On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 20:50:43 +1000, wheelsgoround wrote:
>
> In the current issue of Cycle, Chris Juden says the best way for kids to
> learn to ride a bike is with no stabilisers and no pedals so that they
> can learn balancing, steering and braking first. Once they have got
> the knack of that, pedals are added.
>
> When I got a bike for my 3-year-old, I just put stabilisers on it
> without thinking but I think I'll give Chris' sugesstion a go.
>
> Anyone got any experiences they would like to share?
My first kid learned in an afternoon by going to the local waste-ground
which had a smooth shallow grassy slope and starting at the top, riding
down until she fell off, and then getting back on and doing it again.
No stabilisers, no bike before that, she was about 5 or so. The middle
one magically taught herself somehwhere along the line, I can't remember when
but she was 5 or 6 as well.
For the last one I used the pedals off no stabilisers thing which worked too,
but slower because it's difficult to know when to put them back on again, and
because I didn't want to take them off once they're back on (because I'm
lazy) I tended to leave them off for probably too long. She too was 5 or so.
It undoubtedly depends on your kids and how much they will be self-motivated.
I tend to want mine to just get on with it and figure stuff like that out
themselves, so I'd prefer to leave the pedals on, no stabilisers (none of mine
had them, because I refused to let themi
. I only took them off for the
last one as an experiment because I too had heard of the technique, and also
we now have a longish steep drive which I thought might be easier to roll down
if there were no pedals. I'm not convinced it was the right thing to do,
though.
I can't imaging stabilisers help in any real way, because they have to
behave so differently when turning because the bike frame can't lean as
much. They might as well learn the correct riding technique to start with
rather than having to relearn it later.
Having said all that, A *3* year old might benifit from having no pedals,
because it does mean they can scoot along more easily, and the pedals are
relatively wide compared to their leg length at that age. Take the
stabilisers off, though!
--
Trevor Barton