On Re-Learning To Ride A Bike

For my 30th birthday (heck, that feels weird to write), I was gifted a bicycle. It’s a cute little bike with a basket on the front and a little thing on the back where I can attach more basket-y things. Simply put, it’s a really lovely bike and I am very thankful for it. However, there’s a small problem here. Not with the bicycle. That’s fine. I’m gonna print some stickers out and stick them on.

No, the problem is with me.

I haven’t ridden a bike in like 18 years.

Yeah, that’s… kinda a long time. The last time I recall riding a bike is back when my family lived in the United Kingdom, where we had a nice park behind our house. Literally right behind the house. Honestly, I was really lucky to have lived in such a nice home, and, back when I was 10-12, I’d ride my bike (or sometimes my scooter) around the park and through the grass. I wouldn’t say I had any real skill, but I pretty much never fell off or anything.

When we moved to Cyprus though, the bikes didn’t come with us. They were left to whoever bought that house. On top of that, where we lived, the roads and pavements ranged from being 40% potholes all the way to dusty rocky track in the middle of nowhere.

Funnily enough, the last time I’d been close to a lot of bikes was in my second year in Cyprus, at school with a ton of other kids. My main recollection of the event was that the local municipality had purchased bikes for every first-year in secondary school. However, the was not extended to the kids that lived in the nearby villages. So I remember sitting in my chair on my second day at big school, confused as fuck, trying to work out why I didn’t get a bike.

That was 16 years ago and it’s still a weird memory. Anyway…

You never forget to ride a bike, yes?

Well, yeah. I can still ride a bike, just about. But those 18 years have made me so insanely rusty that I have to go slow. Which ends up working against me because bikes are easier to ride at a steady speed.

Doesn’t help that both pavements and roads are pretty shit. I haven’t had much issue going over a lot of bumps but I am seeing a fuckton of them. Really, most of the time, I find riding on the pavement much harder than being on the road, because the pavement most of the time has no ramps to get on or off the pavement.

Either way, I am insanely paranoid and worried that I’ll somehow hurt myself. Especially when I’m sharing a road with 4-wheeled vehicles. I’m sure that the paranoia will settle down into mild concern at some point but it won’t be a smooth transition.

I haven’t fallen off yet…

So far, so good. I am very rusty on my little black bike, but the more I ride it, the more confident I become. The only issue is that, well, I have pretty much no confidence. It’s going to take a long time because there’s a lot of little worries in my thoughts. But it’s all good exercise, a new way to move around and good for the environment, when I can ride instead of drive.

Still it’s all a lot of fun. Especially when I start riding downhill. I just need more time to boost my confidence.