Teaching children to ride a bike

I have been very frustrated with my efforts to teach my 5-year-old son to ride a bike. He was
frustrated too--I couldn't get him to try anymore, and he would only ride his scooter (which he
rides well).

A search of RBM turned up this advice from Fred: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...=UTF-8&oe=UTF-
8&threadm=53qt7m%2 4n74%40omega.gmd.de&rnum=3&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe% 3DUTF-
8%26q%3Dremove%2Bpedals%2Bteach%2Bchild%26meta%3Dgroup%253Drec.bicycle
s.*

I lowered the seat of a 12"-wheeled bike to the bottom, where Cody could easily touch the ground
with both feet. I removed the pedals, begged him to climb aboard, and told him to pretend it was a
scooter you sit on. He reluctantly boarded, and figured it out almost immediately. He wanted the
pedals on after only a few rides, and with them he could pedal indefinitely. He had a little trouble
launching for the first half hour, but after that seemed pretty confident with it. The next day Cody
tried on his own 16"-wheeled bike, riding it easily.

Thanks, Fred, if you're still out there.

>I have been very frustrated with my efforts to teach my 5-year-old son to ride
a bike.

Good topic! My 6-year-old daughter is at the same stage, and I really want her to drop the training
wheels and join the family for a real ride!

I checked out the link, and will try it. Any other bright ideas from others who have recently
succeeded at this???

I had the same exact frustration. Daughter and I didn't see eye to eye on the bike thing. We tried
and tried and I ended up having to not be involved. What got her on the bike and learning it was
actually being around others her age that were already riding. That encouraged her to be "part of
the crowd" to learn it. The next thing they did was to coast down a short hill. The hill was short
enough, but steep enough to make it fun for them. She's 10 now and riding as much as she can. I've
got a 6 year old son going through the same thing now. Joy.

We put up this article on our website to help people get their kids off of training wheels-

www.ChainReaction.com/trwheels.htm

It's helped quite a few people.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles www.ChainReaction.com

TopCounsel <topcounsel@aol.com> wrote:
: I checked out the link, and will try it. Any other bright ideas from others who have recently
: succeeded at this???

well, i speak from experience. screw the parents. when i was a kid my overanxious parents drove me
nuts trying to get me to do it with their timing. i faked needing training wheels even after i'd
learned to ride out of spite (bending them up and out of the way to ride).

i was just that kind of kid.
--
david reuteler reuteler@visi.com

"TopCounsel" <topcounsel@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040113180907.04004.00003092@mb-m07.aol.com...
> >I have been very frustrated with my efforts to teach my 5-year-old son to
ride
> a bike.
>
> Good topic! My 6-year-old daughter is at the same stage, and I really
want her
> to drop the training wheels and join the family for a real ride!
>
> I checked out the link, and will try it. Any other bright ideas from
others
> who have recently succeeded at this???

Yes. I do have an idea. I tried a too-small bike w/o training wheels or pedals and it was a waste of
time. I tried an appropriately sized bike and held onto her all over the neighborhood (many times)
without good results. I tried the downhill on the grass technique to no avail. Last year, she got to
the point (at 5 years old) where she could ride without me; until she realized I had let go.

Then last spring my wife decided to try. They came back in 10 minutes later to tell me she could
ride just fine now. My 6-year-old started riding 15-20 miles each weekend with me last summer. I
ordered a Felt F24 for her last week.

**You should let your wife teach her.** )

>> Good topic! My 6-year-old daughter is at the same stage, and I really want her to drop the
>> training wheels and join the family for a real ride!
>>
>> I checked out the link, and will try it. Any other bright ideas from others who have recently
>> succeeded at this???
>
> Yes. I do have an idea. I tried a too-small bike w/o training wheels or pedals and it was a
> waste of time. I tried an appropriately sized bike and held onto her all over the neighborhood
> (many times) without good results. I tried the downhill on the grass technique to no avail. Last
> year, she got to the point (at 5 years old) where she could ride without me; until she realized
> I had let go.

