How do you get on your bike?

[Sharky]

I too swing my right leg over, I dont get people who swing a leg over the bars though, That just looks wrong.

May look wrong, but is one of the better options when your tandem stoker is already on board.

 

[grumpyoldwoman]

Left leg over. Don't really even try the other way. I don't even like wheeling it from the left side.

So glad someone is like me! i thought I was an odd one out!!!!!!

 

[jefmcg]

May look wrong, but is one of the better options when your tandem stoker is already on board.

I know I would kick a baby in the head if I used one of those rear mounted baby seats.

 

[GGJ]

90% of the time it's left leg first and left foot on the pedal first

 

[ColinJ]

I know I would kick a baby in the head if I used one of those rear mounted baby seats.

I knew someone who took his toddler twins out on his bike - one seat behind the saddle and one on the top tube behind the stem. He must have had a right job getting on and off the bike! And pedalling, actually ... I'm wondering now if the front seat was over the front wheel. It was over 25 years ago, so the details are a bit fuzzy. I'll ask him next time I see him.

 

[Julia9054]

90% of the time it's left leg first and left foot on the pedal first

Me too.
Never realised how tricky it would prove to be trying to do it the other way round when i went for a tandem ride with a right sided bloke!

 

[freiston]

So glad someone is like me! i thought I was an odd one out!!!!!!

I'm the same - are you (or jefmcg) left-handed, I wonder.

 

[jefmcg]

I'm the same - are you (or jefmcg) left-handed, I wonder.

Not me. Nor goofy-footed.

 

[Salad Dodger]

Right leg over, which works fine until you are sur le continong, where you find yourself dismounting into the road! I cant seem to stand using my right leg and get my left leg off the bike. It just ends with me in an untidy heap!

Actually, these days, unless the kerb is tall, I find I have to lean the bike over to about 45 degree angle to get my leg up high enough to clear the saddle. Not many marks for style......

 

[Gixxerman]

If starting from the left side of the road, left foot on left pedal, then scoot away for a short distance and swing right leg over. Sometimes I have done this with the bike staionary / moving very slowly - it looks quite cool until the time it goes wrong. Swap left for right if starting on the right side of the road.
I think a more interesting question would be to ask how you un-mount your steed. I have tried many variants, some planned, some unplanned. Some of the latter types were not recommended.

 

[classic33]

If starting from the left side of the road, left foot on left pedal, then scoot away for a short distance and swing right leg over. Sometimes I have done this with the bike staionary / moving very slowly - it looks quite cool until the time it goes wrong. Swap left for right if starting on the right side of the road.
I think a more interesting question would be to ask how you un-mount your steed. I have tried many variants, some planned, some unplanned. Some of the latter types were not recommended.

For dismounting, the reverse of your method for mounting. But nearly always from the right-hand side.

 

[jefmcg]

I'm the same - are you (or jefmcg) left-handed, I wonder.

Just been thinking about this a bit more.

Mounting from the left is obviously more logical with left side driving, so I bet that's why most people do it. But it's not what you are thinking about when you are first learning to cycle, but it's how you are taught.

But I basically taught myself to cycle (rode once or twice during my childhood, but got my first bike in my twenties) so I just picked a random side, and got it (slightly wrong).

Maybe I'll have to move to France.

 

[ColinJ]

I knew someone who took his toddler twins out on his bike - one seat behind the saddle and one on the top tube behind the stem. He must have had a right job getting on and off the bike! And pedalling, actually ... I'm wondering now if the front seat was over the front wheel. It was over 25 years ago, so the details are a bit fuzzy. I'll ask him next time I see him.

Funnily enough, I bumped into bike-dad in Hebden Bridge park today so I DID ask him.

It turns out that it was over 35 years ago! The twins got too big and heavy beyond the age of 3. He said that there was one seat over the back wheel and one that attached to the head tube and rested on the top tube, just behind the stem. He mounted and dismounted the bike between the kids and it was difficult to hold the bike upright while doing so.

He had to ride with the saddle lowered and his knees splayed out because of the child in front of him. It made going uphill very hard work.

He said that the kids loved being taken out on the bike like that.

 

[Sara_H]

I'm a step through frame kinda gal. But in the event I'm riding a bike with a cross bar (shudders) I'm a right leg swinger, though I have been known to use the drop down technique.

 

[Tojo]

There has been a thread about this before, and I thought at the time that it was weird as I have just always got on my bike from any side or even over the saddle from behind and never ever considered that some people get on theirs from one side only.......You one siders are weird.........or am I, you've got me now....