Teaching my daughter to ride a bike - help!

[Elsia]

screams into pillow

She’s a wee superstar. She is absolutely bloody desperate to ride a bike without stabilisers. Desperate. We tired for a couple of months before Christmas but haven’t been out recently because of the weather.

Today she has been working on it all day. I’m so immensely proud of her dedication and the fact that she continues to persevere. She struggles with her balance a lot and we’ve been practicing with her sisters balance bike etc.

She was really making progress today. Her balance is just about there. I hold the bike and run to get her started and she finds her balance more and more quickly every time. But every single time I let her go, her foot comes down. She just can’t keep it on the pedal.

It’s a confidence thing. She keeps getting so cross with herself and she’s so desperate to do it but she’s just too scared when it comes down to it.

There must be something I can do to help her (other than supergluing her damn feet to the pedals)’

Do it going down a slight slope...

My DD learnt on a council run cycling course. They got the kids going around with their feet off the pedals and using their feet to move themselves along (like the balance bike); next step was one foot on the pedal and the other to scoot along the ground (I can't remember if they switched feet or not). I think this is something we tend to skip but it really helped with the balance thing.
The final step was both feet on the pedals. All the kids apart from one were able to cycle (albeit a bit wobbly) by the end of one session. Next day was a bit of fine tuning and they were all cycling on their own.

We got Ds up and running on grass! Slowed him down and soft to land on.

Bend the stabilisers up.

Yes try it on a small grassy slope, without you holding. Much easier as the momentum takes them down the hill

Hold her, not the bike. Then she will have her balance already before you let go, and all the pedalling momentum will be coming from her as well.

Pop the pedals off her bike so she can get used to her own size and feel of bike without them for a day hold on to the back of her jacket while she starts peddling and gradually release your grip. Less back breaking and more steadying than holding the seat

Can she balance on her sisters balance bike properly? If not, she presumably won’t be able to balance in a regular bike?

If it’s too small for her to really practice on you could try taking the pedals off her own bike and see if she can use that like a balance bike? (I’d wrap the metal bits that the pedals would attach to with something soft so she doesn’t batter her legs). If she can’t steer the bike with you continually pushing (but not holding it upright) then she won’t be able to ride without stabilisers.

Second all the comments above. Also, when my son was at this stage (i.e. only confidence holding him back), I realised he was looking at ground under his front wheel rather than further ahead, which affected his balance and meant he had to put a foot down. When he focused on the path ahead, suddenly he could do it.

When dd1 learned my dad taught her, that was years ago.
With dd2 I enrolled her on a course it was called Wee Wobblers 😂😂. She was riding after the first session. I had spent weeks previous trying to teach her.

Try holding her shoulders gently to stabilise her rather than the bike. you will be able to feel how in control she is before you let go or gradually ease the pressure so she is doing more on her own

Take the pedals off and get the balance sorted first. That's how I taught my dyspraxic child to ride a bike.

You've just got to yell at them ARE YOU READY TO RIDE A BIKE and it works. It's called the Pedrin way. There's some other stuff but mainly it's putting on an accent and yelling.

I'm a qualified cycling coach and I run the preschool group at our club. We exclusively teach using the balance bike method now, because, as you've alreasy identified, balance is the single most important skill to learn. Sort that out first and other things usually follow naturally.
Take the pedals off her bike and use it as a balance bike - we've done this with children as old as 10 who have been terrified of bikes actually and it's worked beautifully.
We base our activities on the Ready Set Ride programme. Anyone can access the materials. You do have to create an account but it's free.
readysetride.co.uk/

I taught myself to ride a bike. We had a children's plastic table so I put that at once side of the garden and would push myself off that to go, I got further and further each time until I could go the whole way round the garden. That way she can feel like she is in control the whole time and is in control of when to let go etc, good luck!

Get her to practice balancing first - forgot pedalling for the time being. You could even take the pedals off. Once she can balance properly then she’ll feel a lot more confident with pedalling. You might need to take the seat down so her feet are flat on the floor to begin with too.

DS has just learned in the last few days, once he got the idea he was off. But he still puts his feet down and runs and glides along like he’s on a balance bike sometimes too. She’ll get there, bless her!

I would take the pedals off until she's really mastered balance, steering and braking. When she's reliable at these things pop them on again and she should pick it up much more quickly.

Was going to say the downhill slope aswell.

We discovered this by accident with ds a couple of weeks ago!

I feel your pain! My daughter’s nine and can’t ride - physically she can do it, but mentally she can’t. I took her to lessons and she sobbed most of the time and lost all her confidence. So we’ve given up.

I paid for my oldest to have cycle lessons with a local professional teacher. He went from stabilisers at 8 and no entertainment of riding independently to riding on his own within 20 minutes, the little sod 😂 money well spent! Youngest I just launched him like a bowling ball at his lower back over a greenway and he just did it. He had a spectacular fall with abrasions galore about a week later as he got too confident too quickly but he flys now.

Get her on a slope and get her to push herself off and just lift her feet up off the ground a bit - not put feet on the pedals yet, just lift them to learn to get her balance. This is how my lo with asd and dyspraxia learnt.

Practice over and over and when confident get her just to put feet on pedals and then after that to start pedaling.

I signed both mine up to a Balancability course over a half term. 30 minutes. Starting in a sports hall on balance bikes provided and cycling happily on their own bikes by day 4. Otherwise as others have suggested pedals off her bike and get her going round corners etc to gain confidence in her balance.

Get a bikey bikey harness, or use a belt. It's what they use in professional bike school here.

Lots of good tips here. What worked for us was taking the pedals off and letting DS 'go' down a disabled ramp - with a parent at the top and bottom. After he got his balance, pedals on and off he went. Good luck and have fun trying.

Mine learned using a balance bike.
I think take the pedals off and let her just work on her balance. Give it a few weeks.
Once her balance is good then try with the pedals again. Her balance will be much better hopefully she'll learn much better.
Mine learned on a balance bike but found it difficult to transition to pedals.
I got her.on a bike riding course.
She learned within an hour. Other kids that had been practicing with pedal bike found it a lot more difficult and took a lot longer to learn.