Why is it, or how is it, that one never forgets how to ride a bike? Why can our muscle memory retain that skill forever, but other relatively minor physical skills (like basketball free throw shooting or putting in golf) can fade from lack of practice?
It’s a very easy skill. Unlike golf or basketball, riding a bike doesn’t require finesse or other skills that need to be honed. Riding a bike has more to do with suspending your belief that you’ll fall than learning a difficult motion.
The key to bike riding is balance, and when you learn how to balance it is hard to forget (i.e. walking is just balancing)
Cycling is also different because the motion of the wheels keeps you upright. Instead of remembering how to throw the ball or swing the club, you’re simply remembering that, wrong as it seems at first, you’re NOT going to fall off so long you keep moving. It’s more of a mental thing than a physical one.
** Lawmill**
You obviously have not done any road-racing ,take it from me, a skilful rider can make up a whole lot for the physical gifts that a competitor might have.
I can get round a corner faster than most and gain 10-20 yards at a time ,if a circuit race has 4 corners and twenty laps that is 800 to 1600 yards.I can therefore make my competition sprint out of every corner, by the time the finish comes up he will have no chance whatsever.
I practice cornering a great deal, along with braking and sprinting.
When it comes to track racing the effect of skill and practice is even more pronounced.
When you race on a mountain bike, particularly in the downhill events highly tuned skills are absolutely vital, unless crashing and serious injury are your favourite pastimes.
In professional racing strategy is the major factor but the ability to employ this wisely only comes with practice.
Just because a skill is not overtly evident to the layman it should not be assumed that it is not there.
Balance ,although learned at an early age, is a survival skill that is hardwired into us.You don’t forget how to walk even if you have been laid up in hospital for a long while.Cycling is just the same.
Um, I’ve raced mountain bikes and BMX bikes competitvely. I agree that bicycle racing, downhill mtb in particular, requires a great deal of skill. Shaun Palmer almost won the worlds a few years ago on flats, his fitness routine consisted of sitting on the couch. However, laymen like me don’t tend to notice these things.
The OP was regarding basic cycling, not whether I forget how to do a trackstand or X-up after a few months off of the bike.
BUT, we’re not talking about bike racing or any such thing, just the simple act of riding a bike. Something like a race will definately require practice before it, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you can still ride if you pick up a bike years after you’ve last rode.
We could ask the same about swimming too or ducking when things are thrown at you.
A basic locomotive survival skill such as balance once learned is not forgotten, it becomes more or less instinctive.