Teaching children to ride a bike

Peter Fox wrote:
Following on from Sarah Mansel's message. . .
We have read about techniques for teaching your child to ride a
bike, but they all assume that your child will let you run alongside
them holding them up. He is too nervous to go fast enough to even
attempt to balance for a microsecond. Has anyone got any ideas!

Fear is ummm 'psychological'. You knew that. It's obviously important
to deal with it as a matter of principle before 7-yo becomes used to
ducking out of /everything in life/ that involves a bit of risk and
effort.

True. But if it's a real problem try starting on a scooter, that worked for
at least one child I know.

--
Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

Victory is ours! Down with Eric the Half A Brain!

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

True. But if it's a real problem try starting on a scooter, that worked for
at least one child I know.

It helped with me thirty mumble years ago. Also had a trike at first,
so pedalling and braking were familiar before I tried the bike, I
imagine the scooter helped a bit with balance.
Final putting it all together was mum running along behnd holding the
saddle. Memory is somewhat dim but IIRC my first successful run had me
shouting at mum to let go now for most of the way to the end of the
road, turning to her after I'd stopped to say I was sure I'd have been
fine if she'd just let go, and noticing she was about 50m behind me!

Never used stabilisers, btw. M&D thought them to be a Work of Stan and
preferred us to learn without.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

In article , Sarah Mansel wrote:
We have read about techniques for teaching your child to ride a bike, but
they all assume that your child will let you run alongside them holding them
up. He is too nervous to go fast enough to even attempt to balance for a
microsecond. Has anyone got any ideas!

A set of elbow and knee pads (as sold for skating) made my child much less
nervous when he was learning.
See also http://www.sheldonbrown.com/teachride.html

"Sarah Mansel" wrote in message ...
I am keen on the use of bikes as a means of transport, and would very much
like my children to learn to ride soon. My younger child has just about got
the hang of riding a bike without stabilisers and now needs to gain
confidence - she is 5. My son is too nervous to even ride a bike with
stabilisers - he is 7.

Can he ride a small-wheeled scooter with both feet on the scooter, or
one in the air? If he can then he is already 75% there. I taught a
friend's son (also 7) to ride in just such circumstances in March, and
within two hours he was riding. Within a week he was riding a couple
of miles. This was a costly exercise as he is now the proud owner of a
new (180 quid) Trek MT60 like my son's (and Guy's as well).

I think the problem is likely to be psychological, fear of failure,
fear of falling, sibling rivalry etc....

This is what I did...

One: remove stabilisers and discard ceremoniously (NEVER re-attach).

Two: offer excellent bribe for success (my friend's son had been
promised an X-box on the grounds that learning would take ages and
they were desparate, but a decent trip to the cinema would be my first
choice)

Three: Find a long straight FLAT pavement on a side street without
cars (moving and parked) and get him to scoot along on his bike with
one foot on the roadside pedal (at the bottome of the stroke) and the
other on the pavement. This will get him used to the bike moving
underneath him - just like a scooter. Do this both ways (i.e. using
both feet to scoot) a fair number of times. Some would have you remove
the unused pedal, but I have not found this to be necessary.

Four: Tell him the theory of how to do it... He is 7 so will
understand. Most people don't realise that to balance a bike when
pedaling you steer INTO the fall. So falling left... turn left,
falling right... turn right. Easy but very counter-intuitive! You
don't need to know left from right, just turn into the fall.

Five: get pedalling. Hold rear of saddle to start and lean him the way
he falls as he pedals. Do this until he is confident of balancing via
turning the bars. You may need to hold one end of the handlebars and
steer for him at first.

Six: Let go and hope

Seven; Take a break for a couple of hours and repeat as necessary.

I would expect success in a couple of hours. You might like to get him
on the scooter first to hone those balancing skills.

Notes:

Purchase in order of importance: 1) cycling gloves/mits from Halford
in kids size. 2) Flash matching Met Helmet, nice to have gear that
looks good... He will fall off and it is nice to protect those palms.

Do NOT run (well try not to!). It is better to learn to balance at
fast walking pace, as the handlebar movements are more exagerated at
slow speeds. As he speeds up he will make smaller and smaller
adjustments for himself.

