The Final (Bike Riding) Frontier
Having taught Charlie to pedal, “squeeze brakes!”, recognize a stop sign, bike up hill, walk the bike, and go “left” and also “right,” Jim leaned over and turned Charlie’s gear shift to 4.
When Charlie started to ride his new bike, he was (Jim realized) sometimes playing with the gears, moving the little handle around the dial: No wonder Charlie was not so sure at first about riding the new bike. Learning to use the gears is—as Jim proclaimed when he and Charlie came home after bike ride #2—the “final frontier.” Who knows what hills and mountains await?
Tags: asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, Bike, bike blog, biking, father, Parenting, pdd-nos, son, Sports
12 opinions for The Final (Bike Riding) Frontier
Justthisguy
May 5, 2008 at 1:43 am
Does this machine use de-railers? (I don’t like the Francification of a perfectly good made-up English word!)
M’self, I’ve been able to avoid them on every bike I’ve ever had, finding the Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub perfectly adequate for me, even on the sometimes-steep hills in Atlanta.
In Florida, where I live now, I think having more than one gear ratio on one’s bike is an affectation, except maybe in case of headwinds.
P.s. Glad to see a post on which I can make a technical comment; the politico-social stuff can get depressing if one has even the slightest touch of the “A”
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 5, 2008 at 2:07 am
Know what you mean (re your P.s.)!
This machine has 7 gears—we weren’t really considering this when we bought it for Charlie. Jim’s working on 7 and 4; Charlie seems to favor 7, and doing some hard pedaling.
Laura
May 5, 2008 at 9:03 am
awesome. What an inspiration.
Niksmom
May 5, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I have confidence that Charlie will master the gears in time. Interesting that he likes 7th and the hard pedaling. Wonder if it’s a proprioceptive thing?
The Puzzling Spectrum of Autism Causes
May 5, 2008 at 3:12 pm
[…] with no obvious health problems (indeed, my son is very healthy, strong, and muscular from lots of physical activity)? Or why some autistic individuals seem to have behaviors that are highly reminiscent of those only […]
Emily
May 5, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I am so impressed that Charlie can ride at all that I was just telling my husband about it at lunch today. We’re jealous since TH can’t even keep the bike in balance with training wheels on.
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 5, 2008 at 4:47 pm
If it had been up to me, Charlie would have had his training wheels on for a loooong time——Jim decided to take them off one day. That was when Charlie was turning 7 and away they went…..
I think having the bike in 7th gear may be proprioceptive—Charlie maybe liking the feeling of control from pushing “hard” and “deep”—-if the bike were on 1, a scary thought!
Justthisguy
May 6, 2008 at 5:34 pm
First gear; Charlie wheelies!
(The boy has lotsa torque!)
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 6, 2008 at 10:22 pm
I’m not ready to see those!
Justthisguy
May 8, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Hmm, must find way to communicate with Charlie’s Dad, shorting-out Charlie’s scaredy-cat Mom….
Regan
May 8, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Very nice.
Give Charlie a kiss for his achievement, and Jim one too while you’re at it. He’s doing an excellent job as a cycling instructor. Has he ever thought about writing up the process? I’m sure lots of people would be interested.
Eleanor’s working on gears too, but I don’t know if it’s going as well (which gives away that hubby is the one teaching her).
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 8, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I have been bothering Jim to write something up for quite a while—he has a deadline to submit a manuscript in the next few weeks and then I am going to bother him some more. If it had been left to me, Charlie would still be riding in circles around parking lots….. Good luck to Eleanor with the gears!
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