Great Blog Post for Beginner Bikers - Don't Give Up!

[prefrontalfinance]

http://bikeportland.org/2014/07/10/klutziness-overlooked-barrier-biking-108511

I saw this one today and thought some of those just getting their feet on the pedals might take some encouragement from a post like this. The comments are also good.

Sample Quote:

"Lesson #2: You will fall down. You will mostly be ok. When you first learn to ride, going more than four miles an hour is terrifying. I spent my first weeks in Amsterdam creeping along, staring in dread at the next obstacle in my path, and either hitting it or wiping out in a last-minute effort to avoid it. I wasn’t just incompetent; I was a traffic hazard. Other cyclists and drivers had to swerve around me.

I improved, as anybody does when they spend every day sucking at something and doing it anyway. I got hooked on the thrill of biking around a city. Still, I kept falling..."

[mak1277]

Reading the blurb you posted is the OPPOSITE of encouraging.

I could never manage to ride a bike as a fairly athletic kid...it sure as heck won't ever happen as an adult.

[Fleacircus]

I found it encouraging, at least in the sense that I'm not the only klutzy person frantically clutching my brakes on the downhill.

[prefrontalfinance]

Reading the blurb you posted is the OPPOSITE of encouraging.

I could never manage to ride a bike as a fairly athletic kid...it sure as heck won't ever happen as an adult.

I like it because I think the biggest barrier to adult learning anything is that many adults are no longer familiar with being beginners.

Adults are perfectly capable of learning new things, whether they be another language, a new style of dance, how to navigate a new city, or yes, riding a bike. But you will mispronounce a lot of words, fumble with two left feet, get lost, and fall off. That's a part of learning. Adults spend most of their time doing tasks they have mastered. They sometimes forget the cluelessness is normal, and mistake it as being specific to them.

If someone falls off their bike and thinks "How am I so terrible at this? Why is everyone around me so much better? I am making a fool of myself." of course they are going to give up. But if they think "Everyone falls off the bike when they are first learning. I have 2 hrs of experience at this. My friends have 500 hrs of experience. And my friends still occasionally make mistakes too. No one is going to think I'm an idiot because I can't ride while carrying around 5 spinning plates yet," then they are going to be more resilient.

Making mistakes doesn't reflect some intrinsic, unchangeable aspect of you. The biggest barrier or support in these instances is the attitude one takes towards learning.

Everyone who learns to ride a bike will occasionally fall from the bike. Whether they be 6 years old or 60.

[Doomspark]

It's been probably 35 years since I've been on a bicycle.  But ...

My wife and I have decided to get bikes and learn to ride all over again.  While I doubt we'll ever commute to work (unless we move), we've located a couple of trails in the area.

A friend of mine has recommended a local bike shop and we're going to drop in next weekend and see how it goes.

[skyrefuge]

If someone falls off their bike and thinks "How am I so terrible at this? Why is everyone around me so much better? I am making a fool of myself." of course they are going to give up. But if they think "Everyone falls off the bike when they are first learning. I have 2 hrs of experience at this. My friends have 500 hrs of experience. And my friends still occasionally make mistakes too. No one is going to think I'm an idiot because I can't ride while carrying around 5 spinning plates yet," then they are going to be more resilient.

Yep, I can totally agree with all this (and the original blog post).

My 35-year-old girlfriend learned how to ride a bike exactly one year ago. Through the learning process she had 3 major (bruising) falls, and many minor moments of instability/uncertainty. As bad as the pain from the falls was, I was surprised to learn that it was other people seeing her, and the embarrassment that generated, that seemed to hurt her more. And exactly as you say, it was reminding herself that she's effectively a 5-year-old in biking years that helped her to get over that silliness, get back on the saddle, and back to kicking ass.

July 4, 2013 was the first day she pedaled upright on a bike for more than 10 feet (actually it was at night, since she wanted fewer people to see her!)

Eleven months later, I joined her on a two-week, 760 mile, self-supported bike tour from Chicago to upstate New York. Yeah.

The whole year-long process, from the first wobbly Fred-Flintstone foot-pushing, to the last day of tour climbing the steep highways of upstate New York to reach her Dad's house, was one of the most badass accomplishments I've ever witnessed. That of course includes the physical side of it, but more important (again, exactly as you said) was the mental side: first the desire to even learn at all, to set such a big goal, and to keep her attitude positive and moving forward throughout the year to reach that goal.

I won't promise that everyone is quite the badass that my girlfriend is, because she's pretty bad-ass. :-) But we met lots of people on tour who would say "oh my, your ride sounds wonderful, but I could never do that!" Our response would always be: "you know how to ride a bike, right? She didn't 11 months ago, and she's already come all this way from Chicago...so for you it would be easy!"

And so here that advice can be inverted: "all you need to do is learn how to ride a bike, you don't need to ride it day after day after day across the country? Well that will be easy!" Yeah, your body will fail itself from time to time, but your adult brain will fight off its own embarrassment and help you fight your way to badassity!