Neil_B

I spent the morning teaching an adult beginner how to ride. I took him to Valley Forge National Park, and we began to work on balancing in the Visitor Center parking lot, my pupil scooting around on a Bianci stripped of its pedals. That proved too flat to allow him to keep forward motion, so we moved to the Schuylkill River Trail at Audubon, where there is a bit of a downhill. He did OK with that, so he's going to have the pedals put back on for next Saturday, when we are going on a short ride.

For me, this is paying forward some of what I've learned in the year and a half since I first rode a bike. Is anyone else here working with beginners?

Richard_Rides

It takes an enormous amount of patience to teach someone how to ride a modern bicycle. Especially a bicycle with no pedals.

richking1953

In his book Bicycle Design, Mike Burrows recommends teaching beginner's to ride by removing the pedals and lowering the seat so they can run with the bike (inspired by Baron Von Drais's original invention). When they get confident with balance they can lift their feet and coast. Only when this all becomes natural do you put the pedals back on. I've never tried teaching anyone this way but it sounds like a good approach

ScrubJ

Every one of my grandchildren old enough to ride a bicycle was taught this way. I could write a story about the "Pink Bike" in our garage. We picked it up a number of years ago at a garage sale, paid five dollars for it. The pleasure of teaching my grandchildren to ride is priceless.

half_bent

Not to nit pick, but it is Baron Karl Drais Von Sauerbronn (the von is like the english version "of" or his full name is :

Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn

Alot of history books spell it wrong.

jakereed

I think I am about the worst, and most impatient teacher around. Being an autodidact for the most part, I have little patience with those I feel are too lazy to simply pick up a book and read. Whenever I've heard, "how did you learn that", or "can you teach me that?", I direct them to the public library. But of course that's really my problem with patience, or the lack thereof, not theirs.

mkadam68

Wow. The thought that an adult didn't know how to ride a bike had never occurred to me. I mean, sure, it makes sense. But I guess I though that everyone learned when they were a child. Wow. Preconceptions. Who'd a thunk it?

Neil_B

Wasn't I sufficient proof that not all children learn to ride a bike?

Neil_B

My pupil has made enormous progress. With the pedals on, he's able to ride short distances. He has one small problem - he can't hold a line. And a bigger problem, one we didn't anticipate - he has a wide stance, and his Bianchi has pedals very close to the body of the bike. He could barely keep his oversized feet on them. He's looking into kneesavers for our next ride. He did much better riding my bike; he's a 6'2" clyde, and Roark fit him very well.

Meanwhile, I rode 3 miles without any discomfort from the fractured rib. I'll keep testing myself the next few days.

Stujoe

My enjoyment, control and performance increased tremendously when I got my kneesavers. I have long, wide feet (and a serious toe out on one of them).

jaxgtr

Save some cash and versus the kneesavers and get these, I have them on my CAAD9. Just make sure the pedal he is using has a way to install with a pedal wrench. These are solid and you can not use an hex wrench to install. All pedal extenders are solid. Also, these need a 18mm box wrench to install. That way they can't be ripped off with a pedal wrench.

https://cgi.ebay.com/Bicycle-Pedal-Ex...QQcmdZViewItem

Neil_B

I pay ten dollars a pair for mine from my bike shop.

jaxgtr

cool, that even better.