By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

IT’S an expression that I could never really identify with. “It’s like riding a bike.”

Apparently, it means that once you’ve learned how to do a certain thing, you never forget. But what if you never learned to do it in the first place? As a bookish, skinny kid, I never learned to ride a bicycle. I remember sharing a tricycle with my siblings, but never going too fast because it made me dizzy. I actually remember riding an actual bike — but with training wheels — years later — in a spectacularly unsuccessful fashion. For some reason, I really could not keep the bike upright and in motion, this, even with the training wheels. I kept crashing into the subdivision’s foliage and getting scratches and bumps. I pretty much gave up trying to learn—and never did.

There are many things to take away from that little tidbit. For one thing, balance has never been my strong suit. Despite my best efforts, multi-tasking is not one of my strengths. I’m more like that memorable member of DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, Jo Nah, better known as Ultra Boy (the Keith Giffen version). Ultra Boy, after all, had all of Superboy’s powers, but could only use them one at a time. Thus, I can really only do one activity at any given moment, as that one activity requires all my attention.

So, I never learned how to drive. When I had to steer, I kept forgetting how to shift gears. When I had to shift to second, I couldn’t figure out how to brake.

The weird thing is that I love cars and can appreciate a muscular motorcycle. Even stranger, I love watching the Tour de France. I consider Lance Armstrong to be a true role model, am glad that his manager Johan Bruyneel is a true organization genius. Every year, I enjoy watching the peloton and its battle up and down the peaks. It will be a pleasure to watch Armstrong ride the Tour for Bruyneel at Team Astana no matter what the results.

And all this, for someone who can’t keep a bicycle upright. It’s a lesson I guess that just because we can’t do something, doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate it. In fact, we might actually be able to appreciate, even love it more precisely because we can’t. That is something we never forget — how it is, not to ride a bike.

Read about bicycles and other traffic ideas in the November 30 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.