Loving this comment from Ed Pratt: Also, this video is making me unreasonably happy. Inspiring really is the word. I'm feeling the same joy in seeing this as what I see when bringing people...
Excellent work Tom, inspiring! Let me know if you’d like to take off that training wheel and give unicycling a go…
Also, this video is making me unreasonably happy. Inspiring really is the word. I'm feeling the same joy in seeing this as what I see when bringing people skating for the first time and seeing them learn how to stabilise and go forward on ice skates...
My wife, who is a certified cycling instructor who teaches adults to ride bikes, had many, many scathing things to say about how Mike Boyd went about teaching Tom to ride a bike. Among them: Grass...
My wife, who is a certified cycling instructor who teaches adults to ride bikes, had many, many scathing things to say about how Mike Boyd went about teaching Tom to ride a bike. Among them:
Grass (especially wet grass) is a terrible surface to learn to cycle on, as it's very slippery. Pavement is much more stable, and makes new riders less likely to hurt themselves.
Pushing someone from behind to get them moving is solving the wrong problem. Pedaling (and forward movement) is basically never the part people have problems with, it's balance. And we did see Tom regularly unbalanced while being pushed, because Mike couldn't give truly even forward pressure.
I enjoyed the video, but the professional opinion is a strong thumbs down for educational techniques.
When I tried teaching my aunt the only way she felt confident enough to even sit on the bicycle was over sand/vegetation. She was certain that she would fall and injure herself otherwise. I...
When I tried teaching my aunt the only way she felt confident enough to even sit on the bicycle was over sand/vegetation. She was certain that she would fall and injure herself otherwise. I suppose that, when you're approaching 65+, it kinda makes sense to be extra careful since injuries are way more dangerous and harder to deal with.
I remember when I was a kid there was a playground in our neighborhood I'd bike to that had this hard foam stuff on the ground. It was firm enough to rollerblade or bike on without issue, but soft...
I remember when I was a kid there was a playground in our neighborhood I'd bike to that had this hard foam stuff on the ground. It was firm enough to rollerblade or bike on without issue, but soft enough that if you fell it didn't hurt (I should've been wearing pads, but it was the 90s!). I used to go there to practice rollerblading (it was the 90s!) because the fear of getting cut up on concrete or asphalt was so great in me.
Yeah, sand is literally the worst surface for cycling. There's a reason that beach cruisers often look like this. You need special equipment to make it relatively easy. A lot of the early process...
Yeah, sand is literally the worst surface for cycling. There's a reason that beach cruisers often look like this. You need special equipment to make it relatively easy. A lot of the early process is like Mike showed: using it like a scoot bike to get used to balancing while the seat is low enough you can just stand up if you need. The likelihood of falling is miniscule. That said, people's fears aren't rational, so there's only so much you can do if someone has strong feelings about not riding on pavement.
Loving this comment from Ed Pratt:
Also, this video is making me unreasonably happy. Inspiring really is the word. I'm feeling the same joy in seeing this as what I see when bringing people skating for the first time and seeing them learn how to stabilise and go forward on ice skates...
Funnily enough, Veritasium just posted a video that is almost the exact opposite of this one!
We Built An Unrideable Bike To Show How Bikes Work
My wife, who is a certified cycling instructor who teaches adults to ride bikes, had many, many scathing things to say about how Mike Boyd went about teaching Tom to ride a bike. Among them:
I enjoyed the video, but the professional opinion is a strong thumbs down for educational techniques.
When I tried teaching my aunt the only way she felt confident enough to even sit on the bicycle was over sand/vegetation. She was certain that she would fall and injure herself otherwise. I suppose that, when you're approaching 65+, it kinda makes sense to be extra careful since injuries are way more dangerous and harder to deal with.
We were not successful.
I remember when I was a kid there was a playground in our neighborhood I'd bike to that had this hard foam stuff on the ground. It was firm enough to rollerblade or bike on without issue, but soft enough that if you fell it didn't hurt (I should've been wearing pads, but it was the 90s!). I used to go there to practice rollerblading (it was the 90s!) because the fear of getting cut up on concrete or asphalt was so great in me.
Yeah, sand is literally the worst surface for cycling. There's a reason that beach cruisers often look like this. You need special equipment to make it relatively easy. A lot of the early process is like Mike showed: using it like a scoot bike to get used to balancing while the seat is low enough you can just stand up if you need. The likelihood of falling is miniscule. That said, people's fears aren't rational, so there's only so much you can do if someone has strong feelings about not riding on pavement.