“What? It’s easy! Just like riding a bike!”

I’m here to tell you — and I have said so, before — this is one cliche that doesn’t work.

Sometime around 12 years ago, not long after we moved into our current home, my husband and I got the bright idea to go buy bikes. At the time, I was still close to my low weight from having lost 140 pounds, and I thought it might help me keep in shape, but I quickly discovered that my knees wouldn’t bend enough to push the pedal all the way around. My solution at the time was to have a bike shop replace the crank arms with shorter ones. And that worked for a bit.

Then I gained weight and the bike got parked. It sat there until a couple years ago when I decided I’d try to air up the tires and ride it around the backyard. Hubby was with me when I tried to work up the courage to get up on the bike and get going.

It didn’t happen. I feared falling enough that I couldn’t work up the courage to get moving on the bike, but as it was, my knees had grown bad enough that I couldn’t push the pedals all the way around, even on the shortened crank arms. So I stuck the bike back in the garage.

I lost more weight and upgraded my knees. There are things I have promised myself I would do once that happened; I’ve accomplished some of them, like getting back to walking (it’s lots easier, now), traveling easier, and most recently, dancing. Biking and scuba diving are also on the list.

We have camping trips scheduled for the summer, so I’ve been eying those bikes in the garage. I took mine out, figured out how to clean it up, change the tubes, clean and grease the chain, and a bit more. I also did the same for my husband’s bike. He got on his and rode it around from the back of the house, where I set up my little temporary repair shop, around to the front, and back again.

Me? I put in the work, and I managed to get on the bike enough to adjust the seat to what I thought might be a good height, but it took me until the next day to work up the courage to get on and try to ride. And I did it. I didn’t ride for very far; just around to the front of the house so I could put it in the garage, but that was enough to show me that I could do it. It’s still going to take some time to get comfortable at it, but I think I’m ready for this one. As long as I don’t fall and dent my knees, now that they’re metal. 😉

I have a different perspective on how “easy” it is to ride a bike; and it’s not easy if it’s no longer familiar. The cliche only applies if it’s a familiar activity. For those of us who haven’t sat on a bike consistently in decades, there’s nothing easy about it — but that doesn’t mean impossible. Like anything else, it takes figuring out, but the payoff is worth the effort.