I was riding my bike when I saw my friend or I had been riding my bike when I saw my friend? [closed]

Solution 1:

In contrast to existing answers and comments I would say that "I was riding my bike when I saw my friend" implies that the speaker was actually riding their bike when they saw their friend whereas "I had been riding my bike when I saw my friend" implies that they had, at a minimum, dismounted and might even have put the bike away before they saw the friend. "Had been" implies a completed action in the past whereas "was" implies a continuous, uncompleted, action in the past.

Compare with "I was in the shower when the phone rang." and "I had been in the shower when the phone rang". In the first case the speaker probably missed the call, in the second they probably answered it but with a towel wrapped around them.