Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#31

Post by Aaargh20318 » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:29 AM UTC

trustfundbaby wrote: post #29

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #25

“Most of us learn how to ride a bike during childhood. But as we grow older, many of us stop riding and put those once-beloved bikes in storage.” As a Dutch person, this is so weird to read. How can you get by in day-to-day life without a bike ? Mine broke the other day, nothing big just a snapped cable, but I was without a bike for all of 2 days and it felt like being handicapped.

> How can you get by in day-to-day life without a bike ? By living in most cities in the USA? :D

I’ve only been to the US once (San Francisco) and US cities are strange to me. Especially the fact that there is no real city centre, just blocks of buildings with wide streets between them.

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#32

Post by setr » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:32 AM UTC

Fricken wrote: post #5

I was once an avid rock climber, but stopped for many years. One night on a surf trip in Indonesia I had someone hold my beer while I climbed a palm tree, which was only about 15 feet high, but that's still high enough that you don't want to fall. I got to the top of the trunk and reached up to grab one of the branches, and it was like, 'oh man, I'm so out of condition, I can barely grip this'. But then, accidentally…

>It's counterintuitive, if anything you should be getting weaker as you wear yourself out, but, after a decade of not climbing much at all, my finger muscles were remembering how to fire the way they needed to to stick that particular hold, and they got stronger.

I think it’d be less surprising if you thought about it as remembering more efficient positioning, than getting stronger; which ofc is what I imagine is happening. I suppose thats unlikely to beat out the wear of the day, if you actually end up feeling stronger than when you started

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#33

Post by Fricken » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:33 AM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #20

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came to love climbing as a sport partially because of what you're describing. You could be able to deadlift 450lb, do 10 pull ups with 100lb hanging off of your body, what have you, and still be an awful climber (like I was) despite having so much grip and upper and lower body strength. It's all about technique, and it takes years to nail it down. That feeling of progression is a lot of fun and it isn't linear at a…

Technique is super important. Female climbers obviously don't have the same kind of strength as men, which is why they climb differently. That doesn't mean that they're (much) worse than their male competitors.

In terms of strength to weight ratio, top women are pretty damn good, in sport they're only a couple letter grades behind the top men, and there are only 3 men in history who have outclimbed the best female climber, and only Adam Ondra, who is truly a genius of gymnastic climbing has sent 5.15D. At that level their technique is pretty close to being maxed out. They spend months, sometimes years training specifically to send those climbs. I wonder how much the disparity between top men and women climbers is accounted for by the size of their respective talent pools. There's just so many more men out there dedicated to climbing hard than women.

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#34

Post by kurthr » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:37 AM UTC

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #31

trustfundbaby wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can you get by in day-to-day life without a bike ? By living in most cities in the USA? :D

I’ve only been to the US once (San Francisco) and US cities are strange to me. Especially the fact that there is no real city centre, just blocks of buildings with wide streets between them.

The city isn't flat either... it has many hills in the middle that are 10-12% grade and a few at around 30%.

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#35

Post by pmontra » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:40 AM UTC

VanillaCafe wrote: post #9

> Years later, when we discover these relics and hop on, it’s as if we never stopped biking. I'd like to challenge this. Barring scientific evidence to this fact, it is at best an anecdotal evidence, and so I will submit my own anecdote: I didn't ride a bike for about 10 years. When I started riding again, I definitely felt unsteady for the first few days or weeks compared to my previous riding ability. I was unstead…

Anecdotally I didn't ride a bicycle from 11 to 19 (didn't buy a new one when I outgrew the old one) and I had the same shaky experience you had. Recently I bought a gravel bike, coming from road and city bikes. The first few days on the new bike were not shaky but a little unsteady. The comment of another reply about the importance of the frame geometry looks spot on.

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#36

Post by afroboy » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:43 AM UTC

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #25

“Most of us learn how to ride a bike during childhood. But as we grow older, many of us stop riding and put those once-beloved bikes in storage.” As a Dutch person, this is so weird to read. How can you get by in day-to-day life without a bike ? Mine broke the other day, nothing big just a snapped cable, but I was without a bike for all of 2 days and it felt like being handicapped.

Where i live there is no why you find flat ground, if you drove a bike you spend most of your time up and go which is very exhausting and don't forget not everyone has special roads for bikes.

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#37

Post by Fricken » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:47 AM UTC

cube2222 wrote: post #21

Fricken wrote: post #5

I was once an avid rock climber, but stopped for many years. One night on a surf trip in Indonesia I had someone hold my beer while I climbed a palm tree, which was only about 15 feet high, but that's still high enough that you don't want to fall. I got to the top of the trunk and reached up to grab one of the branches, and it was like, 'oh man, I'm so out of condition, I can barely grip this'. But then, accidentally…

I can relate to the "getting easier when nearing the end" feeling. I play cello and whenever I don't play for a week or more and I just sit down to play, my hands lack a lot of dexterity and are imprecise. Most people just play for half an hour to get it all back. However, what I noticed is that if I play for a minute- or two, make an hour break and come back to play again, my hands are fully ready to play, as though…

Actually, in trying to describe the phenomenon to a friend I drew the analogy of a musician who hasn't picked up a guitar in a while trying to remember how to hit a particular chord. They kind of fumble around for a bit, and all of the sudden their fingers just fall into place and they got it.

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#38

Post by j7ake » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:50 AM UTC

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #25

“Most of us learn how to ride a bike during childhood. But as we grow older, many of us stop riding and put those once-beloved bikes in storage.” As a Dutch person, this is so weird to read. How can you get by in day-to-day life without a bike ? Mine broke the other day, nothing big just a snapped cable, but I was without a bike for all of 2 days and it felt like being handicapped.

How flat is Netherlands compared to other countries?

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#39

Post by baddox » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:52 AM UTC

KineticLensman wrote: post #27

baddox wrote: post #6

Does anyone find anything odd or unique about the fact that we don’t forget how to ride a bike? I can’t think of any similar activity that people do forget.

Skiing is something else where, for me at least, the 'don't forget' effect applies. I used to ski in a one to two week block every year, for about 20 years (i.e. 2 weeks on then 50 weeks off). Once I reached a certain level (being able to do parallel turns) I never really forgot how to do them, although the first few runs of a new season would be a bit tentative. Something that continued to improve year on year was m…

I’ve never skied, but it seems very similar to riding a bike in that you need to make constant adjustments to maintain balance and avoid obstacles without thinking consciously about every adjustment.

Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?

#40

Post by baddox » Sun, Dec 02, 2018, 9:54 AM UTC

uki33 wrote: post #24

baddox wrote: post #6

Does anyone find anything odd or unique about the fact that we don’t forget how to ride a bike? I can’t think of any similar activity that people do forget.

Calligraphy, handwriting, drawing, painting etc etc you loose it if you don't work on it regularly. Same goes for programming. Take a year or two off and see what your remember about algorithms and protocols.

For advanced techniques, I agree, but the same probably applies to advanced bicycling techniques. Basic handwriting is probably not something you would forget, just like basic bicycling.