Bicycle Blunders
I have written here in the past about having dyspraxia, a minor special need which makes me clumsy and hopeless at anything remotely practical. Today I'm going to share my story of learning to ride a bike, something which was greatly affected by dyspraxia though I didn't know as much at the time.
The story begins much the same as everyone else's. The time came when my parents decided I was probably old enough to ride a bike and purchased one for me. It came with stabilisers and I rode around the patio on it perfectly happily. But then the time came to remove the stabilisers.
I was taken across to the playing field at the end of the street and sat upon my small bike. My Dad would start pushing me and telling me to pedal and I would obliging do so. Then eventually my Dad would try letting go and I'd quickly lose my balance and topple over. This is normal but the difference with me is I never seemed to get much better. The best I'd get was falling over a short way across the field rather than immediately.
A family holiday to Center Parcs holds an embarrassing cycling moment. I was about nine and someone decided it would be a lovely idea to hire bikes for the week we were there. I think it was probably assumed that I must be able to ride properly by now given children considerably younger than me were proficient cyclists. I could cycle a short distance at least now. Inevitably though a short distance from the cycle hire building I lost my balance and tumbled over, this time falling straight into a ditch at the side of the road. It's a moment of legendary comedy in my family, except for me.
The small hire bike was returned and a tag-along was hired. These are like half bikes which the rider has to pedal but it's attached to an adult bike so you don't have to steer. This was so successful one was bought for home so I could be part of family cycle rides for the next few years. I was probably the best part of 12 when I was still riding on the tag-along and feeling incredibly useless as toddlers cycled independently.
Aged 11 I went on a french exchange and one of the activities we could choose to do in France was BMXing. I'd fallen out with a friend and so I ended up doing the activity I was least keen to do so I could avoid him. Fortunately the activity wasn't true BMXing. We took it in turns to set a time on a course which involved lots of twists and turns. By this point I could just about cycle in a straight line but couldn't steer too well so come the first turn and I pretty much crashed into a barrier. I negotiated the course by shuffling along sat on the bike with my feet on the floor, resulting in the slowest time of everyone present. It was no wonder I was the only student in my year group not to even attend cycling proficiency classes.
Somewhere in my teenage years I was finally able to ride a bike though I wasn't totally confident. Bikes were a big thing with teenage boys at the time- this was before many of us even had games consoles. The local teenagers would set up tiny plastic ramps on the same field I used to try and cycle on and repeatedly jump over them. Despite sounding like the worst thing in the world, peer pressure and a lack of self-esteem meant I was persuaded to partake in this activity on one occasion. I was delighted to safely manage to make it over the ramp on my first few attempts but inevitably I came crashing down to the ground. During my adolescence the slightest knock would cause a nosebleed so that happened too to make the situation even more cringe-worthy. I cycled off, leaving behind a trail of blood and a silent vow never to try such a thing ever again.
Even as an adult I'm not totally confident on a bike. I find it impossible to remove my right hand from the handlebars without wobbling and have to immediately put it back on if I want to stay on my bike. This is fine until the time comes when I need to signal right so I either have to not signal and hope for the best or put my left arm across my body to signal right which must look so weird. I cannot fathom why I can cycle along happily with my left hand anywhere I like but can't remove my right hand from the handlebars for more than a split second.
So there you go. I've lived my life struggling to understand why someone decided to invent a vehicle with two wheels and suffering because of said invention.
The story begins much the same as everyone else's. The time came when my parents decided I was probably old enough to ride a bike and purchased one for me. It came with stabilisers and I rode around the patio on it perfectly happily. But then the time came to remove the stabilisers.
I was taken across to the playing field at the end of the street and sat upon my small bike. My Dad would start pushing me and telling me to pedal and I would obliging do so. Then eventually my Dad would try letting go and I'd quickly lose my balance and topple over. This is normal but the difference with me is I never seemed to get much better. The best I'd get was falling over a short way across the field rather than immediately.
A family holiday to Center Parcs holds an embarrassing cycling moment. I was about nine and someone decided it would be a lovely idea to hire bikes for the week we were there. I think it was probably assumed that I must be able to ride properly by now given children considerably younger than me were proficient cyclists. I could cycle a short distance at least now. Inevitably though a short distance from the cycle hire building I lost my balance and tumbled over, this time falling straight into a ditch at the side of the road. It's a moment of legendary comedy in my family, except for me.
The small hire bike was returned and a tag-along was hired. These are like half bikes which the rider has to pedal but it's attached to an adult bike so you don't have to steer. This was so successful one was bought for home so I could be part of family cycle rides for the next few years. I was probably the best part of 12 when I was still riding on the tag-along and feeling incredibly useless as toddlers cycled independently.
 |
| This is what a tag-along looks like though I don't think mine was even cool enough to have a flag |
Aged 11 I went on a french exchange and one of the activities we could choose to do in France was BMXing. I'd fallen out with a friend and so I ended up doing the activity I was least keen to do so I could avoid him. Fortunately the activity wasn't true BMXing. We took it in turns to set a time on a course which involved lots of twists and turns. By this point I could just about cycle in a straight line but couldn't steer too well so come the first turn and I pretty much crashed into a barrier. I negotiated the course by shuffling along sat on the bike with my feet on the floor, resulting in the slowest time of everyone present. It was no wonder I was the only student in my year group not to even attend cycling proficiency classes.
Somewhere in my teenage years I was finally able to ride a bike though I wasn't totally confident. Bikes were a big thing with teenage boys at the time- this was before many of us even had games consoles. The local teenagers would set up tiny plastic ramps on the same field I used to try and cycle on and repeatedly jump over them. Despite sounding like the worst thing in the world, peer pressure and a lack of self-esteem meant I was persuaded to partake in this activity on one occasion. I was delighted to safely manage to make it over the ramp on my first few attempts but inevitably I came crashing down to the ground. During my adolescence the slightest knock would cause a nosebleed so that happened too to make the situation even more cringe-worthy. I cycled off, leaving behind a trail of blood and a silent vow never to try such a thing ever again.
Even as an adult I'm not totally confident on a bike. I find it impossible to remove my right hand from the handlebars without wobbling and have to immediately put it back on if I want to stay on my bike. This is fine until the time comes when I need to signal right so I either have to not signal and hope for the best or put my left arm across my body to signal right which must look so weird. I cannot fathom why I can cycle along happily with my left hand anywhere I like but can't remove my right hand from the handlebars for more than a split second.
So there you go. I've lived my life struggling to understand why someone decided to invent a vehicle with two wheels and suffering because of said invention.
Comments
Post a Comment