General Cycling Discussion - Learning to ride as a adult?

I think that I may be the only grown woman in the country who never learned to ride a bike as a child. Does anyone know where I can learn this? Or is it something that I should be able to pick up on my own?

Learning to ride a bike is not hard at all unless you have something working against you. Now if you are over 50 age and reaction time may start to catch up with you.

My one hint is it is easy to ride a bike. It is hard to balance on a bike that is standing still. If you are afraid then the natural tendency is to slow down. This is BAD you are making it hard on yourself. I'm not saying you have to hit 20 mph, 10 is plenty, but somewhere near the pace of a brisk walk it starts getting hard to balance. Go slower than that and you will have trouble.

If you can get a mountian bike or other bug tire bike that may make things easier. A off road bike on grass trimmed short is ideal as then a fall is something to laugh about. But to start pick a place with nothing for you to hit and nothing to hit you.

Odds are you will either have no problems or they will seem foolish and avoidable looking back. (Hopefully with a few more tips it will be the former).

I did things backwards...Never rode a bike as a child, and bought a motorcycle at about age 25. Learned to ride that, THEN bought a bicycle. Not a procedure I'd reccomend...

I worked with a 24 yr old guy who just learned to ride a bike. Its because of scooters he said.

wear a helmet...

push down on the pedals hard.

It is easy for those of us who learnt as children to say "its easy". I am sure that is what ski kids say when they see guys like me tripping over ourselves on the nursey slopes.
Teaching an adult is quite different to teaching a child to ride.
Do you have a bike at the moment?
There are a few fundamentals to remember when riding a bike?:
Bikes dont travel in staright lines, but a series of swooping curves. With experienced riders, the curves are so large that they appear straight, with beginers the curves should be more obvious.
You use the steering to correct for balance and change direction by leaning (much like flying an aircraft , which is no coincidence).
When you stop the bike with brakes, your body weight will continue forward unless you brace against the bars.

Find a safe place to ride, ideally a gently sloping grass field with a large run off area and no sticky-outy bits to ride into. Wear clothes to protect you from scratches if you fall. A helmet may be useful but on soft grass is not essential.
Start with the saddle low. Roll along and get the feel of stopping using the brakes.
Riding is easier if you go a bit faster, the bike will be easier to balance. Slow speed riding is quite a difficult skill.

Its really hard to describe a balancing activity in words, you just have to go and try it.

Bikes dont travel in staright lines, but a series of swooping curves. With experienced riders, the curves are so large that they appear straight, with beginers the curves should be more obvious.

Well, I learned my one thing for the day - and it's not even 7AM!

Using a road bike to start learning to ride is probable not a good idea. I would suggest bikes with fatter tires and set the saddle fairly low so that the tip of your feet can touch the ground easily. Try starting on a gentle downward slope so that you will have some forward momentum without having to pedal.

Good luck. It's never too late!

I agree with plin - you'd be best off learning on a comfortable bike. I would suggest a so-called "granny bike" style is great because, as the name would imply, it's easy to ride. However, I think the first point is where you can go to learn.

Where are you? Maybe you can find a local bike shop that would allow you to test ride some bikes to get the feel of them, or at the very least they would know of any other places or courses that would be useful.

MichaelW, a series of sweeping curves? Now I've heard everything :lol:

Take the pedals off, lower the seat so that your feet touch the ground, find a grassy slope with a gentle downhill, sit on bike, use feet to move bike forward, and as you can, raise feet to get the feel of "balancing."

As you gain balance, put pedals on and use them to gain speed. Raise seat and pedal away!

MichaelW, a series of sweeping curves? Now I've heard everything :lol:
Try riding with your front wheel in some kind of rut that prevents steering. You fall off if you unable to steer. If we are contantly making small adjustments to the steering, we are not riding in a straight line. It just appears straight because the radius of the curves is so large. Most complete newbies attempt to steer a straight line and wobble all over the place. If you direct newbie to ride in curves, around some widely spaced markers then balance becomes a lot easier.

Training techniques often seem counter-intuitive because experienced people forget or internalise what they are doing.

I'm around Lynchburg, VA. No, I don't have a bike yet. I have access to a few here on campus. I am going to be moving to Tucson next fall, and I don't want to get a car, so I figured that its about time that I learned.

Thanks for all of the advice. :)

The ideal learning bike is a singlespeed with a low open frame.
If you are getting a bike for commuting and want to learn on that, then treat it as a singlespeed and ignore gear changing till you are ready. Make sure that the selected gear is fairly low for easy riding.
Dont try to learn on a bike that is too large or too small.

get started with a helmet to get into habit..
otherwise like 10 other ppl said... small grass hill.

The ideal bike is a rental bike so you don't have to worry about dinging it.

DFox was right on, take it in stages:

1. walk bike slowly and practice braking
2. coast downhill with no pedals, or feet outstretched to learn steering
3. start adding pedaling, do not put both feet on bike before moving. If the bike's not moving you'll fall.
4. celebrate
5. try shifting between 2 gears WHILE pedaling
6. celebrate
7. repeat any of the above you want to practice on more
8. try riding on empty bike trails/roads
9. when have balancing and shifting and braking review bike safety rule for road travel
10. get on the road and practice more
11. celebrate, you've made it.

good luck, let us know where you get stuck. kudo's to you for taking this leap.