Learning How to Bike at 29

At age 29, I finally learned how to ride a bike! Last Sunday, I finally succumbed to my husband’s constant nagging and trained for an hour and a half. I’m still not good at it and I still need a lot of practice especially with biking on narrow spaces, turning, and starting on my own but I’m extremely happy that I can finally get on a bike and ride a few hours a day.

I’ve always wanted to learn but I thought being seen with training wheels is too embarrassing for an adult . Sherlock convinced me that he’ll assist and teach me instead but that plan failed and we just ended up annoying each other. So we consulted Mr. Google, watched several how-to videos and found other more effective methods that we combined into what worked for me.

Here are the steps I followed:

Step 1. Adjust the seat at a height where you can still comfortably put your feet on the ground while you’re seated. 

This was very important for me since it made me more confident that I won’t injure myself knowing I can safely land on my feet should I lose my balance.  I also picked a lighter mountain/comfort bike because a heavier bike would probably drag me to the ground during my moments of panic. You might want to tilt the front of your seat down a little because depending on the material of your seat, walking with your bike can be painful for your manly/lady parts 🙂

Step 2. Remove both pedals

Source: http://www.bicycling.com

Some parents no longer train their kids with training wheels but instead use training bikes w/o pedals which teach kids to balance the bike first before pedaling. Those bikes can be pricey and you probably won’t be need them for long so just take out your tools and take out the pedals yourself.

Step 3. Find a slightly downhill paved path

Empty slightly downhill road near a construction area

My husband found this slightly downhill road in our community that doesn’t have a lot of traffic during the weekends. It was perfect but being a busy construction on weekdays, it had a lot of little rocks and dirt which made my first day of learning a little bumpy. Other videos also recommend a space with grass so there’s less impact and scratches should you fall.

Step 4. Go to the top of the hill and get on your bike. Do a walk and glide with your bike 

Some videos recommend walking with the bike several times until you feel comfortable being on the bike. Then walk a few steps and slightly lift your feet off the ground to glide. Being the impatient person that I am, I started with the walk/glide combination right away. The end goal is to be able to feel comfortable gliding continuously from the top until the bottom of the hill. This is my tenth try:

Step 5. Put the pedals back on

Then get on your bike again and put your feet on the pedals as you glide.

Step 6. Try pedaling and tadddaaa!!! You’re biking!!! 🙂 

Please do not mind what my husband is saying. He’s basically just teasing me being the annoying  loving husband that he is 😛

Then try biking on a path with no incline and a slightly uphill one. It might be difficult adjusting from going downhill to a path with no incline so ask a friend to give you a little push at first.