Learning to Ride a Bike

My daughters have had two-wheeled bikes for several years now, but are still using their training wheels. The main reason they haven’t learned to ride without training wheels yet is simply because they rarely ride their bikes. While they enjoy playing outside, they usually opt to play in our yard or decorate our driveway and sidewalks with chalk instead of riding their bikes, even though we live on a great cul-de-sac location.

I recently learned that a friend of my girls who lives on our street has recently learned how to ride her bike without her training wheels. It turns out that her parents like to bicycle frequently, and simply decided to take the training wheels off their daughter’s bike one day to make her learning process quicker. Their daughter learned quickly how to ride her bike after that, they said.

So, I’ve been wondering how I should teach my girls, who are both 8, how to ride their bikes. Since it’s summer, now would be the perfect time to teach them, I figure.

I learned how to bicycle the traditional way. My parents removed the training wheels from my bike and ran alongside me, holding the bike until they felt I was ready to go it on my own. I remember bicycling down the street with my mom running behind me. I am sure there were some falls, but I don’t remember any.

One website I consulted recommends lowering the bike’s seat so that the beginner can reach her feet to the ground. It also recommends removing the bike’s pedals, so that the novice can focus on learning how to balance on a bike before pedaling. A video on the website shows how a beginner can learn to bike by taking a bicycle to a small grassy incline and balancing while coasting down a hill. I like that approach, as it seems less likely that my daughters would get injured — should they try to bike on our cul-de-sac, they would most likely fall down on the hard pavement. (An experience that would at least temporarily diminish their desire to ride their bikes.) With the method promoted on the website, the learner could simply put her feet down on the grass should she feel that she’s going to fall.

The video suggests that once the beginner has her balance all set, the pedeals on the bike should be reattached, so the bicyclist can learn how to pedal.

The approach seems like a very reasonable, measured one, one that I would like to try with my kids. Now, I just have to find a good, coasting hill (that’s not too big) on which my girls can learn to ride their bikes.