My Pedaling Career, Part 2: Coaster Brakes

I learned to ride two-wheelers when I was around 5 on a little tiny bike (with coaster brakes), small enough my feet could touch the ground so I could learn to balance. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a picture of it. I recall it was old, well-used, a bit ugly, and perfectly suited to its task.

Some of the other kids in the neighborhood started off on larger bikes with training wheels. I maintain that I learned to balance more quickly than those assisted by the training wheels, and I recommend the short bike/no training wheels approach (not that anyone's asking my thoughts on the matter, but there it is all the same).

The rainbow bike, the purple bike, and flags! I'm in my brother's shadow...

After properly mastering balance, stopping, and steering, my parents rewarded me with a big bike. They trolled the garage-sale ads one weekend, found something promising, and we came home with a rainbow-colored, slant-bar 'unisex' coaster bike with a banana seat. It wasn't as cool as my brother's purple coaster bike, but it was ok. And at least it didn't have a Huffy seat -- those squared-off things were ugly! The purple bike's banana seat was replaced by a Huffy seat at some point, so I know from which I speak on the matter.

So it was great! Finally I could keep up with my big brother on his bike, and my parents on theirs (we sometimes had family bike rides, and the mini bike was not a success versus their bigger ones).

But then -- disaster. When I started school, we learned that kindergarteners weren't allowed to ride bikes to our school! Even those that could ride, couldn't. Total bummer. So I had to walk while my brother could ride, although when I walked he usually did, too. We could take a bus to school, which we did when the weather was bad, but I often walked the .8 mile home after my half-day.

First day at new school -- note the Huffy seat. I walked.

First grade was at a different school in a different town. There were expansive bike racks in several location, so they were always convenient and available to me -- if I had wanted to ride, that is. Turned out we lived so close to school, a third of a mile, it didn't make sense to ride. So I walked from first through sixth grade. Having the rainbow slant-bar bike may have had something to do with not wanting to bike to school, as well.

As an aside, this new elementary school had no bus service, and most kids walked. The school district had drawn the boundaries for this school (and possibly only this one?) so that nobody lived too far away to walk. A few parents regularly drove their kids, but there weren't many of those. My brother & I only got rides when the temperature was well below zero. 

The rainbow bike, and the new blue dirt bike

   

Back to coaster brakes: my brother got to pick out a replacement for his purple coaster bike after he finished third grade. He chose a new blue dirt bike, which was cool and even had a handbrake, but it still wasn't a Redline. So not really that cool. And he almost never let me ride it! Ever tried riding the dirt bike track with a banana seat? You can't get any leverage on the handlebars to help with jumps, so you can't look cool AT ALL.

My first bike with handbrakes followed not long after ... .


UPDATE: The Bicycle Alliance of Washington agrees that my preferred method of learning to ride is the best.