I don't have kids myself, but maybe another point... don't pressure you kid too much about riding a
bike! Sometimes kids don't feel they're ready to do things, we're all enthusiastic cyclists but
don't project too much

Tell your child how much fun it is to bicycle, make it sound really neat and fun. If you grab their
interest they will really want to do it!

--
Jem Berkes http://www.sysdesign.ca/

"skadden" <dkeech@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message news:<bu1lv4$4rv@dispatch.concentric.net>...
> I have been very frustrated with my efforts to teach my 5-year-old son to ride a bike. He was
> frustrated too--I couldn't get him to try anymore, and he would only ride his scooter (which he
> rides well).
>
> A search of RBM turned up this advice from Fred: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...=UTF-8&oe=UTF-
> 8&threadm=53qt7m%2 4n74%40omega.gmd.de&rnum=3&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%
> 3DUTF-8%26q%3Dremove%2Bpedals%2Bteach%2Bchild%26meta%3Dgroup%253Drec.bicycle
> s.*
>
> I lowered the seat of a 12"-wheeled bike to the bottom, where Cody could easily touch the ground
> with both feet. I removed the pedals, begged him to climb aboard, and told him to pretend it was a
> scooter you sit on. He reluctantly boarded, and figured it out almost immediately. He wanted the
> pedals on after only a few rides, and with them he could pedal indefinitely. He had a little
> trouble launching for the first half hour, but after that seemed pretty confident with it. The
> next day Cody tried on his own 16"-wheeled bike, riding it easily.
>
> Thanks, Fred, if you're still out there.

5 years ago, I did the same with my son. Yes, this method works very well for both my kids. I took
my 5 year old to the park, remove the pedals and helped him move around for 20 minutes or so, and
then he managed to balance on his own with me running along his side. All in 2 hours or so. The next
day, I put the pedals on and an hour or so later, he can manage to pedal all by himself. My wife was
not convinced initially with my unorthodox method but it worked with both my boys!

I didn't want to put on training wheels because I thought training wheels are bad since it doesn't
teach the kid to turn the correct way. I see kids on training wheels turning with the handlebar
because it's impossible to lean and I thought it will take too much unlearning later. I removed the
pedals because I wanted him to learn balance before worrying about pedalling and without the pedals
hitting his shins, he will have more natural leg position.

Now my oldest son is 10 and we ride the tandem. He's already spinning better after 3 longish ride.
I just hope he'll be into cycling as a sport before he found out about X-box through his friends
in school.

cheers!

It seems to me children who don't easily learn to ride a bicycle may not be inspired by other
children "on the block" who have already achieved this mobility and may not have seen their parents
ride. My experience, both as a child watching siblings learn to ride in a single session, and as an
adult doing the same with my children, makes me think that this is the case.

Training wheels make an unstable tricycle of a bicycle, tricycles having been banished from our toy
repertory for falling over when ridden too fast in curves. The method most commonly used by
successful teachers is to hold onto the saddle such that the child cannot tell whether the parent is
still holding on, or at least has the hand where it could help in the event of instability, while
pedaling along.

I have not seen this method fail with normal athletically inclined children in the 4-5 year old
range. It seldom takes more than one session to get the child riding solo. Of course there must be a
trusting child-parent relationship for the child to believe this is a reasonable endeavor.

Jobst Brandt jobst.brandt@stanfordalumni.org

"TopCounsel" <topcounsel@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040113180907.04004.00003092@mb-m07.aol.com...
> >I have been very frustrated with my efforts to teach my 5-year-old son to
ride
> a bike.
>
> Good topic! My 6-year-old daughter is at the same stage, and I really want
her
> to drop the training wheels and join the family for a real ride!
>
> I checked out the link, and will try it. Any other bright ideas from others who have recently
> succeeded at this???

