Most Americans learn how to ride a bicycle around the age of 5. But not Maria De La Cueva.

One of eight siblings who grew up in Anaheim in the 1950s, her traditional Mexican family had different rules for her five brothers than for De La Cueva and her sisters.

“The boys got to ride bicycles, but not the girls. The girls, we did not even go in the front yard,” said De La Cueva.

But at age 65, she finally learned how to ride a bicycle with the help of a coach.

“I’ve always wanted to ride a bike, but as I get older, I’m afraid of falling. I still push myself. If you’re afraid of doing something, don’t try to do it by yourself,” she said.

De La Cueva reached out for help and hired the Long Beach nonprofit BikeUCation and its owner, Kellie Morris, for a series of one-on-one lessons.

In July, she began fulfilling her lifelong dream of pedaling down the street on two wheels. Four hour-long lessons later, she was comfortable enough to ride by herself down the ocean-adjacent bike path near her Seal Beach home.

“There seems to be a pretty large percentage of adults that never learned how to ride a bike or had a bad experience learning how to ride a bike as a child so they never went on to continue riding as an adult,” said Morris.

A bicycle safety instructor certified through the League of American Cyclists, Morris understands the concerns of older cyclists. Though Morris learned how to ride a bicycle as a child, like a lot of adults she gave it up midlife because “you get married, you have kids, you work, you don’t have time to do that sort of thing,” she said.

Morris was in her late 40s when she took up bicycling again to participate in an AIDS charity ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco with a friend. Now 61, she cycles daily.

Whether they are returning cyclists or learning for the first time, adult students “come to me with a lot of fear,” Morris said. “Especially with seniors, they’re afraid of falling and breaking a bone.”

Morris tries to reassure her students with a psychology lesson before bolstering them with practical skills.

“Fear is something that’s in your head, but bicycle riding isn’t in your head. It’s motor skills and training your body to respond without you thinking about it,” said Morris, who begins teaching adult riders on a bike without pedals to learn balance, much like a child’s strider-type bicycle.

“The focus is on feeling balance because when an adult sees a set of pedals, they feel the pressure to start pedaling,” said Morris.

Once balance becomes natural she moves students to bicycles with pedals and introduces them to the concept of the “power pedal position” – starting their bikes from a stop with the pedal for their dominant foot in the 2 o’clock position, slightly forward of straight up and down.

“When you put all your weight on that pedal, you don’t have to worry about balance or getting enough speed,” Morris said. “You have a lot of power moving forward and have plenty of time to get your other foot on the pedal.”

Every time riders stop, they should return to the power pedal position without looking at their feet, Morris said.

She encourages her students to look where they want to go and trust that the bike will follow.

Morris has been teaching adult bicycle lessons for the last three years, including group classes offered through the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. Her one-on-one lessons cost $60 per hour. Students typically need four lessons, the last of which she gives for free, she said.

“She’s extremely nurturing, so even though she’s pushing you, she believes in you all the way,” De La Cueva said of Morris. “She told me, ‘All you’re going to do is glide,’ and then she adds a little bit of something else. It was step by step as opposed to me deciding I’m just going to get on a bike and ride it.”

De La Cueva spent her first two lessons in the parking lot behind her home and another of her four lessons with Morris to buy a properly fitting Giant brand bicycle. De La Cueva is 4-foot-10.

A decade ago, De La Cueva purchased a bicycle from Wal-Mart, hoping it would inspire her to ride. Too afraid to use it, she asked various shops to add training wheels, but they wouldn’t. Without ever taking it for a spin, she gave the bike away.

But De La Cueva learned long ago “never to say, ‘I can’t,’” she said. “I’d say, ‘No, not yet.’”

Having graduated from high school illiterate, she said she only learned to read after joining a convent’s teaching order. She then attended Cal State Northridge and got a master’s degree and a teaching certificate. She currently tutors elementary and middle school children.

“Being afraid is a problem, but doing something in spite of it is exhilarating,” De La Cueva said.

Contact the writer: scarpenter@ocregister.com On Twitter: @OCRegCarpenter