The "Backwards Bike" and implications for how we think
While both prism adaptation and negative transfer are pointers to the right direction, I'd see this as a question concerning brain plasticity (you may want to tag the question with that, I don't have the required points to create a new tag).  

The guy could indeed learn to ride the reverse bike, but he would have to work hard on it, and would have a hard time reversing to normal bikes later on, as you report.  

Take a look at wikipedia's Perceptual adaptation page:


  Experimental support[edit]
  In the 1890s, psychologist George M. Stratton conducted experiments in which he tested the theory of perceptual adaptation. In one experiment, he wore a reversing glasses for 21½ hours over three days, with no change in his vision. After removing the glasses, "normal vision was restored instantaneously and without any disturbance in the natural appearance or position of objects."
  
  Modern version of inverting mirrors with harness.
  On a later experiment, Stratton wore the glasses for eight whole days. By day four, the images seen through the instrument were still upside down. However, on day five, images appeared upright until he concentrated on them; then they became inverted again. By having to concentrate on his vision to turn it upside down again, especially when he knew images were hitting his retinas in the opposite orientation as normal, Stratton deduced his brain had reprocessed his vision and adapted to the changes in vision.


So people look at the world literally upside-down, but then adjust abruptly.  

A good read about this is On Intelligence, and in my research with chess experts I have argued for a cognitive model of "experience recognition" in here and here. 

An amazing video of the beginning of the learning process is here: Amy hears sound for the first time.  At about 1m45s you can clearly see that she is confused about about her sensations---she doesn't have the experience of hearing, and her brain is just now trying to make sense of what this new influx of surprising information means and how it should be processed.  

Or look at this small girl, who has had her entire left hemisphere taken out of her brain, with few behavioral problems.  

As a thought experiment, imagine you could suddenly "feel" the radio waves flowing all around us.  At first you'd be extremely confused.  Yet, after some time, you'd be able to discern people turning off their phones on a plane, turning on their gps, or the "silence" in rural areas.  If you had the experience for a long enough time, you would be able to ground it to meaningful events surrounding you.