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Late learner
survives
the wobbles
CYCLING
ARTHUR JONES
ABOUT a year ago, the girl on swithcboard at' The
Canberra Times rang me with an intriguing mes
sage. It was short and to the point.
"Nathalie wants to see you urgently." That was suffi
cient to start me thinking, but in spite of my memory
carrying out a fast playback, I could not recall'ever
having met anybody with that name. I said as much to
the operator, who, in a confidential whisper, gave'me a
number to ring.
When I did, I found out that Nathalie was an Oriental
lady from another very large continent south of the
, Equator, and she
- wanted to see me
urgently because
her small boy was
old enough to
; ride to school -
but not by 'him
self. The solution was for Nathalie to go with him, but the
trouble was that she had never learned to ride a bike, and
please, could she learn in a few days, and from whojn?
I thought that over for a while and finally volunteered
to help her. However, there was an extra problem in that
Nathalie did not have a bike, but some quick thinking
solved that one, since I happened to have a girl's bike
with 24-inch wheels which would be very suitable.
So, one fine day. I turned up at Nathalie's house with
the bike in the back of the car, and set to teach the lady to
ride by using the technique of lowering the saddle and
teaching her to move along not by using the pedals, but
by pushing herself along with her feet on the ground.
Progress was very slow, but after some weeks, Nathalie
had sufficient confidence to venture out on to the road,
and from then it was all plain sailing - except that she
had no bike of her own.
She said she had looked around the local shops abut
had not seen one that she liked as much as the one I had
lent her, so, as I had no use for it, I decided to let her. have
it for a very nominal sum.
As I have not heard from her since, I assume that she
and her son go off to school every day on their bikes, and
all is well.
Withdrawal pains
More recently, I had another request, this time from a
lady on the South Coast who had given up smoking, and
who had been advised by her doctor to take up some
activity which would help to take her mind off her
withdrawal pains.
She chose cycling, but did not have a very clear idea of
what sort of bike riding she wanted to become involved
in - except that she had seen some local cyclists racing
from Broulee to Moruya on Saturday mornings and
thought that she would like to join in. Now, I have raced
against those lads and lasses and had no desire to throw a
new convert to cycling to those wolves - if they will
pardon the expression.
It was, therefore, now my turn to want to contact'
someone urgently, so I got on the phone and told the lady
that she would have to decide whether she wanted to race
or just ride, before buying a bike, and was relieved to hear
her say that she would probably be happiest roaming
around on bush tracks.
She also said she was toying with the idea of buying a
secondhand bike, using it for a year or so and then, when
she had sorted out her thoughts, buying a new machine.
Given her preference for ofl-road riding, I suggested she
give some consideration to a mountain bike, although I
pointed out that they are very heavy and difficult for the
not-so-strong to handle.
In my opinion, they are unnecessarily cumbersome,
but those made of lightweight alloy are extremely expens
ive and were thus ruled out in this particular case. I still
think that what the world needs is a bike with a normal
frame, 26x 1'/«or 1 % tyres, flat bars and five or 10 speeds
- and not weighing more than about 12kg, but bike
buyers on the whole are no different from any other breed
- influenced more by fashion than merit.
Before any local retailers contact me to tell me that
they would be quite happy to build that sort of bike as a
special order, let me say that that is not the case at the
Coast, where the range is very limited, so I rather think
the ex-smoking lady will have to make the long trek to
Canberra in order to buy what she wants.
I look forward to seeing her, and will let you know
what her decision is.
. .... ^
$