LEARN-TO-RIDE - Cycles for Change

KRISTA WAX
LEARN-TO-RIDE
“What took me so long? Why did I put
it off?” Krista Wax, a spring 2015 Learn-toRide participant, ponders this question, as
so many other adults might when learning
to ride a bike after years of trying.
“I just wrote it off as I’ll never ride a
bike and I’ll have to stick to spin class,” she
says of her years of putting off learning to
ride. Wax, who is a U of M graduate and
works at Entellus Medical in Plymouth,
loved her spin class. “Stationary biking was
‘safest’ before the real thing,” she admits.
Wax heard about the Learn-to-Ride
program from her mom, who heard about
it on WCCO in the fall of 2014. She knew
her daughter had been trying to ride since
childhood, trying many times on and off,
struggling to stay upright. “My mom wasn’t
pushy—more like ‘Hey, in case you want to
try it again,’” recalls Wax. “I was like, ‘Oh,
man. I have to wait until next spring?” she
laughs.
“Stationary biking was ‘safest’
before the real thing,”
That desire and enthusiasm bode well
for her during the four-week class, hosted
out of Spokes in Minneapolis. Each of the
four Learn-to-Ride classes is 90 minutes
long and takes place at Matthews Park. “The
first week we got acclimated with our bike,
stretched, practiced not ‘death-gripping’
the handlebars, tried to move the bike with
our feet on the ground, and just get used to
being on the bike,” Wax explains. She also
marvels at how patient the three instructors
were and how they really knew how to talk
to her as she learned. “It was such a safe
environment, and one with people who
were in the same boat as you,” she says.
“We all made it, we all survived, we
all came back in one piece.”
Her class had ten other learners in it,
mostly parents who wanted to learn to ride
because their children knew how, and it was
a welcoming, casual environment for all. “I
was the first to start to pedal,” Wax humble
brags. “Everyone else was jealous. It was a
great first night.”
Wax missed the second class, but
during the third, she and her classmates
started bicycling around the tennis court
in Matthews Park. Instructor Sheldon
Mains played a huge role in her bicycling
education, teaching her the tricks of starting
and stopping. Already, on just her second
lesson, Wax was successfully stopping,
braking, and maneuvering her bike around
cones. But, her favorite class was the fourth
and final, because they all went out on the
street for an actual bike ride.
“I was out of my comfort zone,” she
says of the experience. “But it was so much
fun. There was a girl riding behind me and
after the first block I turned around to her
and yelled ‘We did a whole block!’ All of us
were super excited. We all made it, we all
survived, we all came back in one piece.”
And Wax marvels at how everyone
was so supportive of one another, coming
together as a new community of bicyclists.
“We all cheered each other on as we kept
improving,” she says. “While we did our
bike ride on the road, I was practicing my
hand signaling and two of [my classmates]
cheered for me and told me what a great job
I was doing.” Everyone left that final class
with a sense of pride.
With the conclusion of her Learnto-Ride program, Wax was ready to jump
right in to the world of biking. “I got a
bike two weeks later and went on the Bikea-Thon,” she says. “I did the 20 mile one
out of Spokes, close to where I live, and
Sheldon was like ‘You just finished class
a month ago. You’re doing twenty miles?’
But, yes, I made it.” she recalls. Mains and
Wax even had the opportunity to bike part
of the ride together. “I was so happy to ride
with Sheldon because he knew me and my
abilities, and it was a lot of fun to be able to
share the ride with him.”
When asked what the most important
thing is she learned in the Learn-to-Ride
program and how it has carried over into
her life now, she laughs, recalling the mind
block that told her she was going to fail and
always set her back from accomplishing
learning to ride. “I’m on a rampage now:
what else can I tackle, what else have I been
putting off in life? I don’t limit myself now.
I can do what I want, push towards goals.
[The class] was very empowering. It was the
best confidence booster.”
Besides boosting confidence, Wax also
thinks bicycling helps create community.
“I [recently] went to the East Lake Street
Opens Streets—not an area I would
normally go to,” she says. “It was great to
see the local businesses and people, proud
of their neighborhood. And seeing everyone
biking in the open street.” She pauses to
think about the world and bicycling. “If I
was running the country, I’d have everybody
just get on a bike,” she says. “Stop what you
are doing and ride. You will feel better.”
cycles
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