thank you for the response. I like alot of the ideas, when I taught my son to
ride all those years ago I took him to a park with a grass slope and gave him a
couple of hold and runs to make sure he knew how to break and stop; then a push
down the slope and he had no problem. Of course he had plenty of time with
training wheels first, but for his age and fear level it was much easier than I
had anticipated, less than an hour.
As I may have mentioned to others, I don't walk normally anymore, I walk with a
wide stance for stability and usually looking down. Even so I tend to stagger
what seems like a lot to me. I think I look like a drunk, or maybe a penguin.
So I am leaning toward a bike stabilizer which are like giant training wheels,
but stronger and permanent. Might be the fastest way to get back to riding. I
hate freezing while waiting for the bus, plus I am getting too fat.
On Wednesday, February 26, 2014 4:18 PM, Robbie Webber
<[email protected]> wrote:
And I'm going to give away the secret of teaching anyone to ride a bike: kids,
first-time adults, any age. I don't know if this will help the original poster,
but if he's not feeling confident, it might. YMMV
The nice thing about this method is that it does not require a special bike,
like a "crank forward" that Richard suggested, or a recumbent or trike.
Obviously, for folks that have balance issues, two wheels may be a bigger
problem than just learning to ride. Also, recumbents and crank-forward bikes
can help with back, leg, arm, or other body problems and pains. But if you just
want to learnto ride, this will work, and you can borrow any old bike that is
about the right size.
How to teach anyone to ride a bike:
1. Lower the seat, so the person can put their feet flat on the ground while
sitting on the seat. Not their tip toes, not flat foot while standing over the
top tube. (This is very uncomfortable to pedal once you get the hang of
bicycling, but it's the way to start off before you know how to stay up.)
2. Remove the pedal entirely. You not have a bike that you can scoot along with
your feet.The pedals won't knock you in the shins, and you just put your feet
down to balance.
3. Learn to scoot along with the bike as it is. Many people have probably
seentoddlers on wooden or plastic bikes doing exactly this. But the earliest
bikes also had this form.
4. Try picking up your feet once you get a good glide going. Or try going down
a very gentle slope to get a nice long glide, where you can practice steering.
Not too fast, but enough to feel what it's like to steer.
5. Put one pedal on the bike. Put it on the side the rider feels most
comfortable pushing down on. Or more to the point, put the pedal on the
opposite side from where the rider naturally wants to put down his/her foot to
stop.
6. With that one pedal just past the up position - about 2:00 on a clock -
start at the top of a very gentle slope and push down on the pedal and glide
down the slope. All the rider has to do is push down and keep his/her foot on
the pedal, balance and steer. This will give the ride the feeling of what it is
like to "start." (A driveway works great for this, but only if you know there
are no cars coming. You NEVER want to ride into the street if there is any
possibility of traffic. This is especially if you are teaching a child, as they
don't "get" traffic like adults do, and riding out from a driveway is very high
on the reasons kids get hit by cars. A slight slope on a trail or sidewalk is a
better choice, if you can find a good location.)
7. Once the rider feels OK with that one pedal, add the other one. Gain,
practice pushing down on the one pedal and gliding, but now the rider will need
to practice getting his/her other foot into position.
8. Once that is OK, practice pushing down with the other foot. One pedal
stroke, then stop. Two pedal strokes, stop, etc.
9. Maybe now is the time to try helping the person get started by the
traditional hold-run-push-release method, but by now the person should be able
to start pedaling a little bit after getting a start on a slope. Convince the
new rider that going faster actually helps keep the bike straight. As all
bicyclists know, going slow on a bike is really hard and you wobble all over
the place.
10. Raise the seat a half inch at a time when the new rider feels OK starting
and stopping. Even long-time bicyclists sometimes have their seat too low
because they want to be able to touch the ground easily while seated. This is
actually a very inefficient pedaling position and also tiring for longer rides
when you can't fully extend your legs. Hence the "crank-forward" bikes that
both allow a full leg extension and putting your feet on the ground while
seated. (Bike fit is another matter entirely, so i'll leave that alone for now.)
I actually taught an adult to ride with this method, and it was very satisfying
for both of us.
Good luck!
Robbie Webber
Transportation Policy Analyst
State Smart Transportation Initiative
www.ssti.us
608-263-9984 (o)
608-225-0002 (c)
[email protected]
On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 7:16 PM, Richard Schwinn <[email protected]>
wrote:
So sorry to hear about your stroke.
>
>If you don't yet have a full range of motion and a reestablished sense of
>balance, the first place to start is to get a confident pedaling motion back,
>best done on a stationary bike for now. Once you feel comfortable with that,
>a crank-forward design might be a good next step confidence builder. By then
>you'll have a pretty good idea if you're ready for a full upright bike.
>Besides, this will give you chance for the ice to melt - hopefully.
>
>For what it's worth,
>
>Richard Schwinn
>Waterford, WI.
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>
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