My wife knew how to ride a bike as a child, and now does not know how, and BOY does it get her angry if someone says you never forget.
Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
91–100 of 139 posts
Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
My grand father who passed away this spring, at the ripe young age of 103, left his finely crafted 1920s era piano to me. We often talked about how both of us wanted to learn but never got around to it, and now to honor his memory I’ve started taking some lessons.
I haven’t played very long, just a couple of weeks, but even I can relate to this feeling. I try practicing a little every day and I mostly fumble around for the first 5-10 minutes before hitting my stride, and the song I just a few minutes earlier brutally murdered now actually sounds.. ok. It’s a wonderful feeling really, makes me feel like I have learned something.
Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
#93I have a slight physical impairment that makes it harder (but not impossible) to do things that require coordination - like riding a bike and swimming. I had to learn to adapt. Last year I rode a bike for the first time in over 25 years and I struggled with balance and coordination. It would take me at least a week to remember. I also have to concentrate on my form to swim. If I was dropped in a pool, I could swim back but it would take me awhile to remember my proper form so so I wouldn’t favor one side over the other.
I was also a fitness instructor for a little over 10 years, and stopped about 6 years ago because of $life. I remembered some of my old step routines, but I struggled trying to get all my body parts to work together again to do it. There are a few things that I physical can do, but it takes me a lot longer and a lot more practice to get it.
Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
#94Does 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.
I feel like I’ve forgotten most of the events in my life. I can’t remember was being a child or a teenager was like. I think my personality has changed, but I’m not sure because I can’t remember it.
I’ve also forgotten most of how to speak Spanish, which I learned as a child. It does come back quicker than the first time with a lot of practice, but I can’t speak it on demand without a lot of re-learning.
I also ride mountain bikes and find that if I take extended breaks of months or longer, I forget how to do the more difficult riding, and I have to re-learn/practice until I’m comfortable again.
Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
#95Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
#96Has this actually been tested for a large number of years? I learnt to drive a manual car and then proceeded to not drive for ten years. When I tried to drive again I essentially had to learn again from scratch (quite dangerous actually as I was still fully licensed and everything). Would it actually be the same for a bike? Ten years is quite a long time.
Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
#97Perhaps it is not that difficult to learn how to ride a bike as an adult and lack of previous experience is hard to measure.
Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, I think the article misses one of the points, though: for example, I had a time between 14 and about 22 when I didn't swim at all, having spent about 4 years doing swimming as a sport. When I started swimming again at the age of 22, I could swim obviously - but it took me weeks of re-remembering all of the correct positions of my hands, which muscles to contract and how should I breathe in order to sustai…
Swimming uses more muscles and requires more concentration. I had a large amount of form degradation when I took a years' break swimming, and it took a few weeks to get back in form. I was noticeably faster after I regained my form -- I'm not sure what the equivalent would be on a bike, since theoretically I would just need to pedal faster (requiring more raw strength, not form.) I don't think there's much comparison…
I agree. When I swam competitively taking even a week off was something you could feel in the water. It might only add a second or two to your splits, but you could definitely feel it. It was weirdly distressing, actually.
Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, I think the article misses one of the points, though: for example, I had a time between 14 and about 22 when I didn't swim at all, having spent about 4 years doing swimming as a sport. When I started swimming again at the age of 22, I could swim obviously - but it took me weeks of re-remembering all of the correct positions of my hands, which muscles to contract and how should I breathe in order to sustai…
Swimming uses more muscles and requires more concentration. I had a large amount of form degradation when I took a years' break swimming, and it took a few weeks to get back in form. I was noticeably faster after I regained my form -- I'm not sure what the equivalent would be on a bike, since theoretically I would just need to pedal faster (requiring more raw strength, not form.) I don't think there's much comparison…
Shifting gears has always been a conscious activity for me, at least in part. Even biking a lot I can get surprised by a hill if I'm not consciously planning my shifting 5-10 seconds out and end up with my chain jumping off.
Re: Why Don’t We Forget How to Ride a Bike?
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is physical conditioning needed to utilize that strength without hurting yourself, but how strong you are is about neural pathways in your muscles, and how they fire, not the muscle itself. Your muscles are actually strong enough to rip the tendons from your bones. Citation needed. Training for strength also increases your muscle mass, I'm not ready to believe that strength is only about neural pathways.
Think of olympic lifters. Pyyros Dimas, a guy who isn't "huge" (compared to say football players or body builders) won a Gold for the clean and jerk at 215 kgs (474 lbs) in the 85kg weight class (187 lbs). There is something else going on there besides muscle mass when a Here's a good article on the impact of your neural pathways on strength: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170710091652.h... from the ar…
It’s also the explanation for noob gains (getting much, much stronger in the first 6 months of lifting or so, then tapering off as your ability to recruit muscle catches up with the muscle you already have). If you’ve ever lifted, the feeling of learning to use your body more efficiently is pretty obvious.