Bike riding......? for all.

Dman

Petty Officer 1st Class
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Mar 6, 2002
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Since it just snowed over a foot and boating season is a good 2+ months away, I need to pass some time.<br />I got into a debate with the girlfriend about this. <br /><br />Take a child, 5-6 years old or so. Put that child on a pedal bike.<br /><br />Take an adult, 45 years old, Put the adult on a bike also.<br /><br />Neither the child or adult have EVER ridden a bike in their lives. Who will learn faster?<br /><br />Dman
 

one more cast

Captain
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May 6, 2002
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Re: Bike riding......? for all.

good qustion, I would have said the adult UNTIL I tried to ride the bike with the backwords steering at the NY state fair a couple of years ago. I tried it about 5 times and couldn't make it 3 feet.
 

neumanns

Lieutenant Commander
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Re: Bike riding......? for all.

The adult...Give me one good spill and I would know enoufgh to quit. That child would just keep trying. Seems I learned my lesson first.<br /><br />Backwards steering????Thats to much to think about at one time. :confused:
 

JasonJ

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Aug 20, 2001
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Re: Bike riding......? for all.

You would think that the child would learn faster, but in this case an adult can understand the dynamics of balance, a child does not understand. The child learns through repetetive attempts, whereas an adult will pick it up with a very short time because they can understand the dynamics of balance.
 

Dman

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Re: Bike riding......? for all.

Here's a couple things I have a been told.<br />The child will learn faster because children have a much faster learning curve than adults. <br />Or...the adult because of a better sense of balance than the child.<br />I have no clue. Hope someone can figure this out.<br /><br />I came up with the question after watching an episode of Fraiser, in which Niles and Fraiser could not ride a bike and tried to learn.<br />Dman
 

roscoe

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Oct 30, 2002
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Re: Bike riding......? for all.

Give a 45 year old and a 13 year old, both able to ride a bike, bike and tell them to pedal down the road 2 miles and get an ambulance, while you lay there at the roadside with a broken leg. Which one will go get the ambulance, and which one will stand there looking down the road? :p
 

JasonJ

Rear Admiral
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Aug 20, 2001
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Re: Bike riding......? for all.

The other problem you have to contend with is learning to use the controls, learning to stop, learning where to ride, learning to look for hazards such as traffic. Even if we are just teching them to ride across a parking lot, the adult will learn faster hands down. I am not sure that Frasier episode is a good indicator of actual adults learning to ride bikes, but it was pretty funny.<br /><br />I taught my daughter to ride, and it was a long grueling process, trying to teach how to stop, balance, and all that. Kids learn through wiring and rewireing their brains without a conscious knowledge of doing it. An adult will look at the bike and say "I need to keep balance, lean in turns, etc". I am an avid cyclist, and I have had some fun trying to teach adults how to ride the more complicated multi speed bikes (they only have riden single speed bikes), and it can be a bear sometimes, but they still figure it out faster than trying to teach a child to use proper gearing and all that. Granted, a child has a single speed bike with pedal brake, but a lot of adults have never riden a modern multi-speed bike. Then there is teaching an adult how to use and set up a full suspension mountain bike. Oh lord that is fun....
 
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
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Re: Bike riding......? for all.

put a kid that never rode a bike on that backwards bike and he will figure it out. an adult that never rode before will need that ambulance and lots of time to heal
 
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