Pssst, Wanna Know A Secret?

[badstar]

I never learned to ride a bike. When I lived with my grandparents, they never got me one(My mom did get me one before that, which I had at my grandparents' house, but they refused to take off the training wheels and then I was eventually too tall for it and they put it in a garage sale.) and eventually my mom got me one, at the time she didn't live anywhere that I could ever really ride the thing and then once we all moved back in with her my sister and brothers took it and wrapped it around a tree or something. Oh, and my stepsister (I used to have one years ago, but my father eventually left my then-stepmother) decided to try and force me to learn one summer when I was visiting them, and I gave up when she pushed the bike- with me on it- out into the street and I almost got hit by a car.

So that's the sad, sad, tragic tale of how Fuego never learned to ride a bike.

Sometimes I think it would be convenient to have one. For serious. But like, yeah...sorry...I think it would be way too embarrassing to try to learn now. I mean, I can see me out there in the lot behind the house, kicking along with one foot and....no. Just, no.

Comments

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

'salright.

I never learned either.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

I'll help you out, if you want. I'm patient.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, I actually would like to learn. Obviously I'd need to find a bike. And a place devoid of onlookers. (Sorry, but no. I'm not going to learn to ride a bike in the middle of the city. I'm going to claim that as my one irrational embarrassment at this point in my life...lol)

[fervid-dryfire.livejournal.com]

Embarrassed? You?! I'd never have thought that word was even in your vocabulary.


It's never too late to learn. Bicycling, swimming, manual transmission, hunting/fishing, motorcycling, camping, woodworking...you're really missing out if you haven't acquired at least a few of these skills- so much the better if you've got 'em all (of these, I'm really shy on woodwork and devoid of any motorcycle training...).

[fuego.livejournal.com]

It's one of the few things that I actually am sorta embarrassed about. Until recently, I never told anyone that I never learned to ride a bike.

But I can swim!

[fervid-dryfire.livejournal.com]

...swim, and cook, and...uh, actually I don't think I know much about what other "life skills" you have...

[fuego.livejournal.com]

swim, cook, use a soldering iron, set up a home or simple office computer network, fix computers (well, Macs. Working on PC's though), go camping in ankle-deep mud, speak reasonably well in front of a crowd, assemble a futon...the list goes on.

There was a time when I knew how to throw a football decently, sail a Sunfish sailboat and dance the minuet...but I don't think I could do any of those things anymore.

[ranger-hotsauce.livejournal.com]

I think it would be way too embarrassing to try to learn now.
What a sad reason not to do something. :-(

[fuego.livejournal.com]

yeah, I know. It's pathetic. And It's probably the only thing that I feel that way about. I dunno, I guess it's because it's one of those things that, ya know everyone learns to do. (Well, I guess not everyone, going by a couple of responses here.) Until very recently, I never even told anyone this.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

it's not embarrassment that's keeping me from learning. it's the pain of falling down hard on asphalt

...then consider safety gear.

[fervid-dryfire.livejournal.com]

They got things like helmets and knee/elbow pads for that problem. =P

I had the same issues when I'd started rollerblading, but with that gear- AND eventually some wrist guards!- falls weren't an issue. Then once I got better with balance the issue resolved itself completely.

[stellthebell.livejournal.com]

Me too! My issue is that I have no sense of balance, which makes things like riding bikes (or skiing, or rollerblading, etc. ...) quite difficult and, frankly, not worth the effort. :)

[fuego.livejournal.com]

I never tried rollerblading or ice skating. I've sprained both ankles enough doing dumb things that I have a little too much fear of completely screwing them up to try (Though, I can skate on regular rollerskates.)

[unprotoize.livejournal.com]

If you can spin a fire staff, you can *definitely* learn how to ride a bike! As a non-driver you certainly could benefit from it..it's sooo much quicker to hop on the bike than to walk somewhere. And what a great time of year to start!

Check this place out:
http://velocipedebikeproject.org..it's not too far from your place. They aren't advertising any riding lessons right now and it's a collective so they don't have tons and tons of services yet, but it might be a good place to check out...perhaps a collective member would take you under their wing and help you get started, or at least provide some inspiration.

[caletara.livejournal.com]

I learned but I crashed into a fence early on in the learning process and haven't picked one up again! You're not alone!

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I learned to ride a bike at age of 13. It was someone else's bike, and I had irregular access to it for about 3 months. I learned to not fall as I go, and I kinda learned to go where I want to, but I didn't learn to go faster than the slowest speed necessary not to fall over. Or to stop with any degree of grace. Or to not be terrified of it. Then, I was utterly bikeless until the age of 28-29 or so, when I decided that I want to learn, dammit, and my very patient SO (who was a bike messenger back in the day) took me out riding, at which point we determined that I can go (slightly slower than he has patience for - he quite literally rode circles around me), and I can more-or-less-turn, and I can sorta-stop. That happened about twice, and then other matters interfered, and then we finally decided to pick it up again. We had a blast of it, and I was _almost_ brave enough to go slightly faster than a speeding turtle for whole seconds at a time, and we decided we should do it again - at which point my SO injured his knee, and there went that idea.

And that was a lot more successful than my attempt to learn rollerblading, which is a whole nother story.

[liritsvoice.livejournal.com]

aww, i'll teach you!!! i'll have to steal my mom's bike, but it can be done. we'll find someplace nice to bikeride, though.

[caelesti.livejournal.com]

It's ok. I didn't learn to ride a bike until 6th grade. And I'm 25, and haven't learned to drive. But I live in the city, where I can take buses most places. Riding a bike is fun though, and it is actually probably easier for an adult to learn than a kid.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Meh, I'm 28, still haven't learned to drive. That doesn't really bother me.