The simile, “it’s just like riding a
bike,” describes any learned skill that is easily recalled, even after long
periods of disuse. But riding a bicycle
is not the only such skill, and was not the first one to be used in a similar,
common expression.
Things that are “just like riding a
bike” include swimming and skating.
No one really knows who said what first – that skating is
like riding a bike, you never forget. Or
that riding a bike is like skating, you never forget.
Red Deer Advocate (Red Deer, Alberta), November 11, 1988, page 15.
“Swimming is a life skill,” [Olympic gold medalist Cullen]
Jones said. “It’s like riding a
bike. Once you learn, you will never
forget it.”
The Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, Louisiana), July 3, 2011, page 6.
Cavemen must have noticed how easy it
was to swing a club again when bear hunting season reopened every spring; medieval
serfs may have noticed how familiar it seemed to plow their landlord’s fields
again every spring; and Victorian aristocrats thrilled at how easily they could
jump stone walls in the first foxhunt of the new season after long winters
spent pent up in their big stone houses.
But such similes did not come into common use until the 1870s, and when
they did, “riding a bike” did not make the cut.
Long before “riding a bike” was the
epitome of a skill which, once learned is easy to recall, the ability to recall
a skill after long periods of disuse was generally likened to swimming or
skating. But early similes involving swimming
did not fully capture the notion of easy recall; they focused primarily on the
ease of doing it after mastering the basic technique.
In the 1830s, before the invention of
the safety razor and when shaving one’s self with a long straight razor
required skill and dexterity, the skill of shaving one’s self was said to be, “like
swimming, seldom acquired unless practiced when young.”[i]
And in the 1850s, someone likened learning
to skate with learning to swim, “Like swimming, all the difficulty of it is in
the commencement, at least for the purposes of enjoyment. The graces of outside strokes and spread
eagles, are the work of time and ambition.”[ii]
The celebrated British illustrator
and caricaturist, George Cruikshank, expressed the phenomenon of easy recall
after long periods of disuse in his pamphlet, “In Defence of the British
Volunteers of 1803 against the Attack by General W. Napier” (1859), in which he
extolled the benefits of learning military drill at a young age. He included the art of swimming, but without
a standard, pithy expression, he took a more cumbersome approach; a laundry
list of elements of “male education” which when “acquired in boyhood” are
“never forgotten.”[iii]
The fact is that learning the military exercise when young is
like learning to dance, or to ride, or to row, or to swim, or to fence, or to
box at an early age; and when these very important parts of male education or
training are acquired in boyhood, they are never forgotten. If a boy has been taught to dance he never
forgets how to dance, and soon acquires a new step or learns a new figure;
also, if when grown to manhood, although he may not have crossed a horse for
years, he never forgets how to hold his bridle, and soon finds his “deep seat”
even upon a restive horse; and farther, that although not having swam for
years, should he by accident fall into the water, he swims; and so the same
with rowing, fencing, boxing, marching, or firing.
The Daily News
(London), December 28, 1859, page 2; Lloyd’s
Weekly Newspaper (London), January 1, 1860, page 8.
 |
| Original artwork from “In Defence of the British Volunteers of 1803,” reproduced in The Life of George Cruikshank in Two Epochs, London, Chatto & Windus, 1894, page 36. |
A few decades later, Cruikshank might have had better options; “it’s just like dancing, riding, swimming, rowing,
fencing, boxing, marching or firing a weapon” just doesn’t have the same punch
as “just like riding a bike.” But he
couldn’t possibly have said, “it’s just like riding a bike” in 1859; bicycles didn’t even exist until nearly a decade later.
The similarities between the learning
curves for riding a bike and skating were obvious from the early days of the first
bicycle craze, “Velocipedomania.”
