The Final (Bike Riding) Frontier
May 5, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Having taught Charlie to pedal, “squeeze brakes!”, recognize a stop sign, bike up hill, walk the bike, and go “left” and also “right,” Jim leaned over and turned Charlie’s gear shift to 4.
When Charlie started to ride his new bike, he was (Jim realized) sometimes playing with the gears, moving the little handle around the dial: No wonder Charlie was not so sure at first about riding the new bike. Learning to use the gears is—as Jim proclaimed when he and Charlie came home after bike ride #2—the “final frontier.” Who knows what hills and mountains await?
Does this machine use de-railers? (I don’t like the Francification of a perfectly good made-up English word!)
M’self, I’ve been able to avoid them on every bike I’ve ever had, finding the Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub perfectly adequate for me, even on the sometimes-steep hills in Atlanta.
In Florida, where I live now, I think having more than one gear ratio on one’s bike is an affectation, except maybe in case of headwinds.
P.s. Glad to see a post on which I can make a technical comment; the politico-social stuff can get depressing if one has even the slightest touch of the “A”
Know what you mean (re your P.s.)!
This machine has 7 gears—we weren’t really considering this when we bought it for Charlie. Jim’s working on 7 and 4; Charlie seems to favor 7, and doing some hard pedaling.
awesome. What an inspiration.
I have confidence that Charlie will master the gears in time. Interesting that he likes 7th and the hard pedaling. Wonder if it’s a proprioceptive thing?
I am so impressed that Charlie can ride at all that I was just telling my husband about it at lunch today. We’re jealous since TH can’t even keep the bike in balance with training wheels on.
If it had been up to me, Charlie would have had his training wheels on for a loooong time——Jim decided to take them off one day. That was when Charlie was turning 7 and away they went…..
I think having the bike in 7th gear may be proprioceptive—Charlie maybe liking the feeling of control from pushing “hard” and “deep”—-if the bike were on 1, a scary thought!
First gear; Charlie wheelies!
(The boy has lotsa torque!)
I’m not ready to see those!
Hmm, must find way to communicate with Charlie’s Dad, shorting-out Charlie’s scaredy-cat Mom….
Very nice.
Give Charlie a kiss for his achievement, and Jim one too while you’re at it. He’s doing an excellent job as a cycling instructor. Has he ever thought about writing up the process? I’m sure lots of people would be interested.
Eleanor’s working on gears too, but I don’t know if it’s going as well (which gives away that hubby is the one teaching her).
I have been bothering Jim to write something up for quite a while—he has a deadline to submit a manuscript in the next few weeks and then I am going to bother him some more. If it had been left to me, Charlie would still be riding in circles around parking lots….. Good luck to Eleanor with the gears!