Learning to ride a bike

[Merename]

Buying a bike for DDs 4th bday this week. She’s never spent much time on her balance bike as she quickly grew too tall, but loves her scooter and is very confident. I’ve watched a few vids about learning to ride and I understand that stabilisers are not encouraged these days, should I just go straight to trying to help her learn to ride without them? Or if she has stabilisers for a while, will it be hard for her to give them up? Is 4 too young? What have your experiences been?

Not too young. DS was confident onnoedals at 3.5, straight from balance bike. Get a good pedal bike then take the pedals off at first and get her good at balancing (coasting for decent distances and using brakes to stop instead of feet) then add pedals. Skip stabilisers - the balance is the main thing and stabilisers involves a whole different way of steering that's trickier to unlearn (using handlebars instead of bodyweight)

Also look at bikybiky vests. This was a godsend while we were teaching him, and even after he learned but was still nervous of falling, or we were next to a road etc. I could lift him up clear of the bike without breaking my spine!

Look at the weight of the bike, and go for the lightest you can - a second hand light bike will be miles better than a cheap heavy bike.

But yes, aged 4 both mine were confident on pedal bikes. We went straight from balance bikes to pedals.

I agree, take the pedals off her new bike so she gets used to the size and weight and good at balancing, then replace the pedals and proceed as normal. Get her to practice pushing down the pedal with her right foot so she learns that the pedal creates the momentum. Once she's got pedalling cracked you will have to do the classic push and run behind for a while. Best to practice on grass which helps cushion from falls.

Yy to the lightest bike you can afford. Second hand via fb selling groups is a good one. Isla, Frog, Hoy bikes are good and hold their value for reselling. And I think Carrera maybe? Been a few years since I looked. Measure her inside leg as she'll want feet almost flat to the floor for her very first bike if she's not a confident balance biker yet.

If practicing on grass, don't demonstrate how falling on grass doesn't hurt with a big comedy pratfall. Bones were broken and I had to stand up and say 'see!' with a big grin, then hide behind a bush and cry

Learn on the flat. The idiot who tried to teach me to ride a bike did it on a hill. That ended with me in hospital and never getting on another bike for years.

DD was 4.5 when I taught her to ride - we had an Islabike, and took the pedals off, and didn't put them back on until she was confident on it. It still took a good bit of work from me to get her going - we were out most days for a couple of months (only for 10 minutes though). Getting started was the bit she found hardest, though I'm told the brakes are the difficulty for others - DD is pretty cautious.

From what I read, most children are cognatively capable of learning to ride sometime between 3.5 and 4.5, and gross motor skills have never been DD's forte, hence waiting.

She's a really confident rider now though.

Thanks very much. Ouch @SmellMySmellbow, what bones did you break? Note to self taken! That’s love, that is.

Lots of helpful advice thank you all. So will defo skip the stabilisers and buy as light as poss, but budget is maybe £150 max so think the bikes mentioned are out of our league. Plus, DD is interested in fluffy pink unicorn type bikes, I can get away with paring down the plastic but she would not go near a simple looking bike I think. Some thinking to do!!

My ds rode before 4. I got anew bike for Xmas and said santa had no stabilisers. I held him for a few mins and let go.. Good old fashioned way. Yes he fell a few times but I made him get back on it.

Dsd on the other hand is 7 and is the hardest to try to teach

Agree with a light bike even if you buy secondhand. DD was tall for her age and we bought a new bike she could use for a while but it was so heavy she couldn't pedal it. It really put her off and she finally got back on a bike aged 9! By then she had to have a proper sized bike and I took the pedals off to turn it into a huge balance bike. She learnt in about an hour.

Yes, I agree with everyone else - pedals
off and a light bike. My daughter was confident pedalling at 4 (she’d had a lot
of practice on her balance bike and got pedalling there first time we took her out). So get her confident without the pedals first and she’ll be off in no time.

You can definitely get a lightweight bike within your budget on ebay. As well as the makes already mentioned, I'd add Specialized into the mix as well.

If she struggles with getting the hang of pedalling, we put the stabilizers back on (didn't use them for actually riding the bike) then wedged the back wheel up on paint pots so the back wheel was off the floor. It's a lot easier teaching them to pedal on a stationary bike than running along next to them!

Get the light bike and pimp it - handlebar streamers, decals, basket, spoke lights etc. The pink glittery ones of the Toys R Us ilk are just impossible to ride without stablisers. The geometry is all wrong and if the bike weighs half her body weight (easy when you're about 18kg!) then she won't get anywhere on it and will lose her confidence and enthusiasm very fast. Seen it happen many times! A lightweight bike and she'll go for miles and have much more enjoyable experiences.

Ooh great, I’ve just seen a Specialized one on gumtree that is pretty enough for DDs liking, we thought we could stick a few unicorn stickers on. It’s 24miles away but £45 so that would be ideal!

www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/specialized-hot-rock-16-inch-kids-bike-/1361588165

Does this look good to you?

Just double check sizing etc. Get her measurements and go on their website to double check, or try in a shop (though appreciate the surprise element is ruined then!)

Nothing on eBay that’s anywhere local, and I’m not on FB.

Also check preowned islabikes for sale group on facebook. Some there in your budget and most posters there will post the bike (I did)

We did try 14in bikes in Halfords before Xmas that were too small so hoping 16 doesn’t feel too big.

Definitely agree with pp advising to take the pedals off a light bike. We did this with DS after trying stabilizers which hadn't helped at all. I took him to our local school playground during the holidays as it was a good flat surface with an ever so gentle slope. After holding him up on the bike for the first couple of times we were able to just give the bike a great big push and he would glide until momentum ran out. Once he'd mastered balance we put the pedals on and he was off! Took about 2 hours in all over 3 days :)

DS was on a 16 on tip toes when he was about 100cm tall on his 5th birthday (can't remember leg length!) But it does vary from brand to brand as that's just wheel size rather than stepover height, seat post length etc. But generally 14's are for 3/4 year olds that are fairly petite.

My youngest dc is 16, and along with every other parent we knew, we didn't waste time and money with balance bikes, or buying stupidly expensive bikes to remove the pedals from.

Dc and peers all learnt on cheapo Toys'r'us ilk bikes, and certainly weren't unusual to be confident without stabilisers before starting school. The need for expensive bikes strikes me as a marketing ploy by manufacturers to convince parents to waste money.

DD is mega tall, I think 106 or 108 last time I measured her, so hopefully fine. I didn’t realise it’s not just a standard size by the wheel size, that’s helpful, so I’ll take measurements before I go see that bike. Does look a bit wee in the picture but hard to tell. And I know what you are saying @TrainspottingWelsh, DH and I discussed the very same thing earlier tonight but if I can get something lightweight for £45 over a cheaply made new bike that costs £120, I’m up for that! Fingers crossed it’s a goer as birthday is next Friday, I left it late thinking we’d get a good sale buy but not seeing anything.

Fingers crossed - £45 is not a huge investment so if it does prove too small you can sell it on for little to no loss and try again armed with a bit more knowledge! Important to have something ready for her birthday.