Hope this advice helps. Let us know how you get on. This method has
proven successfull for boys just like your own and I now give lessons
baed on personal recommendation...

Kind regards,

Daren

PS I never learned to ride a bike without stabilisers, I could just do
it - I got on a ladies step-through framed bike and pedalled off from
the pavement standing up. We all learn differently I suppose :-)

-
remove ourter garment for reply

Guy:
True. But if it's a real problem try starting on a scooter, that worked
for
at least one child I know.

My son is a whizz on a scooter, but he absolutely refuses to go anywhere
near a bike that doesn't have stabilisers on it. It's deeply frustrating for
me because I can't say anything to convince the stubborn little sod that
he'd be better off without stabilisers. There's no reasoning with a 6 year
old. I wish I'd got him started younger, but he's not really shown much
interest in riding a bike before now.

What's worse, he really relies on the stabilisers in a way that they're not
meant to be relied on - he rides along with the bike leaning quite heavily
on one or the other stabiliser, as if he's riding a trike. This is a
particular problem when it comes to turning corners and has several times
led to him falling off, which just dents his confidence further.

His reliance on stabilisers means he has also not yet learnt to 'kick off'
against the ground, preferring to mount the bike with both feet on the
pedals before starting.

His other bad habit is jumping off the bike when he wants to stop, rather
than braking and putting his foot down. I keep telling him how dangerous
this is but he is really struggling to overcome the mental process that
makes him want to jump off.

I've tried the taking the pedals off and scooting thing, but he was
absolutely terrified and for all my encouragement just ended up breaking
down in tears and hysteria. Part of the problem is not having nearby any
decent wide open spaces with a smooth surface for him to practise on - I'll
have to find an open space and try the scooting thing again. I did make some
progress the other day when he decided he wanted to ride on the road rather
than the pavement, and with the feeling of extra space around him he was
able to get up some speed, and for a few seconds at least even rode along
with both stabilisers off the ground.

My current thinking is to leave the stabilisers on but gradually raise them
further off the ground so eventually they are at the point where they serve
no purpose beyond being a kind of comfort blanket. At which point he might
realise that he doesn't need them any more.

I reckon we'll get there in the end but it's going to take time... and a lot
of patience.

d.

davek wrote:

I've tried the taking the pedals off and scooting thing, but he was
absolutely terrified and for all my encouragement just ended up breaking
down in tears and hysteria.

How about leaving the pedals /on/ and scooting, as this is far more like
a scooter. With one pedal at 6 o'clock, one foot stands on that and the
other scoots for power. The saddle is not involved and you just step
off to stop.

This should probably be much easier without the stabilisers, so he may
want them taken off sooner if he takes to the method.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

davek wrote:


What's worse, he really relies on the stabilisers in a way that they're not
meant to be relied on - he rides along with the bike leaning quite heavily
on one or the other stabiliser, as if he's riding a trike.

I did this as a child, until the stabilisers got so bent
upwards I was riding on two wheels without even realising it!



--
jc

Remove the -not from email

davek typed:

I reckon we'll get there in the end but it's going to take time... and a
lot of patience.

I'd say that patience is the key. Our first child rode at three years old,
and at 12 (cue smug and proud dad mode) can do all sorts of tricks and
stunts that I can't even begin to emulate. Our youngest didn't want to ride
and couldn't without stabilisers until he was about 7, and even now without
stabilisers and aged 9 he isn't totallt confident on a bike .. he loves it,
just isn't too good at it ..

Whatever happens, don't force them into some way of learning that they don't
like, they'll rebel and find fault every time, rather than learning ..

--
Paul ...

(8(|) ... Homer Rocks

"Paul - xxx" writes:

Whatever happens, don't force them into some way of learning that they don't
like, they'll rebel and find fault every time, rather than learning ..

You could however try telling him that he is way too young to ride a bike
without stabilisers and explicitly forbid him to even think about it

Roos

Roos Eisma:
You could however try telling him that he is way too young to ride a bike
without stabilisers and explicitly forbid him to even think about it

I like your thinking. May give that one a try.

d.