Learn to Ride a Bike Class (or, Our Hero Rides a Bike!)

Before class, in Teacher Carrie's helmet.  (The first thing we learned was that Our Hero's helmet was too small.)

Fans, we (well, one of us) is coming to you tonight from learn-to-ride-a-bike-class side where Our Hero has been coasting around on a pedal-less bike like a champ having the best of times. Now some of you might be thinking, "A class?" Isn't learning to ride a bike like riding a bike? Like, isn't that an expression? (Julie at least can report that a few years back, when she'd not been on a bike in a while, Ted had to tell her to put a pedal up with which to push off, proving that riding a bike is not just like riding a bike.) REI put this gig on and most of the class is getting comfortable balancing on a pedal-less bike without the security of training wheels through games. You can see a brief clip of Our Hero coasting here.  Pedals went on at the end and well, check out this clip here. Our Hero, pedaling! Riding a bike!  (This is really the money clip; the voice you hear hollering, "I'm pedaling!  I'm pedaling!"--that's Our Hero.)

He fell twice. The first time, the two other boys he was racing around with stopped and came over straight away.  It was very much, "Man down!  Man down!  Don't leave a man on the field!"  One said to Joe, "Dust yourself off. That's right.  Just dust yourself off." The other said--to Julie--"He's tough. Yeah, he's tough." Then the first boy said to her, "Yeah, but falling on concrete still hurts."

Not more than a minute later, Our Hero was asking Julie if he could bike home.  The second time he fell, he was just going to fast and clipped the wall.  But he got right back on.  It was clear the joy of riding outweighed the spills which we all know, Fans, are great moments.