Learning to ride a bicycle is a basic life skill that everyone must know. Much like swimming. And once you learn it, you cannot forget it. I know of a distant cousin, who cannot stand erect from his waist up due to an accident. He walks with the torso of his body parallel to the ground. But he rides a bicycle every morning. It is an unbelievable sight. He is 70 years old.
I have willy nilly given up on trying to teach my daughter how to ride a bicycle. She is 14 years old now and has owned various cycles from even before she could walk (starting with tricycles of course). She just doesn't have it in her to learn how to balance herself. She needs prodding and at this stage I cannot run with her holding her under the saddle from behind (that I believe is the second best way to teach cycling, first being learning on your own through trial and error). Also I think anyone who needs prodding to take a bicycle out does not want to learn really and it is best not to push.
I will explain how I learnt and I think that's the way most of us in our generation learnt. May be not at that early an age and perhaps not all completely on their own. But generally speaking it's more or less the same story.
I was eight years old and probably three feet and a few inches tall when we went on a family trip to Shantiniketan where an uncle lived. I remember nothing of that trip except that my parents were sitting on the large balcony of my uncle's house and there was a bicycle in the house. A really tall one that I still find difficult to ride on (the cycle is still there even after a good 45 years of my learning on it when it was already an old cycle). I cannot remember if my father encouraged it or I pulled it out, but I was simply ecstatic when I was allowed to take it out to the field outside my uncle's house. They probably thought I could not have done anything with such a huge cycle. Indeed my chance was very slim.
I was so small that I could not hold the two ends of the handle bar together – an old-fashioned handlebar that I don't see anywhere except in India and also lots in Amsterdam. So, I held the left end of the bar with my left hand and with the right hand I grabbed the saddle. I was finding it difficult to keep the cycle standing erect, let alone take it anywhere. But that itself was a challenge. I kept it straight with all my little strength and then started walking with it, holding it as straight as possible. It was reclining towards me all the time and it was quite a struggle to keep it vertical. Soon enough it became easy and I was walking with the cycle quite comfortably.
The field in front had a gentle slope. I was going up pushing it and then coming down comfortably. On the return journey while coming down, the cycle was rolling much faster. This I kept on doing for an hour or two. Soon enough, while rolling down I started standing with my right foot on the left pedal and roll down a bit with the flow. After this I remember pushing myself intermittently with the left foot on the ground as the cycle was coming to a halt and trying to get some movement. Then at some point of time I started keeping both the feet on the pedal. My feet were so small I could quite comfortably stand with both of them on the pedal. I was basically hopping but with the wrong foot on the wrong pedal. In fact today if I try to do that I might find it difficult - hopping with the right foot on the left pedal.
My parents were busy chatting on the balcony with their friends and relatives. Perhaps they kept an eye on me. Perhaps not. But I was glad to be alone yet within their view of a few hundred meters. I soon started rolling down the slope, standing with both the feet on the pedal. I cannot remember clearly but once I got on the pedal I think I could reach with both the hands to hold the two ends of the bar.
What I do remember is my beaming father telling me, "I guess now you have the balance to ride a bicycle. You don't need anything else."
He then encouraged me to put the right foot on the right pedal while in motion and push/ride the pedals. We call it "half pedaling". Many children, trying to ride a bicycle too high for them, do this. Rather, used to do this. These days one does not see this sight on the streets of large cities anymore because youngsters get cycles suitable for their size.
After some time my father bought a used bicycle. It was a very good cycle but meant for adults. I was allowed to use it but I could manage to ride only half pedal. I was still too small for an adult bike. Then one fine Sunday afternoon my father told my cousin Mezda, who at that time used to live with us, to take me to the lake and help me learn how to ride sitting atop the saddle.
Mezda made me sit on on the saddle and ran for a few meters holding the bike under the saddle. I did not realise when he had stopped running. I could not do a full circle with the pedals. I was still a little short. Perhaps by an inch. So I would push the pedal hard while going down and then let the leg hang and then push down again when the pedal came up. Those who have done it will know what I am talking about.
This in long (as opposed to "short") is how I learnt to pedal a bicycle. As I look back with a matured brain I am trying to analyse what went right with me and wrong with my daughter?
Let me write them down.
1. I grew up with my father's adventure story of how he cycled from Hazaribagh to Ranchi crossing the massive Chutu Palu ghaat at the tender age of 14, even at the risk of being devoured by tigers. These stories probably sowed the seeds of adventure in me. So when I got a chance I pounced upon the cycle.
2. I never had any fancy cycle. There was a tricycle at home that I used to ride on our rooftop. I had no other toy, so to speak. I thoroughly enjoyed it. In our childhood one never got anything without asking for it for months. Children these days get things even before they ask for it. We parents are to be blamed for it. Probably we remember our childhood and try to ensure happier childhood for our children but we are probably destroying a lot of potential in them that a desperate want would have ignited.
3. I was exposed to the right environment for learning to ride. My daughter has never been to a field with a cycle. She has always been exposed to either concrete or asphalt roads where the fear of injury from a fall is high. The field I got had a very gentle slope which helped and hastened the process of learning for me. No such luck for my daughter.
4. My bicycle never had any training wheels which my daughter's cycle had. Training wheels are useless and do not teach you anything. You end up learning how to ride a bicycle with training wheels. In fact Mampu used to love riding her cycle with the training wheels. She stopped riding the day I took them off.
5. I was watching a training video from REI where they say a child must learn first to scoot, coast and then pedal. You learn to balance first and then pedal. This is exactly what I happened to do without looking at any website. Of course I first had to learn to hold the cycle upright first. That itself is a major first step. Ask anyone who does not know how to balance, to walk a bike. One cannot. If you can walk comfortably with a bike you are half way there.
