Category: VB Says

No trial and error, no sink or swim. Instead of telling you to swallow your fear, we won’t do anything scary. At no point in our lesson will I ask you to do something you cannot already do. There is no trial and error, no sink or swim. It’s tremendously orderly and very effective.

Your Best Friend “A great instructor is your best friend, but your best friend may not be such a great instructor” – Virtuous Bicycle

“You never forget how” is beside the point. If you last rode when you were 7, even if you did remember, the skills of a 2nd grader are not the skills that an adult needs to ride confidently, for longer distances, in more complex environments. I would approach you as a clean slate, exactly as …

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“There’s nothing to it!” Your best friend offers to teach you. She’s really into biking and assures you “There’s nothing to it!”. I’ll tell you that many of my students have tried the friend-will-help approach. The results can be so discouraging that it takes years before they try again. 

I do not hawk “IT’S SO EASY!” Rather, I acknowledge that ‘getting it’ can be challenging for an adult. It’s a one step at a time process, and I’m here to guide you through it.

Learning to ride a bike is a matter of re-wiring some deeply established reflexes, reflexes that have kept you safe since you were old enough to walk.

I’M SO NERVOUS! I’ll tell you that EVERY adult LTR student is apprehensive at the beginning. Some have admitted to me “I considered not showing up!”  Virtually ALL have succeeded and many have shed tears of joy when they take their first pedal strokes.

“I tried, but apparently, I have bad balance” “Bad Balance?” Well, we’ll see. Unless you’re constantly falling during daily activities, it’s likely that your sense of balance is more than adequate. “Balance” is what circus performers do. Bike riding is so much easier!

BREAKING THROUGH It’s not that biking itself is difficult – the challenge is working past all the misconceptions, the body tension, and the non-cyclist reflexes, until we break through to the other side. I hear this every time I get a student over the hump… “OMG”, they say, “Why didn’t I do this years ago!”