How to learn to ride a bicycle for an adult

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you are 25, 30 or 40 years old, and you still do not know how to ride a bike, it doesn’t matter. A life hacker shares with you the experience of a person who also did not learn in childhood, but then was able to master this skill.

I was 25 years old and did not know how to ride a bike. I was going to learn from the age of 18, and every year it was harder to decide. I imagined how dumb I would look: a grown guy who rides worse than a child and constantly falls. Easier to score. Moreover, a lot of people in the world do not know how to ride.

There were tons of articles on the internet teaching adults how to ride a bike. But they did not help to overcome fear and embarrassment, which means they did not solve my problem.

I am now 27 years old. I ride my bike safely for a couple of hours.

I like to ride the waterfront on Saturday mornings, accelerate in front of the hill and slow down on the slope. These skills came with practice. The following steps helped me to cope with myself and get started.

Step 1: Determine Your Benefits

In theory, everything is easy. I got angry when my friends said, "Don't be afraid, just sit down and pedal." I couldn't do anything, I couldn't even get under way. I was afraid to get on the bike: what if I lose my balance and fall?

And the truth was falling. It was difficult to maintain balance even for a couple of meters.

But when I focused on the benefits of cycling, things got easier. I wrote out the benefits of cycling and ran them through my head along the way to each workout. It helped me fight fear and shame. I imagined how I ride a bike around the city, park at a cafe, manage everywhere. I thought how great it is to keep myself in shape, learn new things and prove to myself that I can. It worked for me.

Desire turned out to be stronger than fear.

During practice, I tried to monitor my body and specific actions: put my foot on the pedal, hold the steering wheel, straighten my back, control the road. On the fourth workout, the fear receded: the brain was not up to it.

Step 2. Find a teacher

The hardest part for me was getting on the bike and getting under way. I was afraid that I would not have time to put my foot on the pedal and crash into a tree.

I didn't know anything about speed, brakes, pads, I didn't understand how to handle it alone. Therefore, I asked for help from a friend who had been cycling for many years. He went to training with me and explained the basic things. He patiently drove me on a bicycle, like a child, walked beside me, advised me on how to deal with my arms and legs. I was angry, cursed, but in the third workout I was able to drive 50 meters without help. Thanks to the advice of a friend, I memorized the basic movements.

Do not call reckless drivers and beginners to mentor.

The first will not have enough patience, and the second - experience. Choose a person who himself does not mind trying himself in the role of a coach: such comrades are less likely to go to the horizon, leaving you alone with the bike, and are more inclined to tinker with you.

If you feel that the request is straining a friend, it is better to look for another teacher. It was easy for me to find a coach: all my friends knew that I could not ride a bike, and offered their help. Therefore, when I made up my mind, one conversation was enough.

Step 3. Choose a location

On the eve of training, I was tormented by the thought of what people would think of me, how condescending they would look at me. I realized that I can go in two ways: to score on the opinion of strangers or not to catch their eye until I learn. Stopped at the second.

For training I chose the most deserted place where as few eyes as possible will see my shame, and I will not run into other cyclists and will not knock anyone down.

The first three months I learned to ride in a forest park on the outskirts of the city: almost no one gets there, but there are bike paths.

If you are just starting out, look out for parks and small forests with paths. They may be far from home, but you will most likely only train twice a week at first - you can have patience for the sake of a new skill.

Step 4. Decide whether to rent or buy

I didn't have my own bike. Accordingly, there were two options: buy or rent. Assessed the benefits and risks of both.

	Per	Against
Purchase	It works as a voluntary commitment: once you spent money on a bike, you have to ride, as if you will learn. On Yandex. Market "a model for a beginner costs from 10,000 rubles. It will be a pity to throw that kind of money down the drain.	If you regret money for a bike, you will never learn to ride.
Rental	To start studying, 300 rubles are enough, or even less. Depends on the rental service you contact. Most of these services operate near parks, embankments and other places where you can ride.	If something goes wrong, you are responsible for the damage done to the bike and others. Bicycles are usually not insured by bike rental rules. In the event of an accident, the renter is fully responsible for the damage caused to himself, the bike, people around him and objects.

I chose the rental service: it turned out to be cheaper and more convenient for me. One of them was working near the forest where I learned to ride.

Step 5. Protect yourself

On a bike, you can crash into a pole, knock over another beginner, or fall. Therefore, there are traffic rules for cyclists. It describes in detail how to avoid an accident, how to behave on the roads, warn about a turn, and so on.

In addition, there are many helpful tips on how to protect cyclists and what to wear.

1. Wear brightly colored clothing with reflective stripes to be more visible on the road.
2. Wear tight-fitting clothing to avoid getting caught on rotating bike parts and outside obstacles.
3. Choose shoes with a hard sole and a rough tread to prevent slipping on the pedals.
4. Wear a helmet: it will protect your head from falls.
5. Wear safety goggles to keep dirt and insects out of your eyes. Better special cycling goggles. Ordinary glass, if hit by stones, can shatter and damage your eyes.
6. Wear knee and elbow pads to protect your joints from injury.

But that is why they are instructions, that no one takes them seriously.

During the first month of training, the steering wheel rubbed my hands to calluses. They hurt and slowly healed - it's also fun when you type a lot at work. After another couple of months, I somehow flew over the bike, skinned my hands and stretched a tendon on my wrist. A friend said that it could be worse and I was lucky. I had to take a break from training: the tendon healed for three weeks.

For the new workout, I bought regular fitness gloves for 300 rubles - I stopped rubbing my palms, held the steering wheel tighter, there were fewer reasons to fall.

It didn’t come to the helmet and knee pads, but this year I’ll definitely buy it: health is more expensive. I had enough sinew to think about it and give up on what the tough mountain bike riders would think.

Step 5. Practice constantly

At first I drove badly, no more than 100 meters without stopping. Because of this, I got angry and looked for an excuse to skip the workout: sometimes I was too lazy to go far, then other things. As a result, in the first month I spent only three hours with the bike.

It took me a while to realize that a principle common to the development of any skill works here: you can learn if you constantly practice.

As soon as I forced myself to train for at least two hours a week, I noticed progress. The first two weeks I rode on a flat road in order to get used to the bike, to deal with the speed and brakes, and to learn how to control the steering wheel. After that, the ascents and descents were much easier. A month later, I was already dashingly climbing a steep slope.

I continue to learn: with each workout, I learn something new, consolidate my skills, ask my friends questions and look for information on the Internet.

Check list

1. Don't be afraid and think about the pros.
2. Find a patient teacher.
3. Choose a quiet, uninhabited place.
4. Rent a bike next to it.
5. Practice constantly.
6. Wear a helmet, knee pads and be mindful of protection.