The Velocipedomania is spreading, and we may expect shortly
to be as familiar with these new conveyances in London as in Paris. In America, also, velocipedes – or bicycles
as they are called – are becoming very popular . . . . I may mention, by the way, that the art of
sitting and working a velocipede is by no means easy to acquire, and intending
velocipedists may prepare themselves for sundry hard falls and bruises. It is, in fact, just
like skating, very difficult to learn at first; and easy enough when once the
knack is acquired.
The Royal Cornwall Gazette (Truro, England), April 1, 1869, page 8.
“Like Swimming (or Skating)”
Similes using “like swimming” and “like
skating” first appear in great numbers beginning in the 1870s. Bicycles were still in their infancy, and the
skill was likely not yet ripe to be used as an easily recognizable or
understandable reference point. Riding a
bike would not be used in similar expressions until another bicycle craze in
the 1890s, and would not become commonplace until the 1930s or 1940s. Until that time, swimming was the dominant
reference point, with skating also an option.
But in the earliest known example of
something like the modern expression in print, swimming and skating shared top
billing. The Democratic Party had just
enjoyed its first substantial election success in Vermont in many years; the ability
to brag about their accomplishments came back naturally.
Political crowing is a good deal like
swimming and skating – when once you learn how, you never forget, no matter
how long the interval between your efforts.
The Burlington Free Press, March 21, 1871, page 2.
Although this was the first set I had danced in near forty
years, the steps came back to me just like swimming,
and some how or other I have felt about ten years younger ever since.
Athens Post
(Athens, Alabama), July 30, 1875, page 2.
Two magazines, each with large
national circulation, published two separate examples, on two continents,
within two months of each other in 1878.
In a short story about ice skating
published in the American magazine, Harper’s
Weekly in March, skating was compared to swimming.
I plainly made out from what Bill said that there was skating
on the bay every evening, and the thought of it was certainly fresh and
invigorating. “I suppose it don’t matter
much,” I said, “whether a fellow is a little out of practice or not?” “Oh no,”
said Banta, “It’s like swimming, you know; you’ll never
forget how to swim.”
“The Outer Edge,” Harper’s Weekly (New York), March 9,
1878, page 190 (widely reprinted in newspapers across the country).
In a public service announcement
published in May, in the British humor magazine, Punch, the secretary of the London Swimming Club encouraged people
to learn how to swim because it just might save your life some day, and once
learned, will not be forgotten.
Getting on
Swimmingly.
To the
Editor of “Punch.”
. . . Let me add here, that although a man may lose the ability
to practice many athletic feats, he will never forget
how to swim; and that in an emergency a knowledge of the art will
produce the coolness and nerve that is so necessary to save life.
The Hon. Sec. London Swimming Club, “Central Baths” (corner
of Wilderness Row), J. Garratt Elliot, April 29th 1878.
Punch (London),
May 11, 1878, page 207.
Swimming was marketed as something easy
to remember in several learn-to-swim campaigns, which may have contributed to
its becoming the dominant standard.
Learn to
Swim.
“Teach them to swim,” says the Pella Visitor, “as everybody should learn to swim. It may be very convenient some day to know
how to keep afloat.
. . .[O]nce learned it is never
forgotten. A man who has once
learned to swim may stay out of the water for twenty years, and then being cast
into the water by the capsizing of a boat, will strike out as naturally as a
dog or horse. But man swims by
knowledge, not by instinct; hence he must first learn the stroke. After that he is safe in the possession of
this power, for he never forgets how to swim.
The Nebraska State Journal, August 21, 1880, page 4.
Swimming is such a useful art that it should be learned by
every one, and it is a well known fact that no one ever
forgets how to swim after the stroke has been acquired.
The Leavenworth Standard, June 12, 1888, page 2.
But even after swimming became the
more common standard for ease-of-recall, skating was still an option. In a short story about the return of a
long-lost brother, a brother who left town as a wealthy man with fancy clothes
returned years later, down on his luck with shabby clothes. Nevertheless, he fell easily back into his
expensive habits, resuming the life of a “swell.”
Being a swell, I take it, is
something like swimming or skating – you never forget it altogether, and
a little practice brings it back as good as ever.
