The other week I was riding downhill in Grizedale (Devil's Gallop), and I suddenly thought to myself "Why am I not falling off? Who's doing this ?". Meanwhile my arms were pulling on the bars, my weight shifting etc, unconcerned by such speculation. Then a few days later I watched a programme about the brain on BBC2, where a woman had "alien hand syndrome" where, after having the 2 halves of her brain disconnected to cure her epilepsy, her left hand (operated by the right side of the brain) kept hitting her in the face, or undoing her buttons while the left side of her brain (which does the talking) was unawares. It occurred to me that it could be the right side of my brain that knows how to ride a bike, while the logical, "thinky" left side looks on, having surrendered control.
This might explain why, when people tell me how to do some maneouvre "get your pedals so-and-so, lean there, pull up on the bars etc etc" I have no idea of how I might (a) remember all that (b) be able to do it!
