CHAPTER IV.
For Beginners.
Mount and away! How easy it seems. To the novice it is not as easy as it looks, yet everyone, or almost everyone, can learn to ride, though there are different ways of going about it. Unless the beginner is one of those fortunate beings who mount, and as it were, wheel at sight, little need be said about instruction at this stage of proceedings if a bicycle school is within reach. A few suggestions may be desirable, however, even with a competent instructor.
Nothing more quickly exhausts one’s strength than the first few minutes with a bicycle. This is due to the fact that many unused muscles are called upon to do unaccustomed work and to work together in new combinations; and the effort required and the accompanying nervous excitement produce a sudden and apparently unaccountable fatigue. Normal conditions can be restored by resting long enough to allow repair of the wasted tissues. It is well to stop when a little tired, rather than to persist and finish the lesson, even if extra lessons are necessary to make up for lost time. No one can really learn anything when tired, and it is unwise to attempt it. In this matter no one else can judge for you.
CORRECT POSITION—LEANING WITH THE WHEEL.
What a horrible moment it is when first mounted on a bicycle, a mere machine, a thing quite beyond your control, and unable even to stand by itself. But it is impossible to tell without trying whether or not you can manage a bicycle. Make the experiment, therefore, and find out. Any competent teacher will guarantee success, and after the first five minutes on the bicycle can tell how long it will take you to learn. The time varies with the individual; the period of instruction may last for five minutes or for six months, without counting extra lessons for fancy wheeling.
Don’t try to get the better of your wheel. You cannot teach it anything, and there is really much for you to learn.
What to keep in mind when taking your lesson.—Attend to the bicycle and to nothing else. Don’t attempt to talk, and look well ahead of the machine, certainly not less than twenty feet. Remember that the bicycle will go wherever the attention is directed.
In sitting upon the wheel, the spinal column should maintain the same vertical plane that the rear wheel does, and should not bend laterally to balance in the usual manner. A new balance must be acquired, and other muscular combinations than those that are familiarly called upon. To wheel by rule is the better plan until the natural balance of the bicyclist is developed. Sit erect and sit still.