6. I was way too young to use my brain and be afraid. Incidentally I never fell a single time trying to learn, despite my first cycle being too large for me even now.
I have willy nilly given up on trying to teach my daughter how to ride a bicycle. She is 14 years old now and has owned various cycles from even before she could walk (starting with tricycles of course). She just doesn't have it in her to learn how to balance herself. She needs prodding and at this stage I cannot run with her holding her under the saddle from behind (that I believe is the second best way to teach cycling, first being learning on your own through trial and error). Also I think anyone who needs prodding to take a bicycle out does not want to learn really and it is best not to push.
I will explain how I learnt and I think that's the way most of us in our generation learnt. May be not at that early an age and perhaps not all completely on their own. But generally speaking it's more or less the same story.
I was eight years old and probably three feet and a few inches tall when we went on a family trip to Shantiniketan where an uncle lived. I remember nothing of that trip except that my parents were sitting on the large balcony of my uncle's house and there was a bicycle in the house. A really tall one that I still find difficult to ride on (the cycle is still there even after a good 45 years of my learning on it when it was already an old cycle). I cannot remember if my father encouraged it or I pulled it out, but I was simply ecstatic when I was allowed to take it out to the field outside my uncle's house. They probably thought I could not have done anything with such a huge cycle. Indeed my chance was very slim.
I was so small that I could not hold the two ends of the handle bar together – an old-fashioned handlebar that I don't see anywhere except in India and also lots in Amsterdam. So, I held the left end of the bar with my left hand and with the right hand I grabbed the saddle. I was finding it difficult to keep the cycle standing erect, let alone take it anywhere. But that itself was a challenge. I kept it straight with all my little strength and then started walking with it, holding it as straight as possible. It was reclining towards me all the time and it was quite a struggle to keep it vertical. Soon enough it became easy and I was walking with the cycle quite comfortably.
The field in front had a gentle slope. I was going up pushing it and then coming down comfortably. On the return journey while coming down, the cycle was rolling much faster. This I kept on doing for an hour or two. Soon enough, while rolling down I started standing with my right foot on the left pedal and roll down a bit with the flow. After this I remember pushing myself intermittently with the left foot on the ground as the cycle was coming to a halt and trying to get some movement. Then at some point of time I started keeping both the feet on the pedal. My feet were so small I could quite comfortably stand with both of them on the pedal. I was basically hopping but with the wrong foot on the wrong pedal. In fact today if I try to do that I might find it difficult - hopping with the right foot on the left pedal.
My parents were busy chatting on the balcony with their friends and relatives. Perhaps they kept an eye on me. Perhaps not. But I was glad to be alone yet within their view of a few hundred meters. I soon started rolling down the slope, standing with both the feet on the pedal. I cannot remember clearly but once I got on the pedal I think I could reach with both the hands to hold the two ends of the bar.
What I do remember is my beaming father telling me, "I guess now you have the balance to ride a bicycle. You don't need anything else."
He then encouraged me to put the right foot on the right pedal while in motion and push/ride the pedals. We call it "half pedaling". Many children, trying to ride a bicycle too high for them, do this. Rather, used to do this. These days one does not see this sight on the streets of large cities anymore because youngsters get cycles suitable for their size.
After some time my father bought a used bicycle. It was a very good cycle but meant for adults. I was allowed to use it but I could manage to ride only half pedal. I was still too small for an adult bike. Then one fine Sunday afternoon my father told my cousin Mezda, who at that time used to live with us, to take me to the lake and help me learn how to ride sitting atop the saddle.
Mezda made me sit on on the saddle and ran for a few meters holding the bike under the saddle. I did not realise when he had stopped running. I could not do a full circle with the pedals. I was still a little short. Perhaps by an inch. So I would push the pedal hard while going down and then let the leg hang and then push down again when the pedal came up. Those who have done it will know what I am talking about.
This in long (as opposed to "short") is how I learnt to pedal a bicycle. As I look back with a matured brain I am trying to analyse what went right with me and wrong with my daughter?
Let me write them down.
1. I grew up with my father's adventure story of how he cycled from Hazaribagh to Ranchi crossing the massive Chutu Palu ghaat at the tender age of 14, even at the risk of being devoured by tigers. These stories probably sowed the seeds of adventure in me. So when I got a chance I pounced upon the cycle.
2. I never had any fancy cycle. There was a tricycle at home that I used to ride on our rooftop. I had no other toy, so to speak. I thoroughly enjoyed it. In our childhood one never got anything without asking for it for months. Children these days get things even before they ask for it. We parents are to be blamed for it. Probably we remember our childhood and try to ensure happier childhood for our children but we are probably destroying a lot of potential in them that a desperate want would have ignited.
3. I was exposed to the right environment for learning to ride. My daughter has never been to a field with a cycle. She has always been exposed to either concrete or asphalt roads where the fear of injury from a fall is high. The field I got had a very gentle slope which helped and hastened the process of learning for me. No such luck for my daughter.
4. My bicycle never had any training wheels which my daughter's cycle had. Training wheels are useless and do not teach you anything. You end up learning how to ride a bicycle with training wheels. In fact Mampu used to love riding her cycle with the training wheels. She stopped riding the day I took them off.
5. I was watching a training video from REI where they say a child must learn first to scoot, coast and then pedal. You learn to balance first and then pedal. This is exactly what I happened to do without looking at any website. Of course I first had to learn to hold the cycle upright first. That itself is a major first step. Ask anyone who does not know how to balance, to walk a bike. One cannot. If you can walk comfortably with a bike you are half way there.
6. I was way too young to use my brain and be afraid. Incidentally I never fell a single time trying to learn, despite my first cycle being too large for me even now.
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