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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Riding a bike without stabilisers/training wheels...how?

25 replies

usernametaken · 16/04/2009 11:20

DD is loving her bike right now, she is so fast on it, overly confident and wanting her stabilisers off.
How do we teach her to ride a bike without them?
I've raised her stabilisers off the ground so she is getting used to wobbling a bit more, we need to lower her seat a bit more so she can touch the ground but then what...take her to a hill and let go?!
Any ideas for a child that would want instant results?
Many thanks.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

RubyrubyrubyRubis · 16/04/2009 11:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsBoo · 16/04/2009 11:28

Lower the saddle - but not too much
Take the stabilisers off completely - having them there actually makes it a bit scary
If you have space in the garden, on a grassy surface, give her some space and you hold lightly with one hand the saddle behind her bum - give her a little push and see how far she goes before she wobbles and falls off.

Try this several times, needs to be on a flat surface and ideally enough space that she doesn't have to worry about turning etc.

It will not take very long - until she gets the hang of it. Practice for a while, and then try again tomorrow - DO NOT go back to stabiltisers.

Good luck

RubyrubyrubyRubis · 16/04/2009 11:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

alexusmummy · 16/04/2009 11:53

i'm having the same problem. my DD is wanting them off but when we took them off she cried her heart out so we put them back... but now she cries she wants them off... i just can't seem to win lol

MrsBoo · 16/04/2009 12:04

It takes a bit of patience, and loads of encouragement - and then she will get it and you will soon not be able to keep up with her.

Original poster

usernametaken · 16/04/2009 12:04

Thank you for your replies!
Off come the stabilisers in a minute then and I'll start limbering up ready to push her and then let go!
Fun times!

OP posts:

LadyPinkofPinkerton · 16/04/2009 12:07

With DS1 i took the stabilisers off and got him to roll down a grassy hill (not very steep) with his feet hanging so he could put them down if he lost balance. He kept doing this til he got the balance and then started putting his feet up on the pedals as he was going down, this turned into pedalling at the bottom of the hill, it took one afternoon.

It bodes well that she wants them off too

wahwahwah · 16/04/2009 12:09

What's a good age to try this?

Original poster

usernametaken · 16/04/2009 12:16

LadyPink- that sounds a great plan.
Wahwah- DD was 4 last month...she is very determined and highly competitive!

OP posts:

LadyPinkofPinkerton · 16/04/2009 14:10

I did it that way as I found it bac kbreaking hanging onto the bike and DS would never have let me stop holding

Plonker · 16/04/2009 23:18

My dd was exactly the same.

We just lowered her bike so that she could comfortably touch the ground, took off her stabilisers and let her go. Off she went. As simple as that, lol. She fell a few times but wasn't about to let that stop her

greenelephant · 16/04/2009 23:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Plonker · 16/04/2009 23:21

Agree greenelephant

Linnet · 16/04/2009 23:30

What Rubyrubyruby said, run along behind them then let go.

My dd2 got a bike for Christmas and dh decided in February to take the stabilisers off, she was out for an hour on the Sunday and wobbled a lot and got cross because she couldn't do it. We kept explaining that you have to practice, not everyone does it first time etc. Took her out on the Monday for another hour and by the end of that hour she'd managed it. Dh ran round the whole park behind her/along side her while I wandered along behind. There is no stopping her now and it's lovely because it means we can all go out as a family on our bikes.
Give it a go it will be fun.

Tortington · 16/04/2009 23:33

knee pads, helmet, park.

plasters, antiseptic wipes and cuddles.

sit on a bench and say " off you go then!"

ElenorRigby · 17/04/2009 12:26

A friend of mine is a cycling nut. He told me children need to learn to balance first with complicating it by trying to pedal.
He recommends taking the pedals off from the start and not using stabilisers. The childs seat should be low enough so they can push the bike along with their feet scooting along. They will a points lift their feet up and learn to balance. Once they have learnt to balance well then put the pedals on.
In short it breaks the problem up into balance and then pedaling making it easier for the child.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 17/04/2009 12:35

I put an old jumper on dd and held her up by the scruff of the neck. that way she was doing all the balancing and steering, without the fear of falling off.Saved my back too! She learned in an hour or so - we ran round and round the block until she had the hang of it.

Hulababy · 17/04/2009 12:38

Beware - your back will kill!

RidgewayLass · 17/04/2009 14:54

I second ElenorRigby's idea. It's much easier for children to learn to ride without pedals. However, the thought of removing and replacing the pedals from a typical cheap bicycle makes my heart sink - and I am very used to maintaining bicycles.

You can get a great thing called Like-A-Bike - it's made of wood and has no pedals. All five of my nephews and nieces have now learned to ride bicycles using a Like-A-Bike. When they grew out of the Like-A-Bikes, they got onto their new pedal cycles and pedalled off straight away, no problems. My eldest niece tried to learn with stabilisers first, and couldn't, so we got her a Like-A-Bike. She learnt on that and then she was away.

Iklboo · 17/04/2009 15:01

Don't do what my folks did. The just took them off and ocs they smoked so bloody much couldn't keep up running behid so I ended up crshing into a low fence & catapulting over the handlebars.
A bit later on they brought me home an adult sized bike. I could barely reach the pedals. Same scenario but this time I crashed into the side of a building.
To this day I cannot ride a bike

lazymumofteenagesons · 17/04/2009 18:37

We actually took one stabaliser off first. This was DHs idea, i thought it was mad. But it worked. They learn to balance with the one side still there really quickly and then you can whip the other off.

Takver · 17/04/2009 19:32

Definitely hang onto shoulders/jumper etc rather than seat - much less backbreaking and after a few tries you can have your hands so you just stop them falling rather than actually holding upright.
Took about 3 or 4 goes of about 15 mins each before dd was riding bits on her own although with lots of stops & starts. She didn't have stabilisers ever, started straight onto a normal bike, she was just turned 5 (didn't have a bike before that).
IME its easiest somewhere dead flat or with a very minimal downhill slope (a challenge round here - we had to go to the school carpark).

cazzzz · 19/04/2009 15:30

When my dad came to stay over the Christmas holidays I assigned this task to him as a little "bonding" project with his grandson.

Worked a treat!

Cadmum · 19/04/2009 15:50

Take the pedals off.

(I see that it has already been suggested but it worked for all three of our cycling children.)

In Austria and in Switzerland children learn to balance before they learn to pedal. A shocking number of 3 year olds ride confidently with no stabilisers here.

Like this: www.likeabike.ch/likeabike_library/likeabike_welcome1.html

Have fun!

Original poster

usernametaken · 20/04/2009 22:25

OK, the stabilisers are off!

We have found a grassy slope, we have prepped her that she might not ride off into the distance on her first attempt, we've reminded her that falling on grass does not hurt...and we've bribed her with a new gadget for her bike when she cracks it! I also told her about the time she potty trained, slept in a big bed, got rid of the dummy etc. So, I think we have got past the wanting instant results and knowing that it might take a few days to see results!
She is very excited and now (hopefully) mentally prepared!
Tomorrow is the day!
Thank you all for the tips!

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