What age did your child ride a bike without stabilisers etc

[TropicofCapricorn]

Just curious really.

DS was just turned 7, really struggled.
DD was 3 and a half. But she'd had a balance bike since 2, so "cheated". I never knew about balance bikes for DS and wonder if he would have cracked it earlier.

DD used to scoot everywhere from an early age and showed minimal interest in cycling. Luckily the local sports centre did a “ride a bike” course for a week (building up confidence, zig-zagging through cones by the end) when she had just turned 5. A few sessions in the local park had her pedalling confidently after that.

i thoroughly recommend finding somebody to teach your DC if you can. Tantrums are far less likely and you won’t get back ache!

Her 5th birthday. She'd been really enjoying her balance bike, which was quite a big one so we didn't bother getting a pedal one until she grew out of it but she cracked pedalling right away without stabilisers.

🤣🤣🤣

DS was 6 or 7, he's dyspraxic. Even after he leant he'd every now and then fall flat over on it.

DD1 was about age 4-5, DD2... she could functionally ride one around age 10 - but it's either pedalling/balancing or steering - the two still don't go together well.... but she is spectacularly dyspraxic to the point that our work OTs swore in shock when they heard her motor coordination scores and the fact she could just about ride a bike with scores that terrible.

Then I saw DD2 on a local news segment where one of the cycling olympians had come to open something in our area and they'd taken all the local school kids - and someone had let her on a bike and she was veering dangerously towards the aforementioned olympian - it was a "watch TV through your hands" moment about whether she was going to ride into him or not!

This is an interesting read, now I'm wondering if we shouldn't have bothered with the stabilisers

DD was 6, had a balance bike at 2 but we just didn’t push her to learn (definitely us being lazy). She just cracked it in 10 minutes after having a go.
I’m due DD2 in July and I think we’ll be pushing for her to learn a bit younger this time.

Balance bikes aren’t cheating, it’s just aiding their development ☺️

All 3 Gdcs were 3. All started very early with balance bikes.

DD was 5. DS was 6.

Some kids just get it, some don't. Some are interested, some aren't.

My 3 all had balance bikes and skipped the stabiliser stage - my youngest two could ride at 3, pretty much as soon as we got them a peddle bike they were off but my eldest took much longer - she didn't have the natural balance or the inclination to actually want to learn.

DC1 and DC3 were four and DC2 and DC4 were closer to seven.
My older two now in their twenties didn’t have balance bikes as they were quite expensive and we were skint. They had second hand bikes with stabilisers which we then removed.
My younger two had balance bikes but deemed them ‘wobbly bikes’ and didn’t really bother with them as they could scoot much faster so we gave them away and got them pedal bikes again with stabilisers.
DC1 and 3 had way better core and upper body strength at four than DC2 and 4 so I guess they found it easier to balance. Once ready they all cracked it really quickly.

Not until 6ish (whenever they did bikeability at school). Had a balance bike but was totally disinterested. Is now 9 and only ever rides a bike if we hire one on holiday. Neither DH or I own a functioning bike and I haven’t even sat on one for over 20 years so that probably explains it 🤣

DS was almost 7. For some reason it didn't quite click. I was on the verge of paying for a private cycling instructor too.

DD was about 5. She used a neighbours bike when playing out and charged past the house on it 🫣.

3.5, he did have a balance bike before that and we got him a Woom bike. We used stabilisers for about a week. He struggled to coordinate the balancing and the pedalling. Once he got that, we took them off.

I don’t mean this unkindly op, but who cares?

That’s not as snarky as it comes across.

What I’m really meaning is my Dc are all doing what they should be doing - and more -, and I now kind of resent the whole emphasis through those early years - particularly tbh by early years teachers - on all these “who did what when” stats.

I think it’s a sickness in modern society - probably born of not having to dodge childhood diseases with no antibiotics, wash their cloth nappies etc.

Obviously paediatric checks are useful , but paediatricians are waaaay more relaxed than early years teachers about these things.

Children aren’t a horse we enter in a race. Just let them go at their own pace and become who they are meant to be.

It's just mild curiousity.

Do DCs 2 and 4 now have trouble balancing or walking in straight lines?

I’m sort of agreeing with you really about your final sentence: they crack it fast when they are ready.

I wish as a modern society we put more effort into supporting children as who they are than in micro-managing their expedited development.

I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just I now regret mine being pushed - less by me than by schools who saw potential.

If I had my time again …

I’m just trying to share that perspective, not chastise you.

6 and that was largely because her school gets bikeability instructors in once a year to do a day with all the kids 😂we were having no luck teaching her!

Dd was about 6. Ds has always been a mad man. HV advised us at 3 that he should start cycling as his balance was very good. He took to it no problem but I felt that he didn't have much street sense so it was a bit dangerous for him. He was so fast that I worried he'd get too far ahead and go out on the road. So don't think it was great advice from a HV 😅 he has survived though and is still just as crazy at 5 yo.

Totally agree with this. I find these threads always bring out the competitive parents too just the same as the threads sharing their child’s writing or drawing and asking if it’s ok for their age.
That’s why I commented on here with my kids who learnt at a very average 6 or 7 and that my teen never learnt at all. It doesn’t matter.

Mine was 3, a couple of months off her 4th birthday. The bike was a 4th birthday present but we gave it to her early so she could ride it throughout the summer months. I remember the day very well. A boy in the same road came off his stabilizers on his 5th birthday. Not to be outdone, my daughter decided she was going to as well, even though she had only had the bike for a couple of weeks.

She got in a huge temper as I tried to hold it steady as she got on and kept shouting “ I can do it all by myself”. Much to my surprise, she could.

NB: it was over 20 years ago and balance bikes weren’t a thing then (or, if they were, I had never heard of them)!

I think both of them were probably around 5, give or take a few months. Both only ever had balance bikes. Eldest we consciously tried to teach her from 4 and she was still quite nervous. Youngest we bought him a proper bike with the intention of teaching him soon, and one day he just picked it up and started riding it (we live on a farm so lots of space). We didn’t really teach him in any formal way.

DS1 was 4, DS2 was 5.

Both had balance bikes first. They are amazing. I was about 8 when I mastered a bike without stabilisers!

Not anymore no. They certainly struggled more than the other two with things like monkey bars and swimming when younger but they caught up eventually.