Safety of motion

There is a time when you are learning to ride a bike when it is very scary and dangerous. This is the phase when you don’t trust the pedals enough and are constantly caught between putting your feet down for balance and lifting your feet up to pedal. In this phase you half live in two worlds: standing still and rolling.


Trapped in transition, the learner is removed from the security and stability of standing on the ground, and yet hasn’t quite arrived at the security of movement, when peddling gives them the speed to stay upright and balanced. This is a scary place to be.


As far as I can see you have to get across this dodgy middle ground to be safe again. A new rider who is stuck in the in-between will fall, knock themselves, get tangled and second guess their wobbly way into obstacles and people.


At some point you just have to push out, leave the safety of a foot on the ground and get across to your new security of motion. You can’t stay still, you have to move, and in this case you have to move enough to be ok.


Last month my 5 year old couldn’t ride a bike. This month he’s crossed over and is already past just riding and into cruising at high speed with his feet tucked up high on the cross bar. He’s got so much safety in motion the he’s now finding ways to make it unsafe again. He floats through the air like some kind of cross-legged zen bike balancer. It’s a little alarming. 


Sometimes you just have to push out and find the next safety. 
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https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VeGeOhLBGA8