How did you learn to ride a bike?

Just like in the first two posts. I saved forever for the $39 to buy that Canadian Tire bike. At my uncle’s farm, I took it up the gravel hill to the barn so I could coast down and be safe. Hit a big stone, fell off and hit my neck into the handlebar. I never felt the same towards the bike after that. Finally learned to ride it on my own, but never really loved it.
 

I learned like many others here. Went from a tricycle to a bicycle--no training wheels. Just a push from Dad up to good speed and then a shove.

On a related note, my father took my tricycle, turned the handlebar and fork upside down, and unwittingly created what is now known as a BigWheel. Soon thereafter, he did the same for every kid in our neighborhood.
 
I do not quite remember my age, but my two cousins sent a couple weeks teaching me. They would get me on my bike, and then run on either side of me holding on to the handlebars and back fender. One day, they just let go..without telling me. I rode about a half block before I realized I was on my own. Immediately went into panic mode and fell off. They got me back on, and by the end of the afternoon I was on my own
 

I was about 10 or so. I remember someone helping me and a skinned knee lol lol I did learn and after that I was off on my bike all the time.
 
I was not allowed a bike because of my poor vision, and I was pretty hyper. Any way, I was in 3rd or 4th grade and borrowed a friend's bike. I got on it, rode it home for lunch and rode it back to school. I guess I didn't know it was hard to learn to ride a bike.
 
I went from a tricycle to a 20” wheel bike to a 26” single speed bike, learning to ride with the training wheel thing. I bought a three speed bike with my kid savings when I was about 12, and rode everywhere on it until reaching driving age. I still have that old Rudge bike…🚴
 
I have no memory of learning to ride a bike, although I did learn. I do remember our father bullying my sister as he "taught" her to ride a bike. One of the neighbor ladies even said something to him about what he was doing. She never did learn.

Years later ... I know that my daughter was not quite 3, because other things were going on at the time. I bought her a bicycle with training wheels. She insisted that I take off the training wheels. Finally I said, "Okay, but I'm not putting them on again."

I went in the house and did mom things. From time to time I'd look out the window and see her falling off the bike and getting back on again. I remember the determined look on her face. Within half an hour she was riding the bike.
 
Murrmurr said:
I'm looking but I'm not finding. Meanwhile, here he is with a different bike he built...

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Nice ride!

I believe I was in grade 2 when I got my first bike. It was second hand and a bit too big for me. My dad pushed me a bit down the road and then let go and I was riding. I never did the training wheels thing.

I’ve loved riding a bicycle ever since that day and still have a couple of them.

Oddly enough I had clip on roller skates I learned to use well before getting a bike.
 
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How did you learn to ride a bike?​

Learned on my sister's bike
It was a gurls bike, so I could stand while straddling
Still, had to push off on gramma's porch step
Right pedal up...push off
Couldn't stop without falling over
So, wherever I fell off, I'd go back to gramma's step
I was about four or five
Grew an inch or so, and found out I no longer needed gramma's step

I got a Schwinn for my 10th birthday
Me and my buddy rode around Sauvie Island
about a 50 mi trip
Took all day
 
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Gary O' said:

How did you learn to ride a bike?​

Learned on my sister's bike
It was a gurls bike, so I could stand while straddling
Still, had to push off on gramma's porch step
Right pedal up...push off
Couldn't stop without falling over
So, wherever I fell off, I'd go back to gramma's step
I was about four of five
Grew an inch or so, and found out I no longer needed gramma's step

I got a Schwinn for my 10th birthday
Me and my buddy rode around Sauvie Island
about a 50 mi trip
Took all day
Click to expand...
I once asked my older brother (who knew everything) why boy's bike frames had that upper bar, and he said "Population control."

I had no clue what he meant, I just accepted it.
 
I got a smaller bike at age about 8 or 9 or so with no training wheels. I think my sister steadied it for the first few seconds and I rode in a circle, falling down every little while. Then got the hang of it. The rest is history I guess, Clorox bottle noise makers on the spokes, incredible leaps off old board ramps, and brake skids on gravel that would amaze you!
 
I never learned how to ride a bike. I was raised in a City and the boys would always ride the bike carrying the girls they liked. We would go to a hill called suicide hill. The girls would wait at the bottom of the hill and the boys would race down and the first one down and get to kiss his girl. Every girl rooted for her boy to win and she would kiss him. Oh they were the good old days.
 
Didn't have a bike until I was 9. It was a JC Higgins (aka Sears) flightliner, complete with headlight. :) Nobody taught me as it was expected that I'd learn, and I did. It wasn't all that hard because I already had a good sense of balance due to the 2x6 board with the roller skate wheels and milk crate top that I had been using. I did fall a few times, but finally mastered it. A bigger problem came about 6 months after getting it. One pedal came loose and buggered the threads. Me, not knowing about reversed threads tried to put a normal bolt in it and totally wiped out the threads. From that day on, I rode a one pedal bike and wore holes in more than one pair of shoes.By the time I was 15, I moved up to motorcycles and never looked back.

JC higgins flightliner.jpg
 
Watching my older sister learn, her & friend would run along holding the other upright. Decided to do nothing like her, the pavement looked rough, before helmets. I was 5 she was 8.
 
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