[constantcrying]

This seems like people who aren't thinking about the problem at all and don't even think about the mechanical problem.

I have no doubt that many of my recollections are bad, but I can imagine essentially every detail of a bicycle, all the mechanical components and how they interact.

[jaggederest]

> I can imagine essentially every detail of a bicycle, all the mechanical components and how they interact.

As I understand it, this is extremely uncommon, perhaps you might be categorized as hyperphantasia. How's your memory? They're commonly linked attributes, as per the article, some people with hyperphantasia have hsam - highly superior autobiographical memory, apparently from being able to conjure such accurate mental images.

[criddell]

I suspect if you ask the person who did a good job drawing a bicycle to label the parts, they would do well at that too.

I could do a decent job a drawing a bicycle and know the names of the parts because I’ve done a lot of the maintenance on my bike so I’m pretty familiar with it mechanically.

[smeej]

Perhaps, but I have hyperphantasia and could easily assemble/visualize a bike in my head without a clue what many of the parts are called. I know the big ones like "handlebars" or "pedals," but I haven't spent more than a few hours on bikes since childhood because of a deformity in my neck that makes my hands go numb in a riding position.

In some cases, it very well may be familiarity, but for some of us, it's just memory and visualization.

[jaggederest]

Yeah, that's where I'm at - I could take apart a bike mentally but beyond knowing "those are brakes", "that is frame", "those are gears", I have no specific bicycle knowledge.