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The key, McLucas says, is to ignore the pedals and give up any hopeof going straight at first. "You are at the mercy of the bike," shetells her charges, straddling their bicycles at one end of a gentlysloping empty lot behind Powder House Community Elementary School,a short walk from her house. "Give a little push off, and thenwhichever way you start to lean, go that way. Even if it meansgoing in a circle - just follow the bike."
One by one, giving one another room to bob and weave, the studentsshoved off, dragging the soles of their shoes on the pavement. Theylooped along a little to the bottom of the slope, then dismountedto walk their bicycles back to the top for another go.
"I'm nervous," said Maria Vasilakis, 41, who has not ridden sinceshe took a bad tumble when she was 8 years old. And she looks it,her shoulders drawn up around her ears and her eyes locked on theground in fierce determination not to fall.
"A little more speed! Wobble, wobble, Maria!" McLucas called out."You rock! You rule! Don't look down!" She is not at all unnervedby her students' harrowing wiggles and wavers. Her enthusiasm,unembarrassed and sincere, transforms this unremarkable asphalt lotinto a place where students - some having spent years lying anddodging to keep their inability a secret - feel normal.
As the group's confidence grew, they lifted their feet off theground and coasted, leaning this way and that, eventually tracinglong, slow circles.
Three riders graduated from coasting with outstretched legs tocoasting with one foot up on a pedal. Then, suddenly, a 40-year-oldwoman was no longer coasting. She started pumping both pedals.
"Holy moly!" she yelled. "I can go home and have a drink andcelebrate!"
Woodfield seemed to have regained her balance just fine. Turning,however, is still a challenge. "I can't steer! I can't steer!" shecried, pedaling within feet of a group of bystanders, her backstraight and eyes straight ahead, focused on some far-off horizon.
Meanwhile, Lamb was still at stage one: leaning with the bike,dragging his feet. "I thought I'd have gotten it by now," he said,shrugging off his frustration as the sun beat down on the asphaltlot and the lesson drew to a close. Ten years ago a friend tried tohelp the Jersey City native but lacked the patience to see himthrough the wobbly stages. "But there's progress, and there's threemore sessions. Who cares if I look silly, you know?"
Each student progresses at his or her own speed, said PataSuyemoto, McLucas's co-teacher. But by the fourth lesson, they willall be ready for a 2-mile ride along the Minuteman bike path to acelebratory picnic at Spy Pond. Then they will need furtherpractice before taking on Boston's potholes and harried drivers.
Most of McLucas's students are simply grateful for the balance theyhave learned, however shaky it might be at first.
"I can use a hammer, and I can sew a dress," said Maud Bleus, whogrew up in Haiti, where it was not proper for girls to cycle. "I'ma grandmother, a mother, and a professional. And I can't ride abike and I'm like no, no, no, that's not right."
The 60-year-old financial officer, who now lives in Florida, couldnot make it to Massachusetts for a lesson - so she taught herselfto ride at home last Easter using a set of instructions authored byMcLucas. "Within an hour, I wasn't a pro, but I was riding," Bleussaid. "And my God, it's like somebody gave me millions of dollars."
Emma Brown can be reached at ebrown@globe.com . McLucas's bicycle riding instructions are available online at bicycleridingschool.org .