[VanillaCafe]

> Years later, when we discover these relics and hop on, it’s as if we never stopped biking.

I'd like to challenge this. Barring scientific evidence to this fact, it is at best an anecdotal evidence, and so I will submit my own anecdote:

I didn't ride a bike for about 10 years. When I started riding again, I definitely felt unsteady for the first few days or weeks compared to my previous riding ability. I was unsteady enough that I thought at the time, "People that say you don't forget how to ride a bike are full of shit."

Granted, my ability to ride came back faster than if I was learning from scratch. It might become a discussion determining different shades of "forget" -- but if we get to that point, then we've conceded the crisp assertion that "we don't forget how to ride a bike".

[wtallis]

> When I started riding again, I definitely felt unsteady for the first few days or weeks compared to my previous riding ability.

This can happen to frequent riders simply as a result of switching to a different bike with different geometry from what you're used to. Eg. if you normally ride a mountain bike with a fairly upright posture and suddenly switch to a road bike with a low and narrow handlebars and toe overlap, or if you raise your seat after being accustomed to keeping it very low.

[fatnoah]

I had a similar experience, but with cross-country skiing. I was an avid skier from age 2 to 22. I raced in high school, spent every weekend out skiing (skating and traditional), had no problems on any trail, no matter how steep or difficult, etc.

In college, I took up downhill skiing. Twenty years later, I tried cross-country skiing again and could barely stay upright! I went in with full confidence and ended up shuffling around like a zombie on ice.

[coldtea]

>I didn't ride a bike for about 10 years. When I started riding again, I definitely felt unsteady for the first few days or weeks compared to my previous riding ability. I was unsteady enough that I thought at the time, "People that say you don't forget how to ride a bike are full of shit."

Err, "feeling unsteady" while still riding is not the same as forgetting how to ride and falling like a kid who tries to ride for their first time.

[avip]

Seconded. It takes serious mileage and time to regain full fluency. I am sure this is measurable - I actually fell once after a few years break, as I was not used to manoeuvring between cars. It's like saying "you don't forget how to play the piano". Well you don't, and you do, depends on how you define the "knowing" discussed - something the article did not do for obvious reasons.

[coldtea]

"Forgetting to ride a bike" is not about fluency. Of course you'll lose the fluency if you were advanced biker at some point.

It's about forgetting HOW TO RIDE, the very basic trick of balancing the bike.

[stinos]

the very basic trick of balancing the bike

Which is exactly the point the OP makes to that sentence as if we never stopped biking I think. At the least I'd say it's worded incorrectly. Sure your brain remembers the key part of how to do it, but the finer motor skills, balancing in hard situations etc don't just come back from one instance to the next and take extra practice.

[coldtea]

I don't think anyone seriously says that e.g. a biker doing hard mountain bike rides or bicycle stunts etc will be as good after a 10 year hiatus in which he never touched a bike.

[jplayer01]

Bike riding isn't special. Like every skill you learn, your proficiency will suffer if you don't practice it. That doesn't mean you will entirely forget how to apply that skill, even if lack of practice means you've lost proficiency.

[watertom]

Being shaky and falling over is the difference between remembering how to ride a bicycle and not remembering how to ride a bicycle. You remembered how to ride, you just weren't very good.

[pmontra]

Anecdotally I didn't ride a bicycle from 11 to 19 (didn't buy a new one when I outgrew the old one) and I had the same shaky experience you had. Recently I bought a gravel bike, coming from road and city bikes. The first few days on the new bike were not shaky but a little unsteady. The comment of another reply about the importance of the frame geometry looks spot on.

[mavhc]

Not ridden a bike for 20 years, found a bike in the beach hut we were borrowing, different kind to what I rode, rode it a few miles down the shore with no real problems.

There is one way to forget how to ride a bike, learn to ride a bike that has the steering reversed.