I forgot how to cycle: What it's like learning to ride a bike as an adult

After a couple of wobbly incidents on a bike, it was time to get some professional help

The first thing you should do is get a bike that's the right size for your height.  Picture: Greg Murphy

You know the phrase, ‘like riding a bike’? It means you have a skill that, once learned, you can never forget. It is also a lie, I have discovered. By the age of 30, I had firmly established that I had forgotten how to cycle. 

As a child, I could cycle a bike. I grew up in a housing estate in Cork’s northside in the 90s, so there were plenty of children my age around to play with and no one batted an eye if I borrowed a school friend’s brother’s bike for a few hours to race up and down the hill or just pedal lazily along a footpath.