Teach Anyone To Ride

6 tips to get people rolling

April 30, 2010

1. Find the root of anxiety, and eradicate it. If students are afraid of speed, help them master light braking; if they're afraid of falling, first spend time on careful stopping. "People are usually fine with getting on and going," Chin says. "It's getting off that's their main concern." Chin starts by having students repeatedly practice dismounting, being sure to step to the side, away from the pedal. Once they get rolling, to prevent unintended rolling dismounts, Chin's mantra becomes, "Stop first, then get off."




2. Don't let them look down. A beginner's first bad habit is staring at the feet, the pedals, the ground beneath or the front wheel to see what's happening, instead of focusing ahead. Chin takes students through a choreographed set of movements: Swing a leg over the bike, put a foot on the pedal in the two o'clock "ready" position, make sure the hands are on the brake levers and the chin is up, then dismount. After two times through the sequence, Chin gives students a choice: Do it with your eyes closed or while looking straight ahead.




3. Help them focus on keeping their elbows loose. "If someone falls after the first 5 feet of pedaling, usually it's because their hands and forearms are locked up," says Chin. The nervous death grip causes gross oversteering, and can also lead to panicked stops (and falls) instead of graceful slowing down. "The light squeeze is the answer," he says about all things braking.




4. Let them know wobbling is good. Chin says shaky lines are a sign that the pupil is figuring out the bike's center of gravity. To keep the wobbles in check, teach them this: If you wobble to the right, give a light squeeze of the brakes, and steer left just a little bit. If you wobble left, brake, then steer right.




5. Teach them that power is in the rear. To get riders rolling smoothly, Chin tells them, "The bike follows where your butt goes." When riders begin to experiment with moving the bike with their hips, they master balance. And from balance flows all. "Once you get the balance down," Chin says, "it's a lot easier to teach the other things."




6. Repetition is key. "I'm like the teacher who makes a student write a sentence on the board 500 times," says Chin. For those first pedal strokes, Chin chants, "Forward, down, back. Forward, down, back." Students make dozens of attempts per session to pedal 5 feet, then 10, then 20, and eventually five blocks without stopping. Anyone can learn to ride a bike if he or she puts the time in, says Chin, which is why he chooses to teach only adults. "Kids are agile and less fearsome, but adults usually have more patience."



Tags: Beginners