Can you swim and ride a bike?

[Ferne88]

I kind of assumed that most adults (save for those prevented from doing so by health reasons) could swim and ride a bike, but my friend reckons not.

So can you swim (so by that I mean at least a 50 meter length) and ride a bike?

I can ride a bike but not very well as I have an appalling sense of balance. Can’t swim at all as whatever chemicals they put in swimming pools brings me out in a horrible rash which takes ages to go. Found that out at my one and only swimming lesson at school many years ago.

Of course.

Yes to both, and both were taught by parents and not school. I am teaching my child and wouldn’t expect a school to teach either, though “cycling proficiency” and swimming classes/badges (along with BAGA for gymnastics) were available at my primary school - all of them assumed a basic level of ability that the kid could already swim/ cycle/ backbend etc., which we all could.

Yes. Perfectly competent at both, and in sea / pool. I'm 50.

I probably can't ride a bike now since I've not done it for about 40 years

But yes, swim

I started school in the UK 45 years ago and we had no swimming lessons ever. Not at my primary school nor at my secondary school. I can swim, because my parents enrolled me in a swimming club, but I have a couple of friends form school who didn't learn as children and sitll can't swim as adults. My DP also can't swim as he wasn't taught where he grew up in Jamaica. We can both ride bikes.

Yes

I can do both but I'm not especially proficient or confident at either. Used to be a much stronger swimmer when I was a kid.

DH is a decent swimmer and a very confident cyclist.

Yes, reasonably well, and so can my young adult children including one with dyspraxia.

Yes! Was a competitive swimmer until I was 16 and I've always loved biking. Shattered my humerus doing so when I was 12 but still! 🤣

I could. But can't now.

I can swim to an extent, but not well.

Presume I can still ride a bike but it's been years since I did. Can't swim though despite loads of lessons. Hate water in my face, can even cope with that in the shower. I know RNLI advice is to lie on your back if you're caught in open water but I can't imagine anything more terrifying. Waves splashing over your face. Both my kids can ride bikes and swim like fishes.

I can swim confidently, though not particularly fast.

I haven't ridden a bike for about 30 years. I wouldn't trust myself to be safe on a road with a bike, but I could ride it in the sense of staying on it and moving forward.

Yes.

For anyone who can’t swim, it’s never too late to learn. My mother only learnt as an adult. Obviously you can learn to ride a bike later in life too but knowing how to cycle rarely saves your/someone else’s life.

Used to be able to - despite the common adage, whilst my head knows how to ride a bike, the rest of me (thanks to a car accident) has very, very much forgotten how, not that I'd even try due to, you know, not wanting to to be taken out by a shit car or van driver by the first roundabout.

And I was always shit at swimming so I might be able to doggy paddle a bit, but not actually swim now I've got considerable tendon damage due to autoimmune disease.

I can not swim (am in my 40s), and could not ride a bike until I was 11.

Yes, the only adult I know who can’t is my FIL, he can’t really swim. But he grew up in poverty in inner-city Liverpool in the 50’’s.

I can do both but DH never learnt to ride a bike. I've always wondered what he did when his mates went out on their bikes when he was young? He doesn't like me mentioning it and gets a bit defensive.

Yes, but I'm a much better swimmer than cyclist as I've spent much more time in the pool/sea than on a bike.
I can ride a horse better than I can ride a bike as I've horse ridden more than bike ridden

Competent at both. Swam half a mile in the sea today.

Early 60s if it makes any difference.

I could swim as a kid, but only in a pool (not open water). Haven't been swimming for years, combination of local pools closing and then illness. Never learned to ride a bike (didn't have access to one as a kid).

I can swim but can't ride a bike. I'm autistic and find coordinating the necessary different actions from different parts of the body difficult and stressful.

No, neither. There wasn’t money for swimming lessons and there definitely wasn’t money for bikes.

No to both.

Swam half a mile in the sea today

That’s a life skill I’ve never picked up. Not the sea swimming, the gauging distance. I could say how long I’d swum for but wouldn’t have a clue as to distance.