How to teach your child to ride a bike the easy way

Jul 08

TananaSports , , No Comments

Or, more specifically, how to put your child in the position to teach themselves to balance and thus ride a bike.

 

 

Throw away the training wheels. Save your back. Eliminate tears. Start them out the right way and that is learning how to balance on the bike safely. This is a low pressure method that is much easier on parent’s backs. I have taught many kids using this method. Some get it immediately and are riding like pros within minutes. Some take an hour and when they leave, they are still wobbly and even wobbly a few bike rides later (mostly due to lack of leg muscle strength). Some, just have too great of a fear factor and won’t do it. So, this will not work for “everyone”, but in my experience, it works for most.

 Here are the steps:

    1. Always wear a helmet. Also, some kids will feel better wearing some tough clothes like jeans and long sleeves in case they do fall.
    2. Find a place near you that has a gentle slope leading to a flat area. The flat area needs to be safe and long. They will not have breaks most likely and therefore will not be able to stop until they slow down. So the hill can’t lead into or cross over a road, trail or parking lot. We found a great place near a soccer field. It had a gentle slope leading into the field. Plus the slope changed heights and that allowed us to start easy and go higher. [THINK SAFETY: Don't find a spot where they can slam in to trees or a wall or fence. Even on a “bunny slope” they are going to need 30+ feet of space to ride. A steeper slope may need a much longer run.]
    3. Lower the seat and remove the pedals. We lower the seat so that their feet are flat on the ground reducing the fear factor. We remove the pedals because so they don’t get their legs tangled up with the pedals and then get hurt . (Note, to loosen the pedals, turn the wrench toward the back of the bike. You can’t use “lefty loosey/righty tighty” for bikes)

remove bike pedal How to teach your child to ride a bike the easy way

  1. Position the bike at the top of the gentle slope and have the rider get on. Tell the rider to push the bike down the hill once, then raise their legs out to the sides. They should not try to stop until the bike slows down.
  2. See the videos. The first one is off the gentle slope. The second is a much higher slope.
  3. For the very nervous or balance challenged child, you may have to hold the back of the seat and run down with them part or all of the way. In fact, you should plan to do that for at least the first couple times with your child. Once you know, they are balancing themselves down the hill, you can back off and just let them do it.
  4. Once they are really comfortable balancing down the hill (they don’t have to go down steep hills, they can just stay on the “bunny slope” and then move directly to the flats), put the pedals back on and raise the seat to the appropriate height (toes touching the ground).
  5. Typically, we work on a AstroTurf soccer field or a baseball diamond. The baseball diamond seems to work the best. It is softer than a paved bike trail and therefore less scary, but also packed firm enough to make the pedaling easier. Here, you retreat back to the “holding the back of the seat” and pushing them. But, since they already know how to balance, you should be able to help them just by pushing them and letting them go. [Note: It may take the awhile to get the leg strength to allow them to push off by themselves. ]
  6. If they’ve never used the brakes before, you will need to show them how to do this and help them by constantly yelling “brake” to get them to practice braking.

Bike Riding tips:

  1. NEVER push on the handlebars. This is the number one reason for wobbliness. Because kids don’t have developed leg strength, they tend to try to get leverage pushing on the pedal by also pushing on the handlebars. The problem is, they do this unevenly and that causes the front wheel to turn and now they are wobbling.
  2. Pedaling is from the hip down. They should keep their back, arms, and hands relaxed.
  3. The should sit up straight and lean forward slightly at the hips.
  4. Don’t forget to raise the seat back up so that their toes are just touching the ground or just a little lower than that. It is much harder to pedal if the seat it too low.
  5. Don’t buy bikes that are too big for them or too heavy for them to handle. Buy something cheap to start with and once they are good at riding, then get them their “good” bike.
  6. When you do buy them a “good” bike, make sure they have room to grow with it. I’ve seen people go out and buy bikes where the seat is all the way up to it’s maximum height as soon as they bought it. So as soon as the child grows an inch, they are too big for the bike.