Any thoughts or ideas on teaching bike riding to an older child?

[jess_g]

My ds is 10. He has never wanted to ride a bike or tricycle outside, he just likes to run around and climb. I am going to try and teach him how to ride this spring/summer. I thought I would start with something with stability like a bike with training wheels and just get him used to pedaling than work on the balance part. Any ideas on how to start this and what type of a bike to look for? Its not good weather yet here so I have some time before I start this, but I realy want him to learn. We have a flat driveway so I think that is where we would start.

Thanks,

Jessica.

[bubbaray]

Are there bike camps in your area? I would do that with an older child -- we have tons of them here and apparently they are very good.

In terms of a bike, I'd take him to an independent bike store and get him fitted. I know Specialized makes decent bikes for little kids, but at his age, there should be a bigger range of brands that will work.

HTH

[crl]

I haven't had any luck getting DS, age 6.5, to ride without training wheels and I'm starting to wonder if I should never have gone the training wheel route. He can pedal just fine, but he's afraid he's going to fall and doesn't want to give up the training wheels.

Can your son already ride a scooter? I wonder if that would be an approach to learning the balancing part first? I tried this theory, but DS isn't that interested in or good at the scooter and it doesn't seem to help convince him that he won't fall off the bike. . . .

I'll be watching this thread for ideas.

Catherine

[Tanya]

Can he pedal?

My daughter is a wimp and I was NOT looking forward to getting her to ride without training wheels. She didn't learn to pedal until she was 4 and then she didn't want to give up her tricycle for awhile after that. This past fall, we decided it was time (she was about 6.5). Her bike didn't give a good option of moving the training wheels up, so we ended up removing them. Dh ran along with her. I ran along with her. She wouldn't let go of us and did not trust us not to let go of her or the bike. Nothing like holding up dead weight. I tried getting her to just balance going down a hill which resulted in a crash and lots of crying.

Then I suggested that she put the pedal that she wanted to start with in the up position and I had her try to take off by herself. She was able to go a few feet which gave her some confidence and within a day or two, she was riding just fine. If I'd known it was that easy, we would have done it a long time ago.

We have a steep driveway and our neighborhood has no sidewalks and our roads are quite hilly. I took her to the parking lot of the elementary school.

We went to a place with lots of bike trails over Christmas and DD did great. She still hasn't quite mastered coasting though. So, she exhausts herself with the constant pedaling.


If he's not pedaling, I don't know what to tell you. Both of my kids seemed to have trouble figuring it out. My younger daughter got it earlier (at 3) than my oldest though.

[KpbS]

My sister didn't learn until she was 9-10 yo. I was surprised--I was really determined to ride and learned at 5. Our neighborhood was super hilly and I think that was probably a big deterrent for her in retrospect. One day her good friend convinced her to hike her bike up our street to a nearby flat street and taught her how to ride there.

[jent]

This is coming from someone whose kid is not yet at bike riding stage, so take with a grain of salt...

I've heard that training wheels don't actually teach your kid to ride, b/c they provide too much support & therefore the kid is not balancing on his/her own. It's recommended to lower the seat so the child's feet touch the ground, so they can practice balancing but then quickly put their feet down if they need to. You can also take the pedals off (easily done with a tool called a pedal wrench, a bike shop could do it for you in 2 minutes) to get the pedals out of the way while they're learning to balance (essentially turning it into a balance bike).

DH is a cyclist & this is what he was told by his cyclist buddies.

[Katia]

This is coming from someone whose kid is not yet at bike riding stage, so take with a grain of salt...

I've heard that training wheels don't actually teach your kid to ride, b/c they provide too much support & therefore the kid is not balancing on his/her own. It's recommended to lower the seat so the child's feet touch the ground, so they can practice balancing but then quickly put their feet down if they need to. You can also take the pedals off (easily done with a tool called a pedal wrench, a bike shop could do it for you in 2 minutes) to get the pedals out of the way while they're learning to balance (essentially turning it into a balance bike).

DH is a cyclist & this is what he was told by his cyclist buddies.

This is great advice -- it's exactly how my DS learned how to ride! We bought him a bike at an independent bike shop and had them remove the pedals. We lowered the seat. It only took a few outings for him to figure out how to balance, and then we put the pedals back on.

[squimp]

I wouldn't get training wheels for a 10-year-old. Definitely start him where he can put both feet on the ground. Bike shops are great for advice too. I taught DD how to ride her two-wheeler by taking her to a grassy, gradual hill and just getting her started and letting her coast down the hill. It literally took about an hour of this before she was riding laps around the park. I think she fell once and it was very soft. She was 6.5 - and your son is bound to be way more coordinated too.

[MMEand1]

We just recently went through this with my 7 year old DS. We took the pedals off and let him just learn how it feels to balance while pushing his bike with his feet. When he was comfortable with that, we put the pedals back on. It only took about 45 minutes for him to get it. I posted about this not too long ago and even sent someone some videos of my DS while riding.

[jillc]

Another vote for removing the training wheels & the pedals.

My *cautious* just-turned-six-year-old DD learned this way a couple months ago. We were surprised at how quickly she progressed.

Santa brought my DS a Strider balance bike for Christmas, but he was too busy riding his new scooter to be interested in the bike. We encouraged DD to try out the balance bike for a few weeks instead of riding her own bike which had training wheels. She did great on the balance bike & then after a few weeks, she *insisted* that DH lower her bike's seat & take off the training wheels. Within 15 minutes, she was riding up and down our block.

I'm all about the balance bike & can't wait until DS gives it a try, too. He is still too crazy about his scooter to try the bike. BTW, the Kickboard USA scooter is awesome!