Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for June 22, 2015

It’s not like a car is going to run you over or anything…

Wait till it’s time to teach him how to drive.

It’s very generous from dad to take time for helping!!

These Calvin & bike strips are kind of funny, but if I really think hard about it, those first few hours of learning to ride a bike actually were frustrating and a little terrifying. Training wheels would have been nice.

Anyone else read the fan comic where Calvin’s dad learns about the Lance Armstrong scandal? Something very satisfying in that.

My parents disposed of my tricycle and gave me a bike without talking to me about it. I missed my 3-wheeler very much and the first time I rode my bike I fell and skinned my knee. I never learned how to ride a bike til I was 20 in college.

Nooooooooo!

@Ray49FLMe too!

Calvin knows that learning to ride a bike is as easy as falling off a log. Not only that, but Calvin’s particular bike has a mind of its own.

I remember learning to ride a bike. Training wheels were for total wusses. No self-respecting boy of my generation would have anything to do with them. So we fell a lot. Rite of passage. And there was no such thing as bike helmets then either. You learned to gauge your risk tolerance the hard way. But it was vitally important to ALL of us to learn how to ride that two-wheeler. It meant you were “part of the club” and it = independence, of a sort. So I just kept at it, and kept falling, until I learned how to stay up. Then it was off to the races!

The one “sticking point” for those of us who believe that Frazz is Calvin, all grown up.

When I had training wheels I rode my bike all over. Soon as they were taken off I was terrified of the darn thing, and never have learned to ride a bike in the intervening fifty-some years. My husband tried once. I hated it.

I learned to ride without too much trouble, and I remember our daughters the first time out without the ubiquitous training wheels. After removing the extra wheels, there were short moments of pleasure, then the sudden realization the little wheels were no longer there, and then the crash! Despite many “Please Daddy” requests, once they were gone, they never went back.

I would like to ride again, and have a very nice trail bike with more gears than anyone will ever use; however at my age my balance just isn’t what it used to be, so I think I will just stick to walking for now…

Learning to Ride my Bike opened up a complete New Universe to me. I had very few restrictions on me, except to be home before dark. Dark being that time when all residual light had faded from the world. 1956-1962. I got my TX DL at 15 and then the world changed exponentially!

Back in the early 40’s I had an antique 3 wheeler. But later was given a repainted bike that belonged to a cousin. Big blocks were used for pedals so I could reach them. Got a push from Dad, & off I went. A bit wobbly, but stayed up.

To get on the bike by myself I pushed it to the road next to a curb, got on & rode off. This was in suburban Chatham NJ.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0liWES6qgxjRnNKVnRteGhLZ3M/view?usp=sharing

Again, the beast LIVES!!!!!!

I never learned how to ride a bike either.

And guess what? I don’t care.

xxx

The thing that keeps you from falling when riding a bike is the gyroscopic action of the wheels. Two things determine how much gyroscopic force you have working for you. One is the rotational speed of the wheels, and the other is the mass of the wheels. If you ride slowly, you have to have exceptional balance to avoid falling because there is very little gyroscopic force to help. (Have you ever seen anyone sitting on a bike that is stationary, without their feet on the ground? I have, and was amazed at his balance. At the other extreme, at high speed, it is common to ride with no hands because the gyroscopic force keeping you stable is so high.) If you have light weight wheels, as is common today, again it is much easier to avoid falling. When it was time to teach my sons to ride, if I got a Schwinn with heavy steel wheels, and as I recall I found some extra weights I could attach to the rims of the wheels while they learned, and they only fell a few times. The knowledge you can get from physics is much more useful than most people realize. ;)

Wow. I couldn’t wait to have a real bicycle and even though I got an adult bike that I couldn’t get off of without falling (pick a grass yard) or get on without a curb to stand on, I spent my days on it.

We taught our son to ride a bike without training wheels. The idea is to start with a bike that has no pedals and is small enough for the kid to sit on with his feet on the ground (you can buy wooden bikes designed for this purpose, but we just took the pedals off of a small bike). The kid scoots the bike with his feet, learning how to balance and steer with no fear of falling since he can just put his feet down. Learning to pedal is easy if you don’t have to learn to balance at the same time.

Beat me to it, Hugh. Fun button.

Yes, Calvin. And your point is?