Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 41 total)
  • Do you know any adults that never learnt to ride a bike?
  • Poopscoop
    Full Member

    The other thread with the Dad helping his littlun’ to learn to ride got me thinking.

    I know plenty of adults that can’t swim (a similar-ish coming of age skill) for instance but I’ve kind of always assumed that ALL adults can ride a bike.

    I don’t mean people that say they learnt years ago but couldnt ride now as I think it is true that once learnt you basically never forget. Get rusty,wobble. Yes. Forget entirely, no.

    More to the point though, do you know anyone that never learnt?? Ever? I genuinely can’t think of anyone that has ever said to me that they never learnt to ride.

    You?

    PMK2060
    Full Member

    I was 30 years old when i learnt to ride a bike. I decided to learn as my first child was 2 years at the tine and i wanted to be able to teach him and then ride with him.

    I was cycle commuting within a couple of weeks of learning.

    I dont know anyone else though tbh.

    iolo
    Free Member

    I do a 25km bike wine tour along the river Danube through a beautiful valley.
    I get at least 5 people a week booking it who have no idea what a bike ride is.

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    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    My dad – now 80 and no longer cares

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    But there are quite a lot – a friend of mine does cycle training and has taught quite a few adults from scratch.

    taxi25
    Free Member

    My mother, where she lived as a child was very hilly and my grandfather didn’t think it was safe for her. For some reason this didn’t apply to my uncle 🤔

    ndthornton
    Free Member

    Probably rate in this country…however a Romanian girl I used to work with never learned to ride or swim….and was surprised that I found it unusual.

    SaxonRider
    Full Member

    A good friend of mine at work. He’s brilliant, but lives with this weird dichotomy that people with brains don’t do physical activity beyond walking.

    thelawman
    Full Member

    My stepmother. But then she’s Philippino, so it may just not be in the culture there. Did that stop her persuading/allowing my dad to buy her a bike a few years back, which has been in the garage ever since, completely unridden? Obviously it didn’t. Sadly at the time he was in the early stages of dementia, and probably not thinking terribly straight to begin with 🙁

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    My Mother, she thought bike riding meant you couldn’t afford any other method of transport and to some degree still thinks just that. She learned to ride a motorbike at 14 though, then bought a BSA something-or-other…

    I once rode from my place (south coast) to norf norfolk, I arrived and she said “why didn’t you drive?”

    SHe’s like that.

    reeksy
    Full Member

    Related but not quite on thread. The President of my local MTB club has just started teaching his 90+ year old stepfather how to MTB.
    They worked out he hadn’t ridden a non-motorised bike in 74 years.
    He’s planning to hit the trails soon 😯

    feed
    Full Member

    Yup, “girl” in work age 25, didn’t know how to ride a bike and also had never owned a passport (never been out of the country) ! 10 years on she’s got a passport.

    RobinL
    Full Member

    I never had a two wheeled bike as a kid, could wobble around on others bikes but wouldn’t class it as riding.
    When I was in my mid 30’s my wife bought me a cheap mountain bike so I had to learn. For a while I used to take it to a playing field and ride round till I got the balance. Then slowly progressed from there.
    Given the expenditure over the years ( 25+ ) I often wonder if my wife regrets buying me it !
    I don’t profess to be a good rider now having never learnt young but it doesn’t stop me enjoying riding and I fully understand I will never be a STW trail god !

    bedmaker
    Full Member

    My mother in law never learned.
    She got cancer and died. The two may or may not be linked.

    tthew
    Full Member

    My mother in law. Says that her parents were too skint to afford a bike when she was young. Never bothered since and unlikely to now.

    whitestone
    Free Member

    Probably both my parents. I don’t remember either of them ever mentioning owning or riding a bike. I know that around the time they were courting that my dad had a motorbike (Matchless 350) but never a hint of riding a pedal bike. There was a big stack of family photos and I can’t recall a single image of a bike. Maybe they didn’t, can’t ask as they are both long dead.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    There’s loads. You’re just not meeting them. Doing bike hire I’d often meet family groups where one or more couldn’t ride.

    funkrodent
    Full Member

    My missus. And her sister. She’s 42 and rode a bike for the first time a few weeks ago when we hired a tandem in Bristol. We had the three yr old on the back too and it took me a while to realise that I was effectively pedalling for three as she had no concept of pushing on the pedals!

    She’s now had a go on the turbo so technically she’s ridden a bike, but I think it will be a tandem for us going forward..

    nickc
    Full Member

    My partner. I think she can sort of ride..but last time she was actually on a bike was when she was  learning to ride a bike was when she was 17/18 (now in her early 40’s) and she fell off and broke her arm, which (along with learning to drive) kind of made it pointless (in her mind) to go back and spend any time on a bike. Even more bizarre from an MTB perspective; she’s from Vancouver, and while aware of the mountain biking and skiing up the road, can’t do the first activity and hates the second due to being forced to go on skiing holidays (I know, the poor thing) as a child.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    A little bit of a humblebrag I never ‘learned’ to ride a bike, the story goes in my family that’s my Dad found my mums old bike in the garage from when she was about 10. Spray painted it brown (this was about ‘82/‘82 but my Dad was very much a 70’s kind of guy) stuck a Mod’esq ‘ACE’ sticker on it and bought some stabilisers for me, but they didn’t fit. So he dropped the saddle as far as it would go, sat me on it and gave me a push and told me to pedal, apparently I rode off and didn’t return for an hour. It took me a while to learn/grow enough to start myself, but I could ride naturally.

