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...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%3Dg roup%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.

TopCounsel 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

"TopCounsel" wrote in message
...
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/

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

"skadden" wrote in message ...
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%3Dg roup%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!

"TopCounsel" wrote in message
...
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.

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