“His Long Lost Brother,” Albany de
Fanblanque, The Bucks County Gazette
(Bristol, Pennsylvania), October 27, 1881, page 1.
More frequently, swimming was the
standard.
And boxing, like swimming, one never
forgets or mislays; like swimming, too, you may not want it once in a
long time, but when you do want it – well, you want it.
Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), November 24, 1891, page 9.
I used to be some pumpkins on ice
skates when I was a kid, I can tell you.
That was a good while ago, but I daresay I haven’t forgotten. It’s sort of like
swimming you know – once you learn you never forget.
“Mr. Justwed Cuts a ‘Figure Eight,’” The Pittsburgh Gazette, January 24,
1910, page 12.
In 1915, the banking slogan, “savings
is like swimming,” appeared in ad campaigns in dozens of newspapers, in more
than half the states, in every corner of the country.
Saving is just like Swimming.
It takes a chap an awful long time to make up his MIND TO JUMP in. But once he gets the hang of it, IT’S EASY.
Delaware County Daily Times (Chester, Pennsylvania), July 17, 1915, page 1.
Saving is like swimming; once you get the “hang” of it it’s
easy, and you never forget how.
The Michigan Banker (Detroit), Volume 13, Number 2, August 1916, page 6; Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, North
Carolina), November 3, 1915, page 4..
 |
The Star Press
(Muncie, Indiana), September 29, 1916, page 12.
|
 |
The Palmyra Spectator (Palmyra, Missouri), September 17, 1919, page 5.
|
Although most people liked that swimming
was easy to recall, some flappers tried to forget – for obvious reasons, lessons
could be fun.
 |
“Now is the time for all pretty girls
to forget how to swim,” York Dispatch
(York, Pennsylvania), June 18, 1928, page 8.
|
“Like Riding a Bicycle”
While swimming remained the dominant frame
of reference into the 1940s, comparisons to riding a bike appeared in print as
early as 1896, during a second bicycle fad, made possible by the increasing
popularity of chain-driven “safety bicycles.” More people were riding bikes, and more of
them had had the experience of getting back on a bike after extended periods
away.
In an article about a woman who
hadn’t ridden her “wheel” in months, a friend advises her not to buy a season
ticket at the local bike riding school; it would be a waste of money because she
would likely pick the skill back up again without much effort.
“Don’t buy any season tickets,” suggested a practical looking
girl, “but take out a wheel for an hour’s practice. If you can’t ride almost as well as you did when
you left here, I’ll pay for your lesson. One never
forgets how to ride. You think
you have, but the minute you mount it all comes back in a flash, and while you
may feel a little nervous at the start, you will get over that after taking two
or three turns. At least, that’s what I
have been told, and I should like to see it tested.
“I’ve heard men who used to ride the old height machines and
bone breakers years ago say that they had gone into an academy to learn to ride
a modern safety, thinking they would have to take lessons, but that the minute
they landed in the saddle the light dawned upon them, and away they went as if
they had been riding a ’95 or ’96 model for years. If that is true of a man, why shouldn’t it be
true of a woman? They say our brains are
not so large, I know, but I’m willing to wager a good deal on it that our
memories are better.” . . . in ten minutes she had the wheel under perfect
control . . . .
“It was fine,” she commenced, “ and the men are right. One does not forget
how to ride after once learning.
Everything came back to me and I remembered many of the pointers that my
instructor gave me, and soon began to feel as though I had been on a wheel only
yesterday.
The Sun (New
York), January 12, 1896, page 30.
Yet it was still not common knowledge
a year later in Newton, Kansas.
The bicyclist is having such a long rest in Newton that he
will forget to ride and have to learn all over again.
Newton Daily Republican (Newton, Kansas), January 22, 1897, page 4.
They sensed it might be the case in
Pennsylvania a few months later, but hedged their bets.