I went the "no pedals" route with my son, went another route 5 years later with my daughter. I got a
"trailer-bike" when she was 4 1/2, best thing I ever did. Since my son was 10 by then, the whole
family could go out and do reasonable length rides, both on & off road. I kept pulling my daughter
until she was 9. She started getting a little self-conscious about it then although kids her age
invariably still said "Cool" when we rode by. I had concerns that she would have difficulty making
the transition to her own bike, but that went very smoothly, she had developed good strength and
(surprisingly) very good balance, braking was the last skill to master. Now a year later, she has
really remarkable off-road skills for her age, which I attribute to hanging on for so many mountain
bike trips where we biked very difficult terrain.

Jobst - I don't think I've ever seen you write anything about your children before - thanks. I'm not sure what your point is though - are you saying kids who don't see their parents ride won't want to ride themselves?

My daughter will be 4 next month and she's been riding in a bike trailer with me since she could hold her helmetted head up.

She never quite figured out her trike but her new bike with the training wheels is helping her figure out the pedalling action and braking. I'll probably take the training wheels off as soon as she masters pedalling without accidentally applying the coaster brakes in mid stroke. She wasn't really that eager to learn on her own though until she started riding with the kid down the street who's kind of a 3-year-old show-off.

<jobst.brandt@stanfordalumni.org> wrote

> The method most commonly used by successful teachers is to hold onto the saddle such that the
> child cannot tell whether the parent is still holding on, or at least has the hand where it could
> help in the event of instability, while pedaling along.
>
> I have not seen this method fail with normal athletically inclined children in the 4-5 year old
> range. It seldom takes more than one session to get the child riding solo. Of course there must be
> a trusting child-parent relationship for the child to believe this is a reasonable endeavor.

Tried that with my son. Age 4-6. He kept getting frustrated at falling, and we laid off for a bit.
Try again, same result. And again and again. Each trial seperated by a few months. And this is a
*very* athletic kid, and had always been around bikes.

I could see *he* was getting pissed off at not being able to 'get it'. I wanted him to ride so bad,
but I didn't push. FF to Christmas, age 6 1/2. New BMXer. After about an hour, he was cruising
around the cul de sac. A week or so later, riding with confidence. A month later, getting a little
air of the curb. A month after that, riding no hands.

Kids will ride when they're ready.

Pete

"skadden" wrotet...
> I have been very frustrated with my efforts to teach my 5-year-old son to ride a bike. He was
> frustrated too--I couldn't get him to try anymore,
and
> he would only ride his scooter (which he rides well).
>
> A search of RBM turned up this advice from Fred:
>
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...readm=53qt7m%2
>
4n74%40omega.gmd.de&rnum=3&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%
>
3DUTF-8%26q%3Dremove%2Bpedals%2Bteach%2Bchild%26meta%3Dgroup%253Drec.bicycle
> s.*
>
> I lowered the seat of a 12"-wheeled bike to the bottom, where Cody could easily touch the ground
> with both feet. I removed the pedals, begged him
to
> climb aboard, and told him to pretend it was a scooter you sit on. He reluctantly boarded, and
> figured it out almost immediately. He wanted the pedals on after only a few rides, and with them
> he could pedal
indefinitely.
> He had a little trouble launching for the first half hour, but after that seemed pretty confident
> with it. The next day Cody tried on his own 16"-wheeled bike, riding it easily.
>
> Thanks, Fred, if you're still out there.

I watched one father teach his son to ride a bike by chasing after the kid on roller blades, holding
the kid up and providing balance when necessary. Don't know if the kid learned any faster or slower
than with the tactics described here, but they both seemed to be having a good time.
--
mark

In article <tglNb.1996$f97.396@fe3.columbus.rr.com>,
"Pete" <ptr@usaf.com> writes:

> Kids will ride when they're ready.

That's why training wheels are a redundant complication.

cheers, Tom

--
-- Powered by FreeBSD Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn
[point] bc [point] ca

jobst.brandt@stanfordalumni.org wrote:

> ... Training wheels make an unstable tricycle of a bicycle, tricycles having been banished from
> our toy repertory for falling over when ridden too fast in curves....

Trikes should be reserved for adults who can appreciate them properly.

Tipping a recumbent tadpole trike over is very unlikely as long as proper discretion is used (the
same can be said about motor vehicles).

Tom Sherman - Quad Cities