My five year old son, Ethan, recently decided that he would like to learn to ride his bike without training wheels. Having read a suggestion from Mel Alwood in her book, The Complete Do-It-Yourself Bike Book, I removed not only the training wheels, but also the pedals.
After lowering the seat as far as it would go, Ethan was ready to go, pushing himself around dandy-horse style. After a few days of this, he had developed a great deal of confidence along with a sense of balance, getting the bicycle moving as fast as he could and then lifting both feet to coast ten to twenty feet. We were ready to put the pedals back on.
Ethan, a seasoned cyclist of three days, pretends to be injured from "doing tricks."
Having taught my daughter to ride a few years earlier, I still expected there to be a certain amount of running along side while Ethan got the hang of balancing and pedaling at the same time. To my surprise, this was not the case, and after an initial push he was pedaling down the sidewalk as if he’d done it hundreds of times. A few more tries and he was ready to start the bike himself.
Now a seasoned cyclist of four days, Ethan has taken to skidding and swerving all over the place, actions he refers to as “doing tricks.”
For anyone who has been having trouble teaching their child to ride, or for a child that’s afraid at the thought of taking on the two-wheel milestone, this is definitely a technique worth trying.
Ethan is definitely glad we did.
