - if the receiver is in the parking-lot, but still between the lines can he catch the ball?" and "Can a running back pull out a gun and shoot someone who gets in his way?". Bruce - bless him - answered the questions with as straight a face as he could muster.

So I had a bike I couldn't use. More-or-less an adult sized bike without training wheels that I inherited from my brother (I was a very tall 8 year old). And I couldn't use it, because I couldn't keep my balance and refused to let my brother or dad help me. It sat in the back yard for a few weeks.

I finally taught myself how to ride a bike when urged to do so by a girl, my childhood friend PM. Yes, a girl prompted me to do something outside my comfort zone - a trait that's hardly unique to me. One could make a case that it's a universal characteristic for men.

"If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends." - Orson Welles

Anyway, she was showing me her new bike (which she was riding) and I brought out my bike to show her. We were on the street in front of Casa Cyr.

"Maybe," she said, "you could just glide on your bike and we could go riding?"

So I sat on the bike and pushed off with one leg. I glided forward a few feet and I was able to keep my balance reasonably well. So I tried again, this time taking long steps so that I could go a decent distance down the street.

After a few minutes of this I found I could keep my balance so long as the bike had sufficient forward motion. Unfortunately the pedals kept hitting me in the legs, so the best place to keep them out of the way was to just put them on the pedals. From there I'd keep the bike going forward by giving about 1/4 - 1/2 a rotation on the pedal with one foot. Finally, I managed to master pedaling with both legs. And suddenly I was riding a bike! The whole operation from start to finish was probably 20 minutes. But it was 20 minutes of personal experimentation rather then 20 minutes of being admonished for not getting it! At no time did I actually crash.

Thinking back, my dad and my brother both wanted me to learn how to pedal first and balance second. But what I needed to do was learn how to balance first and pedal second. They're both people who just leaped into new things with the expectation that nothing would go wrong, and if it did they'd deal with it as it happens. I expect things to go wrong, so I want to cover as many of those bases first before proceeding.

Anyway, I probably spent more time on my bike that summer then off of it. I loved riding a bike as a kid, it was my first real taste of freedom.

As an aside, I have a friend who never learned how to ride a bike. I've offered to teach her and the method will be pretty much how I taught myself.

Comments

[wendy-licious.livejournal.com]

You would have loved a balance bike. They're little bikes with no pedals. You ride them the same way you learned. The idea is that wee kids start on them instead of a tricycle. They learn to balance first and pedal second.
You were totally ahead of the curve on that one!

[jamesq]

Yet another unimplemented million dollar idea, like do-it-yourself Valentine's day cards (thought it up about a year before the software appeared) and Pez vibrators (someday I'm going to make this work).