In response to last weekends cycling post, reader Suzie left a comment asking if I’d “written a post on how to teach an adult to ride?”

I hadn’t ever been asked this question so I wasn’t sure initially how to go about answering it. I was however immediately transported back to my own childhood. As a kid being taught by my dad in the middle of a large open field, I learnt to ride my first bike.

I remember being taken out by my dad to the big grassy area behind a playground, being held upright and then pushed along until I fell. Get up, rinse and repeat.

I remember this happening until I finally cracked the shits, kicked the bike as hard as I could and ran off home in protest. Of course it wasn’t my fault I couldn’t instantly ride the bike, it was because my dad had bought me a stupid bike.

At the time my dad found this all very amusing.

Suffice to say that while there’s nothing foreseeably wrong with my dad’s approach when you’re teaching a child to ride a bike, teaching an adult comes with it’s own considerations.

Over the next few weekends I plan to explore the process of teaching an adult to ride a bike. Today I’d like to start with some initial considerations.

1. Adults are not indestructible

When you’re a kid you can fall sideways on a bike, bounce off the grass and do it again, again and again ad-nauseam. Kids are virtually indestructible on bikes and as such you can afford to be a little more physically blunt in your method of approach.

Adults on the other hand break, easily. The older the person is you’re trying to teach the more probability there is that with a fall will come the snapping of bones or bruising.

This all of course means that the traditional ‘push down a hill and hope for the best’ routine that usually works with kids isn’t really suitable when teaching an adult to ride.

2. Training wheels are a no-no

If you’re a toddler then training wheels are probably a good idea. You get to feel like you’re whizzing around on your own and your parents don’t have to worry about any sudden trips to the 24/7 emergency clinic for some stitches.

For toddlers training wheels make a good substitute until they are ready to grasp the concept of riding a bike and have a good sense of balance.

Training wheels for an adult on the other hand instill a false sense of security and can delay the learning process because of this. Ever seen someone trying to learn how to swim refusing to let go of an inflatable device because they think they will instantly drown? Same concept.

One of the hardest mental challenges in teaching an adult to ride a bike will be convincing them that falling on soft grass at a slow speed isn’t going to destroy them physically. Starting off with any type of training wheel isn’t going to speed up this process at all.

3. Self consciousness

Remember orange stack hats and dorky BMX dragsters? As a kid you didn’t care what you looked like. If you did mange to fall it was awesome and in a few weeks you’d then have a scar to show everyone how tough you were.

As adults we don’t like to look stupid. Falling off a bicycle whilst trying to learn or getting publicly frustrated at trying to grasp the concept aren’t exactly a motivating factors when an adult is learning to ride a bike.

If you’re doing the teaching one of the most important things to not do is laugh or ridicule whoever it is your teaching. Sure this might be hard if it’s your girlfriend or a family member but making a new cyclist feel silly is a surefire way to make sure their bike stays locked up in the shed for many years to come.

If you’re learning on your own and people are around try not to be deterred. It might feel like everyone is watching you waiting for you to fall but the reality is that most people won’t even notice you.

Then of course there’s people like me who if going past will just be glad to see someone on a bike, we might even stop to give you some pointers!

4. Fitness level

Kids might be over charged sources of unlimited power but adults definitely have a limit when it comes to how fit they are. What you don’t want to do is to push someone beyond their physical limit and have them bedridden for a week because they pulled every leg muscle possible.

When teaching someone to ride a bicycle it’s important to take into consideration their fitness level. Do they go to the gym, do they run, walk or do any other physical activity? Do they play sports, are they active in general or more on the lazy side?

Gauge how fit the new cyclist is and adjust how long you spend on each session accordingly. Learning something physically new can be a big stress on both your body and mind and when learning you don’t want to exhaust either.

Additionally make sure there’s plenty of water available and don’t go too long without a break.

5. Patience

Like most things the length of time it takes to learn a new concept or skill usually increases with age. For this reason it’s important to remain patient both during the learning sessions and in general.

Whoever you’re teaching might take to riding a bike quickly or it might take a few weekends (or longer still). Whilst as a kid after cracking it with my bike I was back on it later that weekend, as adults it’s easy for us to continually put something off if we think it’s too hard or taking too long.

However long it takes remind yourselves of the end goal, whether it be commuting independence, being able to ride together or just being able to say ‘Hey I can ride a bike’.


Hopefully as a new adult cyclist or as someone teaching an adult to ride, the above considerations give you something to think about before you’ve set foot (or wheel) out the door. As I said at the beginning of this post, over the next few weekends I plan to explore in depth the process of learning to ride a bike as an adult.

Next weekend I plan to look at some of the problems that might arise in getting an adult to ride a bike for the first time and what to do to help make the process easier. I’m aiming for things you can do before you even swing your leg over a bike!

1. Teaching adults to ride bikes: Getting started
2. Teaching adults to ride bikes: Lesson One – Balance
3. Teaching adults to ride bikes: Lesson Two – Pedalling
4. Magda Szubanski apologises, will join Ride to work day
5. My craptastic bicycle ride through Westgate Park