learning to ride a bike at nearly 8

[msspock]

My son is very able in everything else, except he has not learned to ride his bike without stabilisers yet. (nearly 8)despite lots of opportunity and encouraging support and safe cul de sac to practise in. Is rather nervous and tense about taking off stabilisers, when we have tried it with him. He says he really wants to do it this summer, but will not ever choose to go out on his bike. Any advice?

DS was on satbilisers last year aged 6. We were camping for a week on a large flat site, where bikes were the norm. One of his stabilisers broke, and he got the hang of cycling on one, in reality it was just a cinfidence boost, wasn't really any support. We persuaded him to have a go without, and it clikcked really quickly then.

Could one of your stabilisers have a little accident?, or could you arrange lots of times when other friends are riding - as lots of others were using their bikes it encouraged DS to use his.

Have you tried this yet?

Lower the seat so that he can sit comfortably on the seat with both feet planted firmly flat on the ground. He needs to know that he can get his feet to the ground fast enough to stop falling over. Without that security, it's very hard to find the confidence to learn to balance, pedal and steer simultaneously.

If the seat can't be lowered that much, then get a smaller bike.

Sometime after he learns to ride the bike confidently with the extra low seat, the seat can gradually raised to a "correct" height for his leg length.

Thankyou. Good suggestions.