Cycling fear and being unbalanced



FearBuster

New Member
May 10, 2011
5
0
0
Sorry, I posted this in the wrong section of this forum, if anyone knows how to delete that thread, it would be awesome.

So this is the right place to post this:

I joined this forum to break this fear of cycling that I have. I have quite poor balance skills, but I remember as a kid I used to LOVE cycling, I mean, it was so fun to be able to get to places with no car but on a bike and pretty fast too. I didn't cycle too often but loved it when I did.

I was cycling around my local area one day and I went down a down-hill driveway. There were cars parked at the bottom and my bike started careening out of control, going too fast for me to control. I thought I'd crash into the cars at the bottom and seriously started panicking and turned my bike to the side to purposefully throw myself off the bike so I wouldn't crash into the cars. I didn't fall too hard but I really injured my hand. I could see the meat :O anyway, since that day, I never rode again. I was 11 at the time.

I decided to try biking again when I was 14/15 and told myself to get over it. I wasnt seriously scared or anything, I was in a local park with my dad and he helped me to balance myself as I'd apparently forgotten how to ride. Funny, I know!

Anyway, I haven't ridden a bike again since that day in the park because I can never seem to balance properly on it. All the bikes I've tried to sit on feel waay too big - the wheels feel huge and I can never seem to balance on them properly. I have an in-built fear of losing my balance and injuring myself which prevents me from even trying to ride a bike as if I can't even balance properly on it, I will inevitably injure myself

Anyone got any advice? I've tried 24" wheels which still feel way too big and I'm 5"5 going 5"6 but the 24" feels too big.

I'm a woman by the way, and at my height, 24" should be fine. I reckon I could ride a kids bike alright without unbalancing myself but it wouldn't support my weight, right?
 
Bikes come in all sizes, you should be able to fine a 26, or even a 700c that will
fit your build.

You are just going to have to get on the bike and start riding. Big field, but grass
is harder to ride on than pavement.

The larger bikes, larger wheels are much more stable than the small wheels.
A 700c at thirty, forty miles per hours is actually very very stable. You have
to make it turn, it wants to go straight.

Check out some of the 26" and 700c fitness bikes.

I ride an older version of this bike.

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/road/fitness/fast_city/wingra/#/us/en/model/details?url=us/en/bikes/road/fitness/fast_city/wingra



BTW, all cyclist are unbalanced, in fact a lot of them are just out and out crazy!
 
Thank you for posting a reply :) it's just that I find being unbalanced very, very scary due to being scared of getting injured! I might just grab a bike and go for it and quit being a scaredy cat

Originally Posted by BHOFM .

Bikes come in all sizes, you should be able to fine a 26, or even a 700c that will
fit your build.

You are just going to have to get on the bike and start riding. Big field, but grass
is harder to ride on than pavement.

The larger bikes, larger wheels are much more stable than the small wheels.
A 700c at thirty, forty miles per hours is actually very very stable. You have
to make it turn, it wants to go straight.

Check out some of the 26" and 700c fitness bikes.

I ride an older version of this bike.

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/road/fitness/fast_city/wingra/#/us/en/model/details?url=us/en/bikes/road/fitness/fast_city/wingra



BTW, all cyclist are unbalanced, in fact a lot of them are just out and out crazy!
 

Similar threads