Bicycle Riding School

Susan was a great instructor! She was patient and very informative. I’m 31 and have tried learning in the past but was not too successful. With Susan, after 4 classes I was riding away.

I thought it would take me forever to ride a bike, but within an hour of meeting Susan, I was biking away! Having finished the course yesterday after four sessions, I feel confident on bike paths and look forward to continuing after I get my own bike. Susan is patient and encouraging and an overall great instructor. I would recommend her class to anyone who doesn’t know how to bike. It’s so great to be able to bike now since my husband is an avid biker and it will become a shared hobby for us. All thanks to Susan!

Susan is a miracle worker! She obviously loves her job and enjoys helping people to overcome their fears. One could not ask for a better and more supportive teacher.

So everybody has their shameful secrets that they never divulge to anybody, not even their closest friends or family members. Whether it’s that they lick Nutella out of the jar when nobody is around or that they have a crush on their postal carrier. .. there is always that unspoken something that you don’t want leaked out.
For me, it is that I cannot ride a bike. Make that. .. COULD not ride a bike. Because after just two 1.5 hour private lessons with Susan McLucas aka the Bike Whisperer, I can now balance on two wheels and join the exciting world of bicyclists!
Growing up in a neighborhood in NYC that was not always the safest, my parents let us ride our tricycles around. But as we got older, my parents didn’t have the money to get us bicycles and it was not safe to ride around the streets in our neighborhood anyway. Fast forward 30+ years and then you have an adult who just never learned to ride a bicycle. I always felt silly when my childhood friends wanted to ride their bikes in the summer and frequently made up excuses when my friends wanted to go on bike rides on the Cape or Block Island as an adult. How could I admit that I didn’t know how to ride a bicycle?
When I got married, I finally told my husband of my lack of cycling skills and he offered to teach me. He even bought me a new shiny mountain bike. He was patient and tried to teach me at a park near our house, but I was embarrassed to learn in front of 5 year-​olds whizzing by me. I gave up after one lesson and didn’t think I would ever sit on a bike again.
However, since we are hoping to start a family in the near future, I thought about having to sit on a park bench as my husband and our future kids went on a bike ride. I didn’t want that to happen so I did a Google search and found out that there is such a thing as Bicycle School AND that I am not the only adult in the world who doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Reading testimonials from Susan’s former students made me feel normal and not such an oddity.
I immediately contacted Susan and I could already tell on the phone that she was going to be a friendly, non-​judgmental teacher. Before I could back out, I immediately booked two 1.5 hour lessons with her in July. At the time, I was skeptical that two lessons would do the trick, but lo and behold. .. after two days riding around a school playground with Susan as my cheerleaders, I was able to balance and pedal a bicycle. I felt so amazed at my own progress. Indeed, Susan starts slow and goes at a pace you are comfortable with. She provides the bike, padding, and even water. She high fives you as you learn and exclaims, «You go girl» every now and then to encourage you. She is genuine and really wants you to master the skills. Not only was Susan a wonderful instructor, but she is an interesting individual and does charity work in Mali in the winter. The lessons were affordable and really life-​changing. If you’re rusty on a bike or never learned like me, I highly recommend contacting Susan right now! She teaches both children and adults near her home in Davis Square.

I learned how to ride a bike here at age 45, during a sweltering July day. My teacher Pata was very flexible about fitting me into existing group lessons, and also found time to give me 2 very inexpensive private lessons since I was only visiting the East Coast and had to return to the midwest soon. I had 4 lessons and was riding on the bike path pretty confidently near the end! Now I ride a road bike for fitness, which was my original goal, and am so happy to have gotten a great foundation at this school. This was a real ambition of mine and I am so grateful that this place exists. Lessons were so cheap it was a crime.

What a great place for ppl like me who for one reason or another never had the chance to learn this fun activity! The method these folks use is wonderful and guarantees a success. I’ve taken two classes with Pata who is super cool and great and am scheduled for a couple more to get me ready for safe riding anywhere. Thank u guys for putting this program together! There is something extra exciting when u learn simple thinhs such as bike riding at this age (31 yro) that makes u appreciate it and ur accomplishment so much more. It’s a great place with wonderful ppl who run it. They have plenty of equipment to fit ur body size and lots of great practical advice for the future from bike shopping to safe riding. So if u r thinking about giving bike riding a try or know someone who needs to learn (regarless of age!) please contact these folks. You won’t regret it!

Talk about the things one can forget to learn! Well I did forget how to learn the bike, part of it was that I never made it passed the training wheels, simply because the one after that, that was available in the place where I come from, was the huge adult one, and my feet barely touched the peddles. Yes I was scared I would fall, and I did fall and then I stopped.
So I grew up to keep my inability to ride bikes a secret, why say anything… the response is usually something like «omg, how can you not know how to ride a bike», sounds like an ignorant comment to me, I prefer «oh yeah, thats normal, you will learn».
Close friends said they would teach me, but never got the time, so I finally decided I needed to take it seriously and find some school where I can learn how to ride the bike and make it seem like it never happened in the first place! Like I always knew how to. So a friend of mine sent me the link to the bike riding school.
The bike riding school in somerville is simply the best, my teacher (Susan) is the calmest and patient and makes you feel like you (with a bike riding phobia) will finally be able to do this simple seeming skill that everyone including your grandmother, but you can do. By the end of my first lesson (in just one hour) I could ride the bike all over the parking lot, second lesson I was riding on the bike path, I was surprised! I expected a fall, a scratch, but no.
So yeah, Now I fit in damn it! and unless you are desperate and your read this you would never have known.
There are so many other people out there in your situation, don’t give up, and they are very regular people too, like the cool seeming person next to you.
oh and to anyone out there who ever said «omg you dont’ know how to ride the bike» watch out because I will race you! its payback time.

Learn to ride a bike no matter what… any age… any history
I know I was amazingly lucky to find this teacher and school. Definitely a harbinger of good things to come in my new life in Cambridge.
There is a reason Susan McLucas is the Bike Whisperer… ever egalitarian her method is laid out for any with internet access, but (in person) in action she knows the short phrase to tell each person to ‘adjust’ their entire approach and experience. She genuinely cheers for each success jumping in the air and high fiving (When it comes to cheery overly firendly enthusiasm I become a major curmudgeon. But with McLucas it is SO genuine I actually felt warmed and encouraged.)
She operates out of a barn conveniently located near a large practice playground and a bike path. A variety of bicycles in excellent working repair await… so do helmets, gloves, knee pads, elbow pads, parkas, rain gear, sweaters, water bottles… Once I saw The Operation I realized she could even teach an older relative of mine, one who is able to identify and voice any available objection… but what would be left to cite? nothing! hehehe
I was wondering if her 4 class series would do the trick… but every student (even the ones who came back for additional lessons) was ‘up’ on their bike within the first ten minutes… Even though it’s not base jumping, it might as well have been for me, learning a new physical skill as an adult definitely helps stave off the idea that certain doors are closed… a very good thing.
Check out this article in The Christian Science Monitor about the teacher, her method and some of the students.
Bicycle Riding School (aka Bicycle Barn & Riding School):