Although one probably will never
forget how to ride a wheel, yet the first attempt in the spring of the
year brings with it that eager watchfulness, that sensation of awkwardness, and
that keen feeling of having one’s feet off Mother Earth. But with this also comes, after a few
minutes’ riding, a distinct flush of pride and pleasure that it is not felt by
those who ride off and on during the favorable opportunities of winter when the
streets are dry.
The Central News (Perkasie, Pennsylvania), March 4, 1897, page 2.
A decade and a half later, the
President of Ohio Northern University surprised everyone by demonstrating the
phenomenon.
[H]e mounted the wheel and rode off like a trick rider. But what a sight! Doc. Mohler hailed him and
took off his hat in salute.
Boarding-house women looked in wonder after the receding figure. “President Smith’s got a new wheel” yelled
the kids. Busy men turned around in
amazement to see the president’s summer coat swinging in the breeze on a
bicycle for the first time in Ada. But
he proved his point, “A man never forgets” – how to
ride a wheel. – Ada Record.
The Marion Star
(Marion, Ohio), August 6, 1912, page 5.
Riding a bicycle took its place
alongside skating and swimming, as the point of reference in a simile, by 1915.
I can skate all right.
There used to be an empty lot next to where I lived when I was a kid and
ice skating’s one of those things you never forget,
like swimming and riding a bike.
So, while others were tuning up, I gave a little exhibition all my
own. All the women, except one, were
green with envy.
“Mollie of the Movies,” Alma Woodward,
The Evening World (New York),
December 17, 1915, page 22.
The Boy Scout magazine, Boys’ Life, used the simile a couple
years later. With reference to first-aid
training, an over-confident Scout asserted, “It’s like riding a bicycle . . . .
You never forget.” (Spoiler alert – he
was wrong; first-aid takes practice.)
 |
| “Don Strong, Patrol Leader,” William Heyliger, Boys’ Life, Volume 7, Number 9, November 1917, pg. 6 ("What did we say for 'it's just like riding a bike' before we had bicycles," Thanasis Karavasilis, EnglishStackExchange.com). |
By the 1930s, some people considered
riding a bike and swimming on par with one another in the easy-to-remember
category. It may have been generally
true, but there were always exceptions – it’s a good thing some bystanders had
been practicing their first-aid skills.
There has been a general belief that there are two things a
man never forgets – how to ride a bicycle and how to swim. From time to time there has been proof of
each but the swimming ability failed Jere Mahone, well known resident of Locust
Gap, who, after fifteen years of absence from a swimming pool, prepared to show
a number of young folks at the Gap just how the trick should be performed. . .
.
With a form that would have done credit to the world’s
champion, Mahoney dived in to the pool at its deepest place while a goodly
crowd looked on. But when it came to
returning to the surface and performing graceful strokes of which he boasted
possession, Mahoney just simply wasn’t there and it was necessary for a number
of young men to perform rescue work and assist the swimmer of by-gone years to
a place of safety.
Shamokin News-Dispatch (Shamokin, Pennsylvania), July 1, 1931, page 1.
During the 1930s, a syndicated column
brought the example of riding a bicycle to dozens of newspapers across the
United States and Canada, from Miami to Vancouver, and New York to Arizona, and
all points in between, which may have helped establish “riding a bike” as the
standard easily recalled skill. The
earliest examples appeared in January 1, 1932, the latest in July 1939.
Like anything else, the expression
received even more attention when picked by high-profile figures in American
pop-culture.
In 1950, James Cagney, who started
his career as a Broadway chorus dancer at the age of 10, took on his first
dancing role since winning an Academy Award as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy eight years earlier. He wasn’t worried; “It’s like riding a
bicycle. You never forget.”[iv]
In 1951, Alan Hale Sr.’s widow
returned to acting after a 30 year hiatus.
