About bike riding?

[Gooseygoosey12345]

My dd is nearly 9 and still won't ride her bike. I've tried teaching her so many times. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong? Or if anyone can give me any tips. Aibu in thinking she should really be riding her bike by now!

More than likely she is holding on too tight with her arms too straight

Get her to practice Y shaped legs to prevent falling off

Loose arms

Try on grass as it slows them down

Yes I hadn't realised about the arms but they definitely are too straight.

Legs seem ok I think.

She's been practicing in the garden but I'm wondering if she's going too slow. I always found it harder to balance the slower I went. It seems to be the balance that's the main problem. She kind of tips to the side! I'll give those tips a go and see what happens! Thank you

We took our kids to a nearby grassy area and kind of pushed them to gain momentum and let go and they kept peddling! Our garden was too small for them to gain enough momentum to start peddling before they had to brake for the fence!

Yes, she definitely needs to go faster in order to get better at balancing.

DD1 absolutely refused to listen to anything we tried to tell her that might have helped her learn to ride her bike. Eventually she figured it out herself. But yes, unless you’ve got a massive garden it’s probably not the best place to practice.

Mine is 8 and only just become confident after doing a 4 weeks Bikeability course. She wasn't listening to us and getting upset with us as well. A professional solved those problems! I recommend it.

Has she got dyspraxia? I think that affects the ability to ride a bike, it's nobody's fault.

I sent my husband out to the local park with our DD. I was getting too frustrated that she wasn't listening to me and then too anxious in case she fell off! Is there someone else who can help you?

Our garden is really long luckily so it should be enough but we have a huge field at the end of the road which is well maintained so we'll try there.
I don't think she has dyspraxia, she doesn't show any other signs of it. Although worth keeping in mind!
Her dad and DH have both tried with her as well but not making any progress.
I do have her booked in for one 1:1 lesson to try and get her going then see if it's worth continuing with those. It's such a headache isn't it. I'd love to go out on family bike rides this summer but it's getting the point where I'm going to put blooming stabilisers on!

Bikeability for us. our daughter was used to a balance bike but a teacher was the way forward

If you are going to put stabilizers in use the higher setting so they don’t touch the floor so she has to balance

No I won't really put stabilisers on, I think that would be going backwards. We'll do this lesson and then see if it's worth her doing the bikeability! Thank you

My eldest is really not sporty and has rubbish balance and is (somewhat justifiably) nervous about physical things. DH used to run alongside him holding the handle bars, he'd make his grip more and more loose so DS was doing most of the balancing. Then he'd let go but keep his hand hovering just above the bar so DS couldn't fall. Quite quickly DS just got it.

MIne is 8 and a half and after years of not learning finally got it. We had tried everything and she just got more and more reluctant every time.
In the end we left her to it in the garden but she also knew her friend was learning which helped as she decided she wanted to learn - but didn't want us to know as she wanted to do it her own way - she had been shown everything and told everything! Our garden is VERY bumpy and difficult to ride on and I too thought she went too slowly but she just did it by herself - trying again and again. That was at Easter and now we can't stop her. There is hope for you.

@Pics thank god lol! We've been leaving her to it the last few days and there is slight progress. Over half term my sister and I are going to take the girls to the field near here and hopefully it'll encourage them both to do it if the other one is!

@HolesinTheSoles I tried holding onto the handlebars but she will just lean into me and I end up pushing her along she's just got no confidence in it

We took the pedals off to make it a balance bike then put them back when they had found their balance and confidence

Hold in there! Our DS9 has just cracked it after a very painful and frustrating few years which resulted in him being scared of it and refusing to try. He managed to do it in just 10 mins. The reasons for this, we think, are 1) he's become really good on his 2 wheel scooter which requires balance. 2) He was so big for his bike (we had it adjusted for when he was 7) that he could touch the ground with both feet flat. This gave him security. And 3) we had originally tried on grassy areas but the ground is never smooth. We took him to a tarmac area with a very gradual decline to help with momentum. Like PP have said, it's so much harder when they are going slow, which happens on grass. Hope this helps and good luck!

Thanks for all the advice!! So I think what we might try then is taking her to a slightly inclined area and giving her a go at that. If that fails I'll take off the pedals so it's like a balance bike. We've left the seat low enough that she can put both feet on the floor. We'll give it another go this afternoon and report back! Thanks everyone