When I taught my daughter to ride her bike I didn’t know how to ride one myself. She was 3 when I taught her and I was 28. She was 14 and I was 40 when she taught me.
On my first lesson I had managed to balance for 2 minutes, rode into some bushes when I tried to stop I hit the front brakes flew over the handlebars and because I didn’t let go of the bike it landed on me. My daughter was distraught thinking I had seriously injured myself. Seeing your mum lying bleeding is traumatic for anyone, more so when you realise your mother is a serious liability on a bike. I had to demonstrate that I could really practice what I preach and get straight back on that two wheeled nemesis of mine, just as I had taught her to do.
My daughter was a patient teacher and I was an impatient pupil. She got busy with her GCSE’s so I had to find another teacher, my friend Steve stepped in. We go from patient to pushy and I was encouraged to venture out of the park and onto the roads… I rode directly into traffic many times, and decided the pavement was safer for me, only to terrorise the pedestrians and finally decided the canal towpath was my friend.
It took 1 year of accident and effort but this newby has cycled from Keighley to Bradford, Keighley to Saltaire on many an occasion and even wrestled with and been felled by the Five Rise Locks. I love my bike, now I need to conquer signalling without falling sideways and the roads, watch out drivers here I come!
Newby