Getting seniors back on their bicycle; a case-control study on the improvement of bicycle balance control

Abstract

This paper reports on a case-control study that evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at improving bicycle balance control (BC) in a group of senior citizens (N=23) that had quit cycling (N=19) or that were about to do so (N=4). The intervention was designed to increase the difficulty of the bicycle BC task in a stepwise fashion, gradually approaching the difficulty of bicycle BC on the public roads. The intervention lasted 11 weeks and involved three components: (1) training on an exercise bicycle, (2) BC training on a bicycle simulator, and (3) cycling on the public roads with a safe start-and-stop technique that was practiced on the bicycle simulator. This intervention produced a very large improvement (Cohen’s d = 1.8) in BC skills and confidence on the public roads. The fact that bicycle BC skills and confidence can be drastically improved over a relatively short period does not rule out the likely role of the slower process of acquiring a sufficient lower body strength.