There, I said it.
Once said, it raises eyebrows and drops jaws.
“What do you mean, you can’t ride a bicycle?” they all say in disbelief. “Everyone can ride a bicycle.”
Well, I can’t.
Never owned a bicycle while growing up and never needed to learn how to ride either. But I always wished I had learned.
My 12- year old daughter, who can fall down while walking in a straight line, is a bicycle whiz. She has never fallen off her bike and rides like the wind. I’m so proud of her. She even offered to teach me.
Part of my fear is that I’m in my mid-40’s and I don’t want to break any body parts at this age! Also, I’m kinda tall. Falling off a bike is going a really long way down…from my view…
And how do you stay atop those two wheels anyway?
This is on my bucket list, though. There is a great off-road bike path near where I live that’s about 10 miles long. It’s busy every weekend with riders of all levels and this is an activity my whole family could do together.
I really want to learn so I bought a bicycle a couple years ago and my husband tried to teach me. He’s a wonderful cyclist too, having ridden all his life. I can proudly say I never fell off, but the idea of having to always be pedaling is just totally foreign to me. And very tiring. Can’t even stop to rest without falling off? What?
I haven’t totally given up, but I couldn’t call myself a rider, either. For the moment, I’ve put this on the back-burner.
Too much work. Nothing like driving a car. Or running.
Categories: DP Challenge
Late~Night Ruminations 
I haven’t ridden a bicycle in many, many years. As you mentioned, the fear of broken body parts is foremost in my thoughts. A few years back, I tried rollerskating for the first time in many, many years. Something that was once so easy for me resulting in a bruised derriere and very sore leg muscles.
My 16-year-old daughter cannot ride a bicycle, though she owned 3 of them when she was younger. The first had training wheels and she did okay, but her fear of falling prevented her from attempting the ride without them.
I was thinking about that the other day and wondering if we went to the beach where I could rent a tandem bike… Perhaps if she could avoid leaning too far to one side or the other, it is something we could manage together.
Thank you for your confession. I’m not laughing. I enjoyed your post.
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Thanks for reading my post! My daughter also had at least three by the time she learned to ride. As she outgrew the last one I told my husband we weren’t buying a bigger one until she learned to ride without the training wheels. In think the one thing that works in her favor is that she likes to go fast, so while I was terrified of her learning to ride (and falling), she took to it rather well.
When I went to buy my bike the guys at the store offered to teach me to ride. All they sell are bicycles and accessories. Apparently they do lessons there. You could check with a bike shop to see if they have such services, if there is such a place near to where you live. I wish you all the best…and thanks for stopping by!
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I can ride a bike, but I don’t enjoy it. I thought I would, so I bought a bike a few years ago, and rode it around some. But I was wrong. It wasn’t very much fun. It was stressful.
I prefer walking or running.
When my son was little, I used to run beside him when he rode his bike. I love that feeling. I love walking.
PS–i don’t think there’s anything wrong with or weird about not riding a bike. Do you REALLY want to ride a bike?
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To be honest, I really don’t want to ride! 🙂 It’s just one of those things I always wanted to do. Now that I’ve done it, I don’t get that happy and free feeling everyone else speaks of. I just sit there terrified of falling and of people seeing me fall! I also love walking and running. Actually, I’ve jogged 4 miles on the bike path (and walked as well), and found it much more satisfying and relaxing. But it’s good that I can check that off my list 🙂
Thanks for reading my post!
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If you don’t want to ride, don’t worry! There are so many other ways to get around! I had not ridden since a child, had lots of fears, then somehow with a down hill driveway and a turn, made it just fine! Thanks always for reading and pushing “like” on my posts! You have a good way of starting a conversation!
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I keep thinking that maybe if I had learned to ride when I was a child, I’d love it more. But an increasing amount of people have told me that they did that and still don’t like it now. I’d rather be running or walking though. Thanks for the compliment and thanks for reading 🙂
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I guess at this point on your life, riding isn’t such a big deal. But love riding. I use to love running until I became all I could be in an Army of one, now all I think about when I run is the pain that comes along with it. So, these days I mainly walk, but I would like to start riding again. Problem is, I live on a military installation and they require helmets, which doesn’t fit well on my, nor my girls heads because of our hair. So, because of this, riding has become a bit of a task.
Now, you said you have to continue pedaling to move, but that’s not the case. After you have a good momentum going, you can take short breaks. When you run, there’s no break to be had. If you don’t move your feet you don’t go anywhere. How could that possibly be better than riding? 😳 lol
I guess that’s what makes us different. I feel less stressed and at peace, while walking and riding, but not so much while running anymore.
I still think you should hang in there with the riding, but if you don’t, I also understand that.
Good luck with it all. ☺️
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Thanks for commenting on my post. I’m sure you can find suitable bike helmets. My kids have helmets. What I had to do with my daughter was to remove all hair accessories before putting on the helmet but she’s always had one.
As for my riding, my heart is just not in it.
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