Comprehensive Guide on How to balance on a bike
Before you can enjoy riding a bicycle or a bike, you’ll have to learn how to balance. While learning to balance a bicycle may be easy for some, it can be quite a challenge for others – especially for older people. It requires a good amount of patience as well as skills. In this article, we’ll share with you a comprehensive guide on how you can balance a bike or a bicycle.
Importance of balance in biking
If we’re talking about riding a bike or a bicycle, we’re talking about balancing skills. You cannot expect to ride a bike without knowing how to balance. Before we get right into how you can learn to balance a bike or a bicycle, let us first understand its importance as well as a few facts about it.
First of all, learning to balance is not a one-time venture. You have to do it over and over again with a series of trial and error. With that said, learning to balance takes time and effort. Young children take a long time to learn how to balance and would probably take them months to years before they can get it right. For adults, it would take around a few days to weeks depending on their motor skills as well as their determination to learn. If a person is fearful about falling from a bike, it would take more time for that person to learn how to balance. Learning how to balance also requires having to accept that you’ll end up with a few falls, bruises, and scratches.
Once you’ve learned how to balance a bike or a bicycle, you’ll always have it for the rest of your life. This means, that even if you stop riding the bike for a few decades, you’ll still be able to ride the bike. At first, it will probably take a few seconds or minutes to remember the unused skill but eventually, your body will remember it. This is the reason why it is best to learn how to balance the bicycle at a young age.
How to balance a bike
Here’s a comprehensive guide on how you can learn to balance a bike.
Start with a small bike
The first step to learning how to balance a bike is to start with a small bike. Don’t go immediately for that cool-looking bike that is as high as your legs. The problem with starting with a high bike is that it is more difficult to balance and it would seriously hurt if you fall from a considerable height.
Choose a small bike where you can comfortably lay your feet on the ground without stretching your legs. if you’re using a tall bike, simply lower the seat to provide comfort to your legs. both feet should be comfortable on the ground while being seated on the bike seat. Having both feet on the ground as you ride the bike provides stability and it gives you more control in case you fall from either side.
Walking with the bike
Next would be to take small steps forward while sitting on the bike. This process will be as easy as walking normally but being seated on the bike and pulling the ground towards the back as you take a step. Make sure that your hand is on the handles while doing this and the other foot is on the ground while the other is taking a step.
Take your right foot forward and pull the ground to push the bike forward. after the right foot gets to the back, follow with the left and do the same process.
At first, try to cover short distances for every pace like one or two feet, and move on to bigger distances if you feel like you can cover more. also, whenever you feel like falling, simply plant both your feet on the ground to stabilize the bike.
Running with the bike
After you’ve mastered walking with the bike, you can then move on to the faster movement. Next would be to run with the bike while being seated on it. just like the first process, all you have to do is use your feet to propel the bike forward. start from small steps and move on to bigger steps to the point that you are leaping.
Running while being seated on the bike will help you gain experience and sensation of the bike should run at its normal speed. At this point, being able to run while seated on the bike will already give you a feeling of balance.
Taking long strides
Next is to take long strides as you ride the bike. The idea here is to try to take your feet off the ground as much as possible.
Your first step should be able to push the bike forward at a good distance – say one to two meters, before making a second step or before the other foot lands on the ground. It is also important to note that as you use one foot to kick the ground, the other foot should be lifted or should not be touching the ground. Imagine a runner pausing or freezing up in the air while running. The same form should be made when taking long strides on a bike.
Wrapping up
Now that you can do long strides on a bike with only one foot touching the ground at a time, you can now wrap up the balancing of the bike.
First, you need to find a surface that is free from any obstacle and is a bit inclined or sloped. The slope should not be more than 30 degrees to avoid too much sloping gravity. The sloped ground will help you move forward without having to exert much effort in pushing the bike forward.
Start by facing the bike downslope, and place one foot on the pedal while the other rests on the ground. After which, kick the foot off the ground to slightly push the bike forward. at this point, the bike will likely move forward continuously because of the downward slope. All you have to do is put both feet on each pedal and recall the sensation from the previous steps.
Whenever you feel like falling, simply plant both your feet on the ground to maintain stability. Since the bike is small, it is easy to avoid falling.
Now, this last step requires attention as you try to teach your body to remember the short sensation of being off the ground while riding the bike. Some can do this right away at the first few meters while some would take hours. But what’s certain is that this final step ensures that the rider can already balance the bike.