I tend to think of myself as having begun cycling when I got into it as an adult. But technically, that is not so. I learned to ride a bike when I was a child, and rode one all through junior high and most of high school. There was a nice post today on ecovelo, where Alan mentioned having "lived on his bike" as a kid, and in a sense it was similar for me. My friends and I did not race each other through wheatfields or pop wheelies, but we did use our bikes to get around our small town. Even once old enough to drive, most of us somehow still stuck with bicycles: It just seemed easier and even kept us off our parents' radar (for example, they could not look at the odometer to determine whether we had gone out when we were told not to).
But during all those years of riding bikes as a child and teenager, I knew absolutely nothing about "technique." At some point I was given a 2-wheel bike, and I used it as a push-bike for a few laps around the park until suddenly I was able to pedal without the bike falling over. To me, that meant that I was pretty much done learning "technique." In the years that followed, I rode with the saddle low, never learned how to start and stop "properly" or to pedal while standing, and was not aware that turning involved leaning and balancing, rather than using the handlebars. Heck, I never even learned how to shift gears, because the shifters on my low-end bike were jammed!
When I think about how it feels to cycle today - and particularly, how it felt when I first started doing it as an adult - I am confused and frustrated by all those younger years spent riding a bike without knowing how to do it properly. It's odd that I did not naturally pick up any skills what so ever during that time. (How can that be? Surely no one is that unathletic?) Moreover, my friends must have been just as clueless, because no one ever made fun of me or told me I was "doing it wrong." And it's frustrating that those skills were so much easier to learn as a child than as an adult - so by not having learned them early, I am at a disadvantage that may take me some effort to overcome.I first discovered the concept of leaning on turns by reading about it, and after that it took months before Iphysicallybecame aware of it enough to gain some control over the process. Of course when I did, I was ecstatic - to the amazement of the Co-Habitant who had not realised the extent to which I never learned these things.
As for saddle height, it is an ongoing fiasco: It took over a year of gradually raising it until I was able to have it at more or less the height where it needs to be for good leg extension... But I still cannot mount a bicycle properly and have to do a graceless little lean-and-hoist maneuver to get myself onto that raised saddle. Terrified of falling, I am highly resistant to being taught, and watching videos of others doing it over and over has not helped. At least I am now finally able to pedal while standing: After months of riding fixed gear, I finally got it (at first I could do it only on the fixed gear, then the skill gradually transferred onto freewheel bikes). I have to say, that was not easy for me to "get". In my head I understood what to do, but my body refused to balance.It seems absurd to me that I can ride a roadbike at 25 mph, handle long climbs and hilly descents, ride a fixed gear racing bike "for fun" - yet still lack some of the most rudimentary cycling skills after almost two years of trying to master them.Will I ever be able to handle a bike like a "real" cyclist?Who knows - maybe I can still learn. Or maybe I should just accept that my early years of "doing it wrong" ruined me for life.Is the way you cycle now different from how you did it as a child? And if you are a parent, at what age did you teach your children to ride a bike and how did they take to it?I wonder how many others there are who feel this way - as if they are riding a bike without knowing how.
And in the random, things that make me go hmmmmm category: First, there are these things in some of the yards. I think they are beehives. I want to find out for sure. This one is in front of the school here.
I'd go in and ask them what it really means except clearly I am PMSing and my temporary insanity would disqualify me as an intelligent person with whom to hold a conversation. And I'm afraid if I did, next week I'll drive by and it will say "TOO DEVOTED TO BE BLOATED". I don't even want to see the angry mob of chocolate cake eating women that would show up to protest that sign. Well, I kind of do want to see that angry mob, because I'll be right in the middle of it!
To brighten up your Fall, I am giving away these fantastic, colourful Dutch dress guards, which I reviewed here earlier.
To receive the dress guards, please ask your bicycle - yes, your bicycle - to post a comment here explaining why he or she would like them. A link to pictures of the bicycle is a plus (but please no nudity). My Dutch bike,Linda, will then decide which she likes best and will announce the recipient on Friday.
Comments by humans will be disregarded; bicycles only please. Multiple bicycles belonging to the same owner are eligible.Have fun, and thank you for reading Lovely Bicycle!
First things first. Attention everyone. There was a wicked layer of surface hoar that didn't get any sun action today before the clouds started rolling in. It's going to get buried. There are all sorts of facets in the snow in the top 20 cm. What's worrisome is that the surface hoar is growing on a layer of sun crust. Underneath the sun crust is another layer of facets. Check out the snowpit profile.
So the rest of the trip to Muir was outstanding. Skiing was 7 out of 10, for the windswept snowfield, anyway. The new snow that is forecast should make the skiing even better.
This is it. Finally our snowpack at Paradise is back to normal at 78 inches. The rain from the last warm spell has stopped and we have up to 18 inches of new snow that has consolidated and another 5 inches of pretty light snow on top of it.
