Any tips for teaching bike riding without training wheels

[User198724]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone would have any tips to get kids riding bicycles without training wheels?

My daughter is 8 and has completely outgrown her little bike but can’t get the hang of a bigger bike



@MushroomTree my 8 year old is very chuffed that she’s finally got a bike big enough to fit on the turbo!

@BikeRunSki I'll be as fit as a racing snake by the time this lockdown is over because DD insists I get on the turbo every 5 minutes so she can watch!

If you're on Instagram go to Maria Fowler's page, her husband used to be/is a professional bike rider and teacher and they've put a video up for how to teach children. I think their DD is 3, they've just taught her.

@MushroomTree, I won’t. I hate the turbo and am saving my exercise to take the dc out. DH has licked himself away with hayfever, so I go everywhere slowly! Although DD has a PE challenge ftp. School and has set herself the challenge of riding 8 miles on her road bike.

@BikeRunSki I'm getting quite into it. I've even ordered some cycling shorts to protect my poor under carriage

I'm impressed with your DD. I'd be more likely to do 8 miles on a horse if I'm honest. That's why I have the turbo. I don't cycle in public!

DS refused all offers of help, just wanted to keep trying on his own. Not much use at the moment as the playgrounds are closed, but I took him to an empty one which had a spongey surface and he just kept trying until he took off on his own.

@teawamutu my DS is also nine, and like you we have tried then been way laid from completing learning to cycle,so I’m going to try again. He’s stubborn and dramatic so I’m praying he takes to it easily!

@BigBairyHollocks we've practiced every day, with me holding ds2 under the arms as he pedals (more and more lightly the better he got) and he cycled on his own today and managed to brake!

Next step: turning.

@teawamutu we are just back from successfully teaching DS to ride!He managed it all we are victorious and gonna have a party to celebrate 😂

I taught my 4 year old to ride a bike using the "Pedrin Way". There is a video on YouTube. I did not expect it to work, but it really did.

None of mine ever got confident enough on a balance bike to go fast enough to balance!
What worked for us was holding the child under the arms, pushing to start and running with them. I then moved to each hand still under the armpit but not quite touching the child and explained if they felt my hand they were leaning too far that way and needed to straighten up. It worked very quickly (10 minutes?)

I ran along behind and helped keep her stable, and then when she was, took my hand off, and then when she was doing it for a while let her know she was riding with 'no ma's hands'! (Which caused a fall, from surprise, but after that, it was fine.)

Plus side, I got rather fit at the same time.

We use the British Cycling Ready Set Ride programme for the littlies at our cycling club and have taught kids as young as 2 to ride independently with this method.
I admit I was a bit sceptical at first as I taught all my kids using stabilisers and couldn't see the problem but now I would never use stabilisers again. Balance bikes teach the really core skills of balance, and controlling the bike by moving your body weight around first. We generally find that adding the pedals is quite easy once they have all the balance skills. Some kids get the hang of pedalling literally in a few minutes.

I think it is a lot more fun and far less stressful for both child and parent. Last year I coached a couple of kids who had "failed" on stabilsers and were verging on phobic about their bikes. But we took their pedals off and dropped the saddles so they could use their bikes as balance bikes and within a few weeks they were flying, and, crucially, enjoying themselves.
Anyone can access the Ready Set Ride activities for free, and British Cycling have posted a lot of videos on their social media during lockdown so you can see exactly how its supposed to work. I would strongly recommend this approach.

Ds couldn't get the hang of a balance bike, just always seemed awkward on it.

Learned to pedal hours bike with stabilisers, learned balance on his two wheel scooter, took the stabilisers off the bike on a slight gradient and off he went within 10 mins.

2 keys things are a decent pedal bike, light with smooth action and a slight hill to start down.

A friend of mine used a sheet to rap around her daughters torso and ran with her he kept it tight initially and then loosened it until over a couple of weeks he kept the sheet around her but was barely adding any pressure. She’s away now.