My wife never got the hang of cycling as a child and so has never pursued it as an adult despite my enthusiasm.
A recent trip to see the in-laws saw me encouraging a family cycling trip along the prom at Whitley Bay one fine sunny day. I dusted off her old bike and the two of us + Golden Child had a somewhat mixed cycling experience. My wife did better than she expected but the daughter - who is so close to losing the stabilizers - was obviously not keen and started complaining of "tired legs" within 30 seconds. The upshot is the wife and I went for a ride around Heaton Park this morning at her suggestion!
We covered less than 2 miles, she almost fell off once after misjudging her approach across some tram lines but apart from that I think she had a good time. She managed to cycle back up the hill from the boating lake and even having to slow for excitable dogs didn't dent her confidence or resolve.
She is never going to be a road going cyclist (unless they are very quiet) but I think we can look forward to some more family days out on our bikes. Just need to work on the Golden Child now.
Hi Darrell,
ReplyDeleteNice to hear your Wife getting an interest in riding. Mine too doesn't have the confidence to ride on her own in traffic, some of it a bit of self-consciousness, some of it a lack of experience but once we are out & about she's well away.
Regarding speed (or lack of), I've pretty much adapted my riding to suit her pace now, and much prefer it.
I totally sympathise with you regarding Golden Child, but maybe her Mum riding more often will show her she's missing out. My eldest Daughter learnt to ride last month aged 8, after 4 years of us trying. The catalyst was our youngest getting a bike for her 4th birthday and hearing us both mention that the youngest may well learn to ride before she could ;>)
It worked - she was wobbling along a few hours later...I've never seen such a look of determination from someone who only a week before was insisting she had no intention of learning to ride a bicycle :>D