My girlfriend does not know how to ride a bike. She just never got the opportunity and just never gave it a thought, until we met. After the elated experience and levitating joy she experienced riding the tandem bike with me, she became determined to learn. Today we gave it a go!
Muh bike "Phil Jamis"
Sam started working on how to sit and how to properly control Phil, as well as mounting and dismounting. A lot of things that I took for granted and "just did" I had to explain and demonstrate.
Getting a hand of getting a hand...
She understood balance and she has done some "spinning" at the gym. However, getting the bike moving forward and the second foot on proved to be a major obstacle and frustrating.
Frustrated Sam^
I tried gently pushing her forward to force her balance but it only made her nervous. We kept it slow but I felt we needed to get some momentum; I always figured the hardest part was starting the forward movement and that the pedaling would make her automatically balance. But when you live your entire life only knowing one form of human locomotion, getting accustomed to a whole new form will take a bit of training as I soon found out. Good thing learning and cycling are things she finds fun.
Look at all that fun!
After a few hours, it was time to take a break and grab lunch inside. While digesting some delicious homemade soup, we ran into my younger sister's chihuahua, Hershey. And this is what this balding female water rat was wearing.
"please end me"
Trudging on
In the end, she didn't quite master it, and, unfortunately, we had to get ready to get some studying done. Sam went from not even knowing there are brakes on a bike to coasting balanced and not falling. She may not be ready to join me on my next tour just yet, but she is definitely determined to learn and ride with me next time.
The runway...
-Carlos
hahaha, awesome
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