{"id":13379,"date":"2016-06-29T10:54:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T10:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ala.asn.au\/?p=13379"},"modified":"2016-06-29T11:02:45","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T11:02:45","slug":"rediscovering-joy-two-wheels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ala.asn.au\/rediscovering-joy-two-wheels\/","title":{"rendered":"Rediscovering the joy of two wheels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"web-RustyBike rider training for adults is\u00a0flourishing in the municipality of\u00a0Leichhardt in Sydney\u2019s inner west.\u00a0<\/strong>The Rusty Rider course for those\u00a0aged 25 and over turns those who\u00a0are wobbly on two wheels into\u00a0confident cyclists.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A group of eight people stand in a straggly line\u00a0with their bicycles on a tennis court, listening to\u00a0their instructor. Some of them fidget and others try\u00a0not to look nervous. It\u2019s one thing to have ridden\u00a0a bike as a kid, quite another to get back on one\u00a0thirty, forty or even fifty years later.<\/p>\n

But within half an hour their nervousness has evaporated\u00a0and the group are on their bikes smiling and having fun.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s seems the clich\u00e9 is true. Once you\u2019ve learned to ride a\u00a0bike you never forget it. \u2018It\u2019s remarkable how much people\u00a0\u2018remember\u2019 once they start cycling again. The muscle\u00a0memory is there it just needs to be tapped into,\u2019 says Rob\u00a0Berry, course leader at Bikewise who runs the training for\u00a0the municipality of Leichhardt.<\/p>\n

Rob says he never tires of seeing that moment when\u00a0everything clicks. \u2018One minute they are wobbly and worried\u00a0and the next you see this big smile on their faces and they\u00a0look natural on the bike.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rob says the course\u2019s slow pace and the chance to have\u00a0a laugh quickly puts people at ease. \u2018People learn when\u00a0they are having fun and when they are having a good time.<\/p>\n

People who haven\u2019t ridden a bike in a long time are likely to\u00a0be a bit unsteady and lacking in confidence. They are worried\u00a0about controlling their bike so it\u2019s important to keep the\u00a0learning environment relaxed.\"web-Rob<\/p>\n

\u2018We do all our classes off street so there\u2019s no pressure and\u00a0we take quiet paths. We use a lot of games in the class. We\u2019ll\u00a0have slow races where the winner is the person who can\u00a0cycle the slowest. We play dodgems without crashes to get\u00a0them used to negotiating limited spaces.<\/p>\n

\u2018At the same time we encourage people go at their own\u00a0pace. Each person has to demonstrate particular skills and\u00a0be confident before they progress to the next stage. We\u00a0teach people how to control their bike \u2014how to stop, start,\u00a0and use gears effectively. But we take it one step at a time.<\/p>\n

People only ever do what they feel comfortable with. That\u00a0way we build people\u2019s confidence.\u2019<\/p>\n

The curriculum Bikewise uses is highly structured but\u00a0flexible. \u2018We adapt it to people\u2019s skill level. Our groups have\u00a0a good staff\u2013student ratio so we can pace it to the needs of\u00a0each person.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018As people\u2019s confidence increases we incorporate more real\u00a0life drills into our teaching. For example, we learn how to\u00a0negotiate space with pedestrians and ride skilfully at slower\u00a0speeds so people develop better balance and control.<\/p>\n

\u2018We take realistic journeys where we say OK we\u2019re going to\u00a0ride from one side of the park to the other, past the kiosk. At\u00a0the end, people take away the skills to practise.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lots of people start off riding for recreation but Rob says\u00a0that\u2019s a gateway to other kinds of riding. People start to\u00a0think \u201cI could ride to the shop to get some milk, or to visit a\u00a0friend\u201d. It really opens people eyes to how much fun, what\u00a0good exercise and how practical riding a bike is.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rob\u2019s taught hundreds of classes and over a thousand rusty\u00a0riders aged from 25 to 75 in Sydney over the past 7 years.<\/p>\n

Overcoming worry and fear is key to learning to be an\u00a0effective bike rider Rob says. \u2018There\u2019s too much emphasis\u00a0on danger and not enough on empowerment, skills and\u00a0confidence.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rob says the profile of the average bike rider is changing.\u00a0\u2018More and more people are cycling and they are an\u00a0increasingly diverse group, not just 20\u201340 year old male\u00a0sporty types. Bike riding ticks so many boxes for people. We\u00a0get people across all age groups interested in bike riding.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often the quickest way to get places and it keeps you fit\u00a0and active. It\u2019s a big culture change. There are more women\u00a0riding and older people. It\u2019s no longer the domain of the\u00a0young sporty man.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rob teaches \u2018Cycling in the City\u2019 and he always proud to see\u00a0Rusty Rider people in this more advanced class. \u2018They\u2019ve\u00a0gone from concerned and worried and within a few weeks\u00a0they are confident enough to get on the road.\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

KEN WELSH <\/span><\/strong>Strategic Transport Planner at Leichhardt\u00a0Municipal Council says Rusty Riders began in 2014 along\u00a0with several other rider training courses as part of a Council\u00a0plan to improve the environment by reducing people\u2019s car\u00a0use and to encourage active transport.<\/p>\n

The idea for classes came from the Council\u2019s \u2018Share the path\u2019\u00a0campaign, which aimed to educate pedestrians and cyclists\u00a0about safe and responsible riding and walking on shared\u00a0paths.<\/p>\n

\u2018We set up a coffee cart on shared paths and we talked to\u00a0people walking and cycling by. Older pedestrians said they\u00a0used to ride when they were kids but don\u2019t want to make\u00a0fools of themselves. They were interested in riding but\u00a0didn\u2019t because they were worried about safety or hadn\u2019t\u00a0ridden in a long time and had lost confidence.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Council organised a range of bike rider training\u00a0courses aimed at improving residents\u2019 bike riding skills and\u00a0confidence and dubbed them \u2018Rusty Rider\u2019 classes, with one\u00a0specially designed for seniors.<\/p>\n

\u2018The classes have been really popular and the seniors\u00a0ones have been booked out. The feedback has been really\u00a0positive.\u2019 The Council\u2019s target is to double the number of\u00a0trips in the area between 2015\u20132025.<\/p>\n

Leichhardt Municipality is just one of a number of councils\u00a0across Australia offering cycling training programs.<\/p>\n

A network of Austcycle approved cycling educators <\/a>offers\u00a0cycling training programs to groups and individuals in a range of locations across Australia.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bike rider training for adults is\u00a0flourishing in the municipality of\u00a0Leichhardt in Sydney\u2019s inner west.\u00a0The Rusty Rider course for those\u00a0aged 25 and over turns those who\u00a0are wobbly on two wheels into\u00a0confident cyclists. A group of eight people stand in a straggly line\u00a0with their bicycles on a tennis court, listening to\u00a0their instructor. Some of them fidget and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":854,"featured_media":13389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-13379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cycling"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRediscovering the joy of two wheels - Adult Learning Australia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ala.asn.au\/rediscovering-joy-two-wheels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rediscovering the joy of two wheels - Adult Learning Australia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bike rider training for adults is\u00a0flourishing in the municipality of\u00a0Leichhardt in Sydney\u2019s inner west.\u00a0The Rusty Rider course for those\u00a0aged 25 and over turns those who\u00a0are wobbly on two wheels into\u00a0confident cyclists. 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