Restoring Vintage Bicycles: A Lesson in Learner Development

self portrait of author on bicycle, 2020

In mid-April, my mental health needed a hard reset to cope with feeling isolated. Unexpectedly, I turned to bicycle restoration as a hobby. I quickly realized my underestimation of bicycle restoration and my assumptions that I was “done” with developing as a learner.

Learning involves surface-level knowledge

and metacognition

The first action as an aspiring bicycle mechanic and first step to learning is building a “foundation” of knowledge. Without this information, I could exacerbate issues with my bike by messing with the wrong parts… a lesson I frequently learned the hard way.

The largest “learning curve” for me was re-learning metacognition, or the self-assessment of my skills and learning progress (Bransford et al., 2000). Metacognition was needed to help me “fail” and identify the things I didn’t understand about bicycle repair. Especially in the age of COVID-19 where I can’t go to a bike co-op to apprentice and ask questions of an instructor directly, I had to be in constant reflection about my progress.

Deep understanding= factual knowledge → usable knowledge

Think of a bicycle as a body-- a complex universe containing smaller systems that work collectively to move a person from one place to another. To achieve understanding of a bicycle system, a novice should understand the relationships and functions of parts within larger systems. Once I learned the parts, understood relationships/functions, I transfered my knowledge to efficiently conduct bike diagnostics of a problem and develop a plan to resolve the issue.

Want to learn more about how my hobby-turned-business facilitated my learner development? Read my full essay here.

References

Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. National Academy Press. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368.