Tips for learning to ride a bike

[wombpaloumbpa]

Hello,

DS6 is an anxious, cautious type of guy.
Loves his bike but is scared of trying without stabilisers.
DH and I feel it's time to push him out of his comfort zone and support him to learn to cycle without them. He's fallen behind a lot of his peers.

Has anyone got any tried and test tips for this please? For less brave kids?! Already thinking knee and elbow pads

Lower the saddle so he can touch the ground with his feet.
Start him on a gentle downward slope. This helps him to quickly get the momentum to stay upright. It might feel counterintuitive because he might feel nervous about going too fast, but once you get started it’s quite easy to balance. It’s getting going that is hard.
He can put his feet down if he feels wobbly.

You can also gradually raise the stabilsers so they are still there to provide reassurance but he’s not actually using them.

Take his stabilisers off and the pedals. Balance is the hardest thing, basically get him to use it like a balance bike. Anywhere with a gentle slope to give him momentum.

Once he is happy scooting along, put the pedals back on and the next step is to find the pedals. The bike is stationary, you hold it upright, he finds the pedals, feet off, find the pedals. hopefully without looking down too much. Back to that gentle slope, balance on the way down and put his feet on the pedals no pedalling at this stage. Then add in pedalling and then hardest of all starting off from scratch by pedalling. Good luck. Ds was also 6 when he did this.