Learning to ride a bike

StinkyMunkey

I think its high time my little mite learned how to cycle a bike, he is the big 5!

Any hints or tips about where and how to start. He already has one, mind you he has nearly grown out of it.

I like to at some stage in the near future to bring him off on little cycling adventures, that and it will wear him out and give me some much needed exercise:D.

cdaly_

Take the stabilisers off. Take him out one afternoon to a park or quiet cul-de-sac. "You're too big for stabilisers now son...".

"I'll hold the saddle or your back and you pedal". It won't take long before he's moving faster than you.

"Gentle turns son, not sharply". That's the usual place where they come off by taking too sharp a turn...

galwaycyclist

Take off the pedals as well and let him coast along until he has the hang of making it go where he wants and is happy lifting his feet off the ground while coasting.

Once he has his confidence up doing that try him with pedalling at the same time.

Beasty

We have a gently sloping back garden and my 2 youngest learned very quickly when we let them go with no stablisers from the top of the hill. The key is getting enough momentum without them going to fast to frighten them

seven stars

Agree with that. Not sure whether it's too late for a balance bike, but they really are the business. Far, far better than stablilizers. I've heard you can even take the pedals off a child's bike until they get used to the balance aspect of it.

Khannie

Beasty wrote: »

We have a gently sloping back garden and my 2 youngest learned very quickly when we let them go with no stablisers from the top of the hill. The key is getting enough momentum without them going to fast to frighten them

Exactly the same. I found that having used a scooter did help with initial balance on the bike. Could be nonsense, just a feeling I got. Other stuff we did:

Gradually increased the saddle height to the correct height (takes some time to adjust to the higher centre of gravity).

Reasonably long cycles (around 4K) with stabilisers on, but high up so they weren't used much, except to prevent falling over.

Once we'd done the removal of stabilisers + down the hill thing, we played a game where I counted how many circles she could do on a flat paved area we have without stopping. Like "oh wow, you've got ten" then "new record! 20" and so on. Until she got to 100. That was it. She could ride the bike. From removal of stabilisers to riding bike confidently was around 30 minutes, which to me meant I felt I could have done it earlier.

galwaycyclist

Agreed on the slope thing. Also tell him its ok to wobble a bit, everybody wobbles on a bike the wobbles just get less noticable the more confident you are. Beginners tend to get fixated on looking down or watching the handlebars. If you stand well.out in front of him where he has to look forwards towards you while he coasts, that should help as well.

Dexif

Balance bikes are great for learning but agree that yours might be a bit too big for one. I got one for my boy at 22months which was a bit ambitious! Now at 3 and a half tho he's flying down hills in forests coasting for up to 45 seconds and cornering better than I can! Gonna get him a bike in a few months and start him without stabilisers. On that note- am not sure whether to get a 14 or 16 inch. The 16 wud prob be at th top of his range but don't want to get it too big if he's only learning etc. What would people advise?

carrielou

Had a fierce hard time trying to get our little lad to get going without the stabilizers until he decided 1 day that he wanted to come cycling with us so we told him that the stabilizers had to go !

3 hours later on his own accord he was cycling haha

(he even hid my shoes one morning cos he wanted to come with me so bad)

Lumen

Hold the shoulders, not the saddle or bars.

C3PO

I bought one of these years ago and it has done the rounds of all my family and friends - 1 hour usually does it!

http://www.wallabykids.com/

check_six

Check how your youth is going with their stabilisers. If you set the stabilisers so that they are relatively "high" off the ground (ie. the bike has to lean slightly for one to touch the ground) then you can check their readiness quite easily. Listen for the sound the stabiliser makes as it rolls along the ground (brrrrr...) and when there starts to be gaps in the sound they are balancing themselves and ready to roll without the stabilisers.

Our fella was doing a lot of cycling with stabilisers and we just didn't take the opportunity to switch them off the bike. When we finally got around to the big day we brought him to the park and we were ready to get him to push himself along with his feet to start with etc. but when we got there he just hopped on the bike and started cycling staight away. We probably could have gone sooner but the way it worked out was pretty great.

Watch out that your young cyclist doesn't transfer any stabiliser-led bad habits over. Our lad used to cycle along one handed leaning back on one stabiliser, he nearly came a cropper when trying this in the new set up!

jinkypolly

Noticed this article the other day, it might be of some use.

http://www.bikehub.co.uk/featured-articles/teaching-your-child-to-ride-a-bike/

clod71

Lumen wrote: »

Hold the shoulders, not the saddle or bars.

i wouldn't hold him at all... just keep your hand on his back from behind - after a first push - ready to get him if something goes wrong.

StinkyMunkey

Thanks for all the hints and tips guys:).

galwaycyclist

I remember my first day riding by myself. I thought my dad was still holding me but he hadnt been holding me for the last 100m. He had stopped trying to keep up with me about 75m back.

When I glanced back and realised he wasn't there anymore I immediately fell off!

ThisRegard

Same as myself, and when I recounted this story on a similar thread here some cynic doubted such nostalgic stories ever happen. He obviously didn't have a contented childhood.

StinkyMunkey

Where would be a good place to pick up a second hand bike for the little fella, nothing to fancy, just something he can learn to ride a bike on.

If ppl could pm me with sugestions that would be fantastic;).