    Which brings me to my sister, she’s 18 years younger than me and in the time the old DNA must have diluted because she simply cannot ride a bike, she can’t drive either despite years of lessons. She lived in Oxford for 3 years at Uni and was probably the only one there who don’t have a bike.

    Lionheart
    Free Member

    Yep, we know a few, two can’t ride bikes and gave up trying to learn to drive, so I feel there’s correlation there.

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    I don’t but I am well impressed but those in this thread who learnt in their 30s and it has become a big hobby for them. Super stoked!

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    I know someone who learnt to ride as a 5/6yr old or whenever kids learn normally, but never rode after that.

    On the one hand, each to their own, they probably have hobbies i wouldnt find fun. On the other, even if you’re not a ‘cyclist’, or dont commute by bike I cant imagine not having a bike in the shed just for those times when it really is the most usefull option to get somewhere. I’ve just always had ‘a bike’!

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Guy I know from East Kilbride, he actually posts on here, think his Name is Iain? 🙂

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Guy I know from East Kilbride, he actually posts on here, think his Name is Iain?

    A bit harsh.

    He can ride a bike, he just favours the abrupt dismount.

    philjunior
    Free Member

    I know an ex GF who still can’t ride a bike. And lives in London. How rubbish would that be, eh?

    somafunk
    Full Member

    Theres quite a few adults in my galloway town who can’t ride a bike and they are quite proud of the fact as only “poofs ride bikes” (something to do with the lycra i imagine), it’s a shame for them as type 2 diabetes/leg amputation, heart attacks, colon cancer could have been avoided but i imagine they are quite happy claiming self imposed disability and driving their mobility scooters to the pub everyday.

    holdsteady
    Full Member

    Two of my mates can’t ride bikes, one is 49, other is 52 – both brought up in inner-city council flats in London and Glasgow retrospectively,the London one can’t drive either but the Glaswegian is a taxi driver.

    My wife can barely ride a bike – seems incapable of anything other than riding slowly in a straightish line on flat ground – she feels obliged to stop dead on corners and even the smallest bump or kerb she believes merits a full dismount.

    cromolyolly
    Free Member

    Yep. Know one who can’t ride a bike or swim. His kid is currently learning both. He may now be forced to take up one or both.

    joemmo
    Free Member

    My bro in law is an outdoor pursuits leader and regularly encounters people who have signed up and paid to go mountain biking but can barely ride around the car park.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    My MiL has never learned. I’ve even offered to teach her. Not sure it’s relevant, but she was in boarding schools from a young age and grew up in Namibia, Borneo and Hong Kong amongst other places. I can’t imagine never having experienced the simple (and wonderful) pleasure of riding a bike.

    Caher
    Full Member

    Yes Americans. When I worked in Switzerland we had a day of sports and there were 5 of them who had no idea how to ride a bike. And most of my mates I grew up with haven’t ridden since they were children.

    Poopscoop
    Full Member

    Wow, quite an eye opener. Honestly thought pretty much everyone knew how to ride a bike.

    I have some great memories of riding my “racer” around as a kid…when they were deeply unfashionable. Went everywhere on it. Never had a new chain or anything fitted to it ever as far as I can remember! Always got me to where I wanted to go though. Off road “gravel”, road.

    Now i treat my bikes like prima ballerinas. Lol

    seosamh77
    Free Member

    somafunk

    Subscriber
    Theres quite a few adults in my galloway town who can’t ride a bike and they are quite proud of the fact as only “poofs ride bikes” (something to do with the lycra i imagine), it’s a shame for them as type 2 diabetes/leg amputation, heart attacks, colon cancer could have been avoided but i imagine they are quite happy claiming self imposed disability and driving their mobility scooters to the pub everyday.

    Do you not ever think of moving away from the Galloway Possil? 😆

    PJM1974
    Free Member

    My mate David. A top fella by any standard, he’s educated, with well connected family, a fierce intellectual and a devoted fan of sport. He learned to play cricket before he could talk, but he’s never ridden anything with fewer than three wheels.

    somafunk
    Full Member

    Seosamh77 : nah, Kirkcudbright is a decent wee place really, I have woods, hills and desolate countryside all within a few minutes of my house, there has been a few too many strange junkies being moved into the area causing problems over the previous 6 months but they seem to be getting sorted out (our own junkies are harmless/pretty decent folk), one tried to break into and steal from a local fishing boat in the harbour last week but was caught in the act by the skipper and his crew (if you’re gonna steal from a fishing boat learn the tides dumbass, and never pull a knife on a fisherman), he got bounced and beat around the deck for a good while then turfed into the harbour with a rope around his ankles, Pulled back on deck and told if his face is ever seen in town again he’ll be going to sea 🌊 for one last trip.

    stevemuzzy
    Free Member

    On the swim side, i never learned till I was 29. Just couldn’t do it and my legs sank.

    Still terrible but can knock out a few lengths.

    spaniardclimber
    Free Member

    Two of my work colleagues, both around 30, don’t know how to ride a bike. I am supposed to teach them 🙂

    hollyboni
    Free Member

    My mom. 🙂

    spooky_b329
    Full Member

    Brothers Girlfriend in her 30’s, we got her wobbling around a campsite but I don’t think she will ever ride regularly.

    On the other hand my Dad wouldn’t take my stabilizers off, I had to borrow a bike off a neighbour’s drive and ride around the street, when I managed to stay on he relented!

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