Riding a bike

[cheesychips]

My daughter is 5 and has a bike with trainer wheels (a 'proper' one for her size and build from a bike shop). She has little interest in it but will pootle around the park on it if cajoled.

Many of her friends (she's going into y1) have their trainer wheels off now and she shows no inclination to try,

I don't care a hoot on any 'competitive' level but I have never learned to ride a bike myself and I'm worried that if we leave it too late she won't either and will miss out on a useful/fun/social life skill.

To what extent should I force/cajole/bribe the issue.

Please, please ALL your comments, advice, experiences

[vjg13]

Kids can learn at any age and she may show more interest if her best friends get really into bike riding and she wants to join in.
Most pick it up fairly quickly and find it easiest on a bike where they can touch the floor comfortably. We know a 5 year old who can ride a unicycle but I'm sure that must be really unusual!! and loads of other 5 year olds and older with stabilisers.

[cheesychips]

So encourage but don't push it you think?

[Hulababy]

Don't push, just encourage.

DD learnt this summer, aged 6y. As have some of her other friends, all same age.

DD nearly had it for a while, we took her stabilsers off a while ago. Couldn;t understand what the problem was. Took her to bike shop and found out her bike (14 inch) was way too small. Got her a new 20 inch one, took her out for 30 minutes at park and she was cycling! Easy as that, lol.

So, 5 is not too old nor too late.Confidence is the key.

[ReallyTired]

You need to get some bike riding friends round. She will not want to the only one with stablisers.

My son learnt to ride a bike last summer. He was ready and learnt in an afternoon.

I would not really worry about confidence until she is eight or nine years old.

[UniS]

vjg13 does your unicycling 5 yr old live in manchester? I've got a 2 year old desperate to ride a uni like his "big" friends.

Chesey- If your dd wants to lose teh stabiliers but isn't ready for full on cycling yet you could try taking pedals ( and maybe cranks as well ) off along with the stabiliers, then she can get the balance sorted with out HAVING to pedal or getting hit in shins by pedals.
Agree peer pressure is the most likely thing to get here riding rather than parent presure.

[vjg13]

Yes UniS, near Manchester. There must be a secret unicycle riding training camp!!

[MuthaHubbard]

bought dd new bike a couple of months ago for her 6th birthday. took the stablisers off, took her to the (closed) school car park and she was off within a few minutes. took her to the car park 2 or 3 times so she could get her confidence up without any obstacles around and she now loves it.

[UniS]

MAnchesters unicycle training group is the not so secret Denton Unicycle Club ( DUC) . I run South West unicycle meets in Devon, so its no suprise my boy thinks one of the 12 unis in the garage is HIS. Hes very sweet copying the big boys jumping about on their unis on his pretend unicycle.

[MascaraOHara]

My dd is going into year 2.. she won't ride her bike, she doesn't have stabalisers as nolonger fits on a bike that can have them..

she will not learn

I find it hard as I just don't have the strength in my arms to balance her properly which is another hinderence.

To be honest... I'm not too worried as she'll get there in her own time but do feel sad that she is missing out.. hey ho

[cheesychips]

Thanks for your thoughts. I AM worried that she wont get round to it.... I never did :-( Maybe I should try and learn with her to encourage her although I'll feel like a right lumpty in the park 30 + and trying to learn to ride.

[GooseyLoosey]

Ds showed little interest too until a friend was coming round to stay and I told him that friend's mother had suggested she bring his bike and I had said there was no point as ds would not be able to keep up with friend. Queue overwhelming desire in ds to be able to ride faster than friend. He picked it up in a morning in the park.

Nagging never worked for us - they have to want to do it. Can you engineer a reason - fantastic ice cream at the end of a family bike ride - oh but too far on stablisiers, or outing with friend with picnic or playground at end (admittedly the weather is a bit of a problem here)?

[GooseyLoosey]

Could you make it a competition with you and her - winner gets an outing of their choice?

[Zazette]

my dd is also a bit unkeen to learn (she is 7). Dp shares your concerns, but I'm not too worried because she has two older friends who learned later than that and are now very keen cyclists (one of them, who is nearly 9 now, came on a 20+ mile bike ride with us a couple of months ago, less than a year after she'd got the hang of riding at all). She'll do it when she's ready.

[morethanyoubargainfor]

My DS is also 5, soon to be 6 and he has had a bike in the garden for nearly 2 years, think he has sat on it about 6 times. He is not intrested on iota, and if we sugesst riding it without the stabilizers he flatly refuses to go anywhere near the bike.

It is sort of nice knowing that he isn't the only child who is like this. Being wiith riding friends doesn't help either he just stands and watches them.

I figure he will sort out himself at some point!

[titchy]

My ds is almost 8 and still can't ride a bike with confidence. Not sure that helps you but it drives me nuts! He has his very old 14 inch without the stabilisers which he can just about ride if we start him off. But it's way too small and he cn't get enough speed to go up hill. His Xmas 18 inch bike which fits him fine however he won't go near. LOL

[cheesychips]

Mumsnet strikes again in helping one realize that you are not alone and your dd/ds are not weirdos.

Thanks one and all.

PS Am liking the competition with me thing, thanks Goosey