Looking forward to getting my son a pedal bike for his 4th birthday soon. Going to go straight from balance bike and try to skip the training wheels as he’s pedalled plenty of trikes before.
All that he really seems interested in though is having brakes
Now that my first kids are older I look back and wonder why I was so worried about teaching them to ride, balance bikes and all of the techniques.
Really all it took was their desire, my patience and visits to the park with regular kids bikes when they were ready.
Youngest has just jumped up to a 24” Isla Bike. A local town we pass through on the school run is as bad as cycling infrastructure gets in the U.K., so I tow her bike though the mess with our Surly Big Dummy. Once on the wonderful local greenway we unhitch and off she goes.
We have set up little stepped goals. And at each stage of competence she gets little prizes ranging from mudguard stickers, lights, locks etc. We have toured together in Europe but she is keen to be self sufficient, so the holy grail will be a pair of little panniers all of her own. It’s really cute to see her so enthusiastic WITHOUT any hothousing on my part.
I think role modelling is number one. Not only in activity but in attitude. Projecting fun, positivity and personal development over results makes the sport appear more appealing to your kids than the other reality that often exists.
If you can find a youth club that embodies these values and the Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model even better. But if your local youth club isn’t a fun place then it’s better to just ride with your kid IMO.
My 11 year old is having great success at our local velodrome (a rare luxury in NA I know) and is super motivated and enthusiastic about cycling as a result. Big credit goes to the coaches of the youth club for that. But one day we were talking about other kids who had stopped coming and she confided that at one point she was struggling and frustrated and thinking of quitting. But knowing that her dad was capable of riding the track gave her the self-belief that she was too and so she persevered.
Knowing that I’m a role model like that is super motivating for myself to do everything right and to keep training and racing in a positive way.
On the hand our son crashed hard on his bike and decided biking is stupid and would rather play soccer. That’s cool too.
Hello!
I’m a triathlon coach for a large club & have my community bike coach training.
You can turn any bike into a strider by just taking the pedals off!
Start by getting the seat down so his feet can grip the ground. Make sure the bike is the right size.
Then you can go over basics:
look where you want to go is the main one
tilt bike side-to-side
“thumbs up, chains up” ~ chain side up towards sky
yabba-dabba-dooo exercise: two smaller bushes w/ both feet then a biiiig push
start on straight open area (tennis court works great b/c they’re fenced in)
go down little hills w/ feet lifted
Once he’s comfortable with turning while gliding w/ his feet off the ground for 5-10 seconds, you can try putting pedals back on.
I’ve seen kids get so good at strider bikes that they’re putting their feet up on the top tube…
Practice every day.
This is the progression we use when we have kids show up to practice w/ training wheels. They come off immediately along with the pedals.
Hope this helps.
Great post @Jonathan always enjoy your posts with Simon riding on your insta.
Our five year old has been a late starter with riding and me not wanting to be the Uncle Rico type have just let him do things at his own pace. He now loves riding his 16" pedal bike but have the next hurdle of getting him off trainer wheels which he’d pretty reluctant to do. Taking them off and giving him the bike just results in him flat out refusing to get on it. Any tips on that transition from anyone would be great!
Our two year old is now starting out on the balance bike, a Specialized Hotwalk. To be honest we battled with his older brother and now him with the fact that it has the steps for their feet, as soon as they figure this out they just want to put the feet up and have me push them round which isn’t really helping them learn anything. The steering stiffens comment you made is something I hadn’t thought of, and may try adding a bit of tension to the lock nut to stiffen things up, as I can see how having the bars so easy to turn probably doesn’t make it super stable for them.
Looking forward to the future when I can get them both down to the Rotorua trails and shredding!
Well both the post from Maki_NarusawaTrotter
and my earlier one quoted below show a good progression
my daughter really didn’t wanna get off her training wheels, but she’s the type that has to be nudged (sometimes pushed) in the right direction to learn and enjoy things. Taking off the pedals was an easy/cheap solution. What also helped was seeing our neighbours’ kids riding on their pedals bikes without training wheels… although at first she didn’t care, she then realized that she could go faster without the training wheels lol
Our 3.5 year old daughter just got riding her pedal bike without training wheels this week and is doing amazing. Figured I’d bump this old thread with a few tips.
