Teaching Kids To Ride Bikes...

HOW do you go about teaching kids to ride bikes?

We bought Mason a bike 2 years ago, and he sorta learned to ride it a little bit, but he gets frustrated easily and would give up after a little while. Last summer we brought it out again and he had forgotten how to make it work, and didn't want to ride it. Now he's outgrown it. Soooo...the bike is now Natalie's (she's 4) and she isn't grasping the whole concept yet. Mason has a hand-me-down bike from a neighbor that we need to put training wheels on and then he can try again this year.

But it's frustrating because they get angry when they can't do it immediately. How do you teach kids to do it?

My oldest was the same way Bree, he actually didn't learn until he was about 6.5 yrs old. But when he did learn, it was almost as if everything just finally clicked and he got it! He used to give up on it all the time, because he didn't like not being able to get it right away. I think some of it was just that he didn't quite have the coordination and the balance when he was younger.

When he finally learned, it was really with us just holding on to the back for balance and him doing the pedals and all the steering.

I just put him on it jk.. we struggled a bit with the pedal forward only thing..

but I'll tell you what DID help him, was his stupid smart cylce game thing.. After he played that a few times (the bike thing ) he was a pro at riding his real bike

Unfortunately we had problems teaching Derrick. He didn't mind riding if the training wheels were on but when he turned 5, DH took them off and refused to put them back on. A good friend of ours is a cyclist and told him to take the pedals completely off and let him use his feet to move and help him learn balance. That didn't really work for us either although I know several people who have done it that way with success. Basically, about 3 months ago, DH asked Derrick (who is now 6) if he wanted to ride his bike. He said yes so DH took him to this grassy area with a hill and let him go down the hill a few times. After that he started pedaling and now rides his bike all the time. I'm pretty sure it was a mental/fear thing with him and I think he just got over it with age.

Now we are going through the same thing with swimming. He REFUSES to go in the big pool without a lifejacket. :glare: Maybe next summer... ???

My bike-store guy recommended that as they get older, that you raise the training wheels up so that they get used to shifting their weight as the bike turns and theoretically they start riding without relying on them. For my DD, it just seemed to make her lean further to the side, which did not help!!

no real help, Cody and Jenna were both EIGHT when they learned how to ride with no training wheels (hey, we lived in the city where they couldn't really ride much). Jenna just learned last summer, and to top that, her then 4 year old brother took her bike (that had NO training wheels) and whizzed down the street, with only a little bit of assistance from the big brother. lol

I honestly never tried training them - my grandfather trained Cody, Jenna's best friend and big brother trained her, and Xander learned by watching the others. Quinten is already itching for a big kid bike like his siblings (although we have told him he needs to be a big boy first - no more pull-ups or accidents).

When dd was 4 we took her training wheels off to start teaching her and she took off and never looked back - zoomed right down the cul-de-sac, made a perfect turn and came back. We were speechless. We never had to teach her anything - couldn't believe it.

I can tell you!

Use a bike that is really too small for them at first. Start at the top of a hill and have them coast down it. No pedaling, just getting a feel for the balance and steering. Not too steep of a hill but enough that they get going pretty good. It's easier for them to balance when they are going faster.

Once they can do that pretty easily, you can add in pedaling.

It's super easy, 2 of mine learned in the same afternoon!

The other day I was buying a new bike seat for myself (ouch...I bought one especially for women!) and I saw this:

http://www.leapsandbounds.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=314768

it looks totally worth the money. I wish I had had one for nathan when he was younger. As it stands he didn't learn until he was 7, and it was using the "raising the training wheels" method. I would have liked to have had this.

Good luck!

oooh Lena - that thing looks awesome. Kylie is 8 and is scared to death to even try to ride without training wheels - she's perfectly happy on her scooter while the other kids ride their bikes (she's quit riding the bike with training wheels too - I think she's embarassed).

I guess she'll "get it" some day??

i remember i was older whern i learned to ride (probably 6 or 7) and my dad taught me. he just took me to a huge parking lot - like at a school or church or something in the eveneing when it was empty and he held the back of it FOREVER so i would feel safe, and then when i stopped worrying that he would let go - he did! worked for me, LOL!!