Friday, April 06, 2007
Like Riding a Bike
Last summer in a burst of enthusiasm I bought a bike. It's really cute, blue and white with hibiscus flowers on it's lady-like frame. All it really needs to complete the look is one of those wicker baskets. I'm going to have to find it on-line as no regular shopping has turned one up. The only problem is I don't really know how to ride a bike. It's sad, but true. I grew up in the mountains and my driveway was a near 45 degree angle straight onto the only major highway in the area. Riding a bike really wasn't an option. A few attempts were made to teach me how to ride a bike, but they were sporadic and there really wasn't time or opportunity to get the requisite practice. The result of this gap in my education is that the few times I mustered the courage to ride my beautiful little bike I really only did well on the straight-away. Turns and curves are not my forte. I usually had to stop the bike, reorient it and continue. I'm determined to do better this year. Eventually I'd like to do well enough to take the kids on a ride to the library, but I have a feeling I won't be doing that well this summer. Anyway, now you know why I always tend to snicker when someone tells me something is "just like riding a bike."
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3 comments:
ja! such a funny story. I dont know how i finished here in your blogspot, but Ive enjoyed the stay. Sorry if my english is quite poor, Im from Uruguay, my mother tongue is Spanish.
good luck!
BruNo
Our driveway gently, but insistently slopes toward the cul de sac we live on. Not bad for teaching bike riding. So, I tried without much success to teach Janie to ride a bike. She was hesitant and would like to quit each lesson early.
On the other hand, Dan had no compunction about coasting down the driveway to the street. He quickly mastered the business of riding a bike.
His example spurred his older sister, Jane, to work a little harder at learning and soon she was riding, too.
Reflecting on my own experience, we lived on a gravel road that wasn't easily ridden upon, and I got a big 26" bike, but didn't learn to ride it immediately. A year later the county had paved 16 Mile road and my younger brother got a 20" bike that wasn't nearly as nice as mine. HE learned to ride his little bike and this spurred me to learn to ride on HIS bike whereupon I transferred the skills to my nicer 26" bike. After that whole summers were spent on bikes.
In my late teens I got together the cash to buy a 10-speed bike. It was a cheesy heavy-steel-framed Murray with sloppy dérailleurs. In my Junior year in college I bought a nicer bike that I sold in grad school. Just after I'd helped my fiance get a nice bike. Not good timing. When I moved back from Maryland, I got a nice touring bike that I still own.
Oddly, the bike I ride the most is a Schwinn mountain bike I got from a friend to whom I'd lent money. It's a nice commuter. Touring bikes are not indicated for day-to-day riding in the city. Thus the somewhat more robust mountain bike is a better bet. If it weren't so stinking cold outside, I'd get to work tuning bikes up for the beginning of the season.
I ended up teaching her,she didn't do well.
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