Started with a balance bike around 2-2.5. Fun for her to just scoot around on.
Right before turning 3, she rode a pedal bike with training wheels that a friend had with camping. After that she had almost no interest in her balance bike.
Bought her a bike with training wheels. She had the pedaling down, but I read training wheels developed bad habits and watching her ride with them, I could definitely see that.
Removed training wheels, removed pedals so she could get used to balancing and going faster on the larger/heavier balance bike (14 inch wheels) with a hand brake (Guardian brand bike)
After a few months of that (she didn’t have a ton of interest without pedals) I put the pedals back on. Biggest tip - once on, I used a towel wrapped under her arms that I could hold behind her with one hand and jog next to her to slightly help balance and catch her if needed.
After a couple days with the towel, we took her to a grassy area to practice. After about 20 mins on the grass we let her loose on pavement and she had it down! Biggest thing is getting going - have her put one foot on the pedal and use the other to push herself fast to start pedaling. The other is that to stop just pull the brake and put your feet out wide to catch herself.
Proud dad moment for sure. Now all she wants to do is ride her bike! She’s had a couple tip overs but all at slow speeds. We live on a cul de sac so have her just going down to the end and back.
Congrats on getting her up and running, it’s a proud dad moment for sure!
Out of interest what bike is she on now? With our eldest daughter she learnt on an astonishingly heavy bike we were given (never put it on the scales but felt like it was made of cast iron), and getting going was a real issue for her. For our second daughter we picked up a secondhand Islabike which is a great lightweight frame designed for kids and she found it so much easier. A lot of kids bikes seem to be really heavy, especially the ones targeted at boys with more of a MTB look with beefy tubes, and it definitely impedes their enjoyment.
Currently in process now with our 3 year old. She’s had a reverse trike type balance bike since she was about 1. She is capable if riding this around inside the house fine, and as of this weekend even liked going down the slightly slopped driveway.
We inherited back the haro strider I bought my niece 8 or so years ago, that went to my nephew and now us. In the fall before repainting it she rode it around in the grass with me pushing but was uninterested in trying to actually ride it alone. This past weekend was our first real try outside on some pavement with it, me still holding her. We did a few laps back and forth between some neighbors parked cars before she wanted to go back to the reverse trike for a bit. Swapped back to the strider and then finished up on the reverse trike again. Letting her dictate how much time she wants on each. I think the current hurdle right now is getting her to trust she can try to balance on the strider herself, seems like she thinks it only works if we hold it.
Need to try that towel trick so I’m doing less pushing.. and not wrecking my back.
Yes, definitely a very proud dad moment!
She’s on a 14” Guardian brand bike with a single hand brake that brakes both front and rear tires. Although they somehow market it as being lightweight, it is insanely heavy. They offer free returns the first year, and I’ve almost considered returning it for something lighter. Now that she is able to ride, I’ll keep it.
I haven’t tossed it on a scale, but it seriously feels like 20 lbs. While it’s harder to get it up and get it going, I do think that it probably helps for balance once she is pedaling. Probably wears her out faster too, which I think is a good thing at this point lol.
Many kudos to you and your wife for the approach you took. Ease him into an activity he can and will enjoy for a lifetime! Well done. That you took the time and spent it with him in ways that made him comfortable was key. A former friend and long time cyclist I know was just the opposite. Had no patience and just enrolled his son at R.E.I.. Pathetic, really. You do not get chances to do some things over, again well done!
Bumped our 3 year old up from a 14” guardian to a 16” prevelo. All I can say is WOW. Although the bike is larger, it’s about 3 lbs lighter than the guardian. Feels half the weight.
I almost bought the 16” woom brand (very popular) but fortunately checked the minimum seat height and would’ve been 2” too tall. The prevelo is very well made. Pedals were terrible but fortunately I had some spares to toss on that were way better.
Hopefully this will last her a couple years. The extra couple inches in tire size makes me feel way better seeing the more stable handling and her getting over obstacles better.
