Owen Rides a Bike

Owen had a bright yellow bike. It had been a present for his 5th birthday in October, but he still needed the training wheels. This was a problem. For one thing, it meant that he wasn't as fast as his older brother James, who rode a green bike without training wheels. For another, Owen regularly rode his bike (with training wheels) so hard that he would wiggle one of the nuts loose and the training wheel would fall off. Then he would have to walk his bike home until his Father could get tools out of the basement to fix it. This took a long time.

Owen decided it was time to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels.

The first time he decided to ride without training wheels was in March. His family was at the school playground across the street, and Owen's father took the training wheels off and walked the bike over to the gentle hill that sloped down towards the playground.

"Is this how James learned?" asked Owen.

"Yes, and let me explain how you'll practice keeping your balance," began his father.

Owen didn't listen. He was too busy thinking about the amazing tricks that he would do once he could ride his bike without training wheels.

Father helped Owen up onto his bike and started to ease him down the hill. Owen wobbled, tipped, and crashed onto the sidewalk. He screamed as loud as he could. Then he noticed that his elbow was bloody and he screamed even louder.

Owen decided that he would wait until he was six to ride without training wheels. Then he remembered about James and asked how old James had been when he learned.

Mother and Father told him it didn't matter.
James told him he was five when he learned how to ride without training wheels.
Owen decided to try again.

His father brought him up to the top of the slope again, and Owen asked if his father could hold the bike the whole way down. His father said he couldn't. Owen hopped off the bike as soon it started moving and fell with a splat in the grass. He could wait until he was six.

A few months later Owen decided to try again. His father went to the basement for tools and took the training wheels off. Then they practiced pedaling on the sidewalk--not the hill--with Father's hand on Owen's back. Owen wobbled and crashed to the left. His knee was scraped up. They tried again. Owen wobbled and crashed to the right. Now his elbow was scraped up. Owen decided to give up again, but his Father said they had to keep on trying. Owen pedaled and tried to keep his wheel pointed straight. All of a sudden, he was pedaling on his own!

He pedaled all the way to the house three doors down and then crashed onto the pavement in a heap. He was so excited that he ran to his Father and told him the secret he'd figured out.

"Dad, Dad! I just have to aim my wheel straight and that helps me ride my bike!"

"Exactly, Owen! Were you listening? Because I told you several times that keeping your wheel pointed straight would be the most important--"

Owen stopped listening because he wanted to ride his bike again. He crashed a lot more (he had scrapes on both knees and both elbows before long) but as long as his father helped him get started he could ride all the way from the street corner to three houses down, and then back again.

But there was a problem. Owen's father was really slow. He would get Owen started and Owen would race down--sometimes with a crash halfway--to the end of his little course. But Owen's father would walk so slowly--impossibly slowly--and so Owen would have to wait practically forever to ride his bike again.

Owen's father told him that the next important thing would be to learn how to get started on his own.

"No thanks," said Owen "you can just help me get started."

Eventually they went inside to get baths and to put stingy cream on all of Owen's scrapes. But Owen was ready to ride his bike again first thing the next morning.

Owen's father hadn't finished his morning coffee. He came out to the front step with a book and his coffee cup.

"Come on, Dad! Help me get started."

"I'll help you in a bit, Owen. I'm going to finish my coffee first."

Owen decided to wait until his father was done with his coffee. It took forever. Owen wondered if he was taking sips of his coffee and then spitting them back into his cup so that it stayed full. Sometimes Owen did that at the dinner table. He decided he couldn't wait any longer. His father told him that he would need to wait anyway, unless he wanted to practice getting started on his own.

"And if you can teach yourself to get started you won't need to wait around for me at the ends--you can bike as much as you want."

Owen saw the wisdom of this but was also pretty scared of starting his bike on his own. He pushed it down to the sidewalk and tried. He crashed sideways onto the driveway and the bike landed on him. He screamed and cried. He came right up to his father and screamed right in his ear so that he could hear him.

He tried again and cried even harder. His father still wouldn't get up and help. He sat there drinking his coffee as slow as a sloth, being unhelpful.

Owen told his father that he was never going to write another letter to him ever again. When that didn't get him up he told him that he was going to have a pet tiger when he got bigger and that the pet tiger was going to eat him for being so mean. Both his elbows were bleeding again and he was crying and his face was dirty.

"Try again. See if you can figure it out."

Owen tried again. And it worked. He crashed a few more times, but he could get started on his own each time in ten minutes. He spent the rest of the day trying to learn how to do a wheelie and talking to people who were out walking their dogs. One man had a particularly bouncy dog who kept trying to get away. He asked Owen if he wanted to keep the dog. Owen said that he did, but his father said "no," and that the man was only joking. Owen spent the rest of the day biking up to people with dogs and and telling them about how mean his father was because he wouldn't let him have a dog.