Two unique things about bikes is that it is harder the slower you go, and it uses a skill, balance, that we practice every day as we stand and walk. When you ar

Two unique things about bikes is that it is harder the slower you go, and it uses a skill, balance, that we practice every day as we stand and walk. When you are a child, afraid of falling, with no experience, you want to go very slow. And that is the hardest way to ride a bike. As you increase speed it wants to stay more stable (on a flat surface). Just the knowledge that you have done it before, that it is an easy thing, means that in the first second you are accelerating to a speed where it is in fact easy to ride a bike. I don't think that particular example is as much about skill as it is about confidence. Frankly, the experience "you don't forget how to ride a bike" was true for me the very first time I rode a bike. My mom was holding on to the bike, then we moved faster, then a few seconds later I realized my mom had stopped behind me and I had been doing it on my own. We just had reached a speed where that became easy. And then the trick was not panicking ;)