Mrs. Hale, the mother of Alan Hale Jr. who played the Skipper in
Gilligan’s Island (no Academy Award nominations), wasn’t nervous; “It’s just
like riding a bicycle. Once you get your
balance you can go right along.”[v]
In 1954, Bill Boyd, the former
Hopalong Cassidy of film (no Academy Award nominations) said he could still ride
a horse; “Riding a horse is like riding a bicycle . . . Once you learn how you
never forget.”[vi]
That same year, Billy Wilder wrote
the expression into his Academy Award-nominated screenplay for Sabrina.
After a lifetime of avoiding romantic entanglements, Humphrey Bogart’s
character fell in love with Audrey Hepburn’s character (the daughter of his
family’s long-time chauffeur). He wasn’t
afraid of being rusty at romance; “It will all come back to me. It’s just like riding a bicycle.”[vii]
Sports stars got into the act as
well. When college football banned the
“platoon” system in 1953 (eliminating offensive and defensive specialists and
forcing players to play both ways), some fans worried that offensive specialists
might have trouble on defense, while others thought they would take it in
stride. “It is still absurd to claim
that a great offensive back just doesn’t know anything about tackling . . . The
odds are 10-1 that he had to tackle plenty in high school or, if not there,
certainly back on the corner lots as a kid . . . And, like riding a bicycle,
you never forget how to perform such chores.”[viii]
Baseball Hall-of-Famer and lifetime
.331 hitter Stan Musial claimed that he would never forget how to bat, which gave
fuel to critics when he had the occasional slump.
Quick-Quote: “Hitting is like riding a bicycle. Once you learn how, you never forget” –
Stanley (The Manly) Musial.
(Incidentally, we were talking with a major league scout last
night who thinks Stanley is – at lengthy last – beginning to forget).
Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, May 3, 1955, page 21.
He clarified his stance the following
season.
Stan Musial, who sat out today’s game, says: “Hitting is like
riding a bicycle – once you have it you never forget how to do it even if you
have spells where hits don’t drop safe.
Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1956, page 31.
“Life is like riding a bike”
Another influence may have contributed
to “riding a bike” becoming most common frame of reference for ease of recall,
an old saying about life being “like riding a bicycle,” which is sometimes
attributed to Albert Einstein.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
The earliest variant of the expression
dates back to nearly the infancy of bicycle riding. Garson O’Toole, the “Quote Investigator,”
traced it to 1882, when Einstein was only three years old and likely hadn’t
learned to ride a bike yet. The QuoteInvestigator.com
website has a
comprehensive history of the saying.
Einstein could ride a bike.
But there’s no truth to the rumor
that he did so during an atomic weapons test.
[i] Brattleboro Messenger (Brattleboro,
Vermont), December 29, 1832, page 4.
[ii] Glasgow Herald (Glasgow, Scotland),
December 2, 1850, page 4.
[iii]
The back story to George Cruikschank’s early military education is that Britain
withdrew from the Treaty of Amiens in 1803, when Cruikshank was eleven years
old, placing them on a war footing with Napoleon. Local men formed themselves into regiments of
volunteers, and local boys to follow suit.
Cruikshank’s older brother “formed one of these juvenile regiments, and
appointed himself the colonel.” They procured “small ‘gun stocks,’ into which
[they] fixed mop-sticks for barrels, kindly polished by Betty, with a tinge of
black-lead, to make ‘em look like real barrels.” They would go down to the parade grounds and
emulate their elders, marching, counter-marching, marking time, wheeling and
about-facing. A decade later, when Napoleon
came out of exile, a mature George joined a real company of volunteer soldiers,
and all of the early training came back easily.
If he were writing today, “it’s just like riding a bike” might have
filled the bill.
[iv] Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio), April
16, 1950, Society Section, Page 10.
[v] The Manhattan Mercury (Manhattan, Kansas),
May 25, 1951, page 8.
[vi] Los Angeles Times, January 28, 1954,
part 3, page 2.
[vii] Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth,
Texas), November 5, 1954, page 28.
[viii]
The Knoxville Journal (Knoxville,
Tennessee), Septembe 22, 1953, page 9.
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