Could You Ride This Backward Bicycle?

That means when you turn the handles left, the front wheel goes right instead of the usual left. A welder and friend of Smarter Every Day host Destin Sandlin built the special vehicle and called him up with a simple challenge: Could he ride this bike?

It doesn't mean he's uncoordinated: Our brains, he explained, have a very complex algorithm of forces that allow us to ride a bike.

Not only do we have to push the pedals, we lean our bodies in a way to maintain balance, push and pull on the bars — and work in tandem with the wheels' physics.

And if you change one thing, he said, the whole neural formula is thrown off.

The outcome was always the same: No one could do it.

HIs son, on the other hand, learned it after a mere two weeks, exemplifying that children's brains are a bit more plastic — or able to change — than adults' well-worn pathways.