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You and a bicycle together form a simple, two-part system. Combined, you can do things that neither you nor the bicycle can do separately. Furthermore, your actions influence what the bicycle does and the behavior of the bicycle influences your actions (Kauffman, 1978).
Now the interesting thing about even a simple system like this is how it creates stability out of a situation that would normally be very unstable. If you climb on the bike and do nothing, neither you nor the bike will stay upright for very long. Likewise, if you climb on the bike and do the wrong things, you will still end up on the pavement with a thump.
What happens, when you ride a bicycle skillfully, is that you are constantly making small adjustments to correct for "errors" in the path and the balance of the bicycle. If the bicycle starts to turn or tilt one way, you shift your balance or steer in the other direction. If it goes too far the other way you nudge it back again, and so forth, thus keeping it upright and on course. Even though it may look like you are riding in a straight line, you are actually making a constant series of wiggles from one side to the other as the bike moves slightly off course and you correct for it, over and over again (Kauffman, 1978). In other words, your brain tells your muscles what to do, your muscles push against the bicycle, and the bicycle responds by moving. The "input" is the information that led you to decide to use your muscles the way you did, and the "output" is the motion of the bicycle and yourself. After you start the system moving, there is a new situation and a new position for the bicycle, which provides new information for your brain to work with.
Clearly, feedback is a critical part of this process. To ride a bicycle properly, you need information about where the bicycle is and which way it is tilting, information you get from your eyes, your muscles, and the balance tubes in your ears. Without continuous flow of this information, you would find it difficult, if not impossible, to ride the bicycle at all. Just think how hard it would be to ride a bicycle with your eyes shut!
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