I can ride a bike now wootwoot

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So I ended up deciding to do this program called Lose the Training Wheels (www.losethetrainingwheels.org in case you were interested) in which they teach those with disabilities how to ride a bike. I was at first really apprehensive about even signing up figuring 2 things. 1) It would be mostly kids (it was, but there were 2 older teens and one other adult in my session of 7, so not too bad, even with me being the highest functioning of them) and 2) I would hate it if a kid learned how to ride a bike and I was still struggling with their roller thing. The guy in charge encouraged me to sign up anyway assuring me that they get college kids all the time so I did it and this week was pretty cool after all.

Monday: Started with their roller thing, imagine a rolling pin, missing the handles, and a bit flatter in the middle, and you can imagine this,. Started with level 3 (where everyone starts) quickly got past that level after I got used to some of the basics (leaning into turns, how to turn properly, etc.) and to level 5 by the end of the day (the higher the level the less stable it is, so the more like a real bike). FYI each day is appox. 75 minutes

Tuesday: Started with level 5, quickly got to level 6 where I spend most of the rest of the day, they had me ride a tandem bike with the guy in charge which I personally hated because it felt like he just got in the way and we kept wanting to turn at different times, got to level 7 right before the end of the day which is almost like a real bike so was a bit freaky at first.

Wed." Started with level 7 and about 5 minutes in they tell me to get off the roller bike and get on a real bike... was scary as heck at first! I was weaving every which way, constantly having to catch myself, and constantly nervous about falling over (even though I knew I could catch myself if I did, not to mention it was on a hard gym floor). Finally I got good at that so I went outside where there was less distractions and quickly learned how to turn properly and before the end of the day I took 5 laps on their track (must have been about a mile or more).

Thurs: Pretty much the same stuff but I mastered starting and stopping using the coaster brakes (as opposed to hand brakes). Practiced a bit on sidewalks... but the sidewalks in Phoenix are sooooooooo narrow so as to make them really hard to navigate, and I was nervous about going onto the road (there were no cars, but my luck in that area isn't the best lol). Ended up hitting a tree, two fences, and a stop sign (that was the worst because I was going almost full speed at the time and the wheel moved so as to allow my chest and arm to take the brunt of the impact) before the end of the day.

Fri: Practiced mostly the same stuff on my bike, as opposed to theirs, so without the "buddy bar" so they couldn't catch me... not that they would have had an easy time of that to begin with as I probably outweighed both of my spotters by 50+ pounds lol. Managed to navigate a straighter line a lot better and even went on the road a bit. I think my bike helped there because it seemed more fit for me (I suspect that the bike they had me ride might have been a 24 inch bike as opposed to a 26 inch bike... 2 inches can make a huge difference, beyond that the new bike had crank forward technology which made it so I could be in a more comfortable position while still being able to catch myself if I fail. So that's where I am at now, still pretty cool .

P.S. I would recommend it to all parents and aspies wanting to learn to ride a bike. You have to be over 8 and under 220 pounds... but outside of that there are very few restrictions.

That's pretty cool. For me, it took me longer to learn to ride a bike than my peers, but I remember just sorta "doing it" and practicing it by myself for hours at a time alone outside. As a kid, I had no video games, no video games til like age 11 or so, and I didn't watch a lot of TV, I spent my day til dark, outside in my acre yard just playing around by myself, so I probably had a different upbringing than most Aspies here. Plus, my dad really pushed me to try sports and stuff. So I learned my bike at age 6-7, from my dad pushing me and me pushing myself to do it. Later, I figured out the reason I sucked at a lot of sports was my NVLD, yay...

I tried much the same way until I was like 10 or 11 (my dad says 8 but I know I was older than that, either that or my bro learned to ride when he was 3 and was trusted to go down to the end of the block... I doubt that). But I kept crashing and crashing right away. I think part of the problem was that on top of my aspieness I had a traumatic brain injury so sometimes standing up straight is a problem lol. At the end of that time I figured I was a capable cross country runner, could walk crazy long distances, what did I need a bike for. But I came back to it this week, and next I think I will try to do a mini triathlon sometime .

Lol.

I still haven't learned how to ride a bike yet. I'll eventually have to get to it someday though.

Congrats on learning though!