Teaching your Child how to Ride a Bike

I am not an expert nor do I claim to be but this method worked with all three of my children.

When my son Robert was 7 years old, he suddenly decided that he didn't want to ride his bike any more, it took me about an hour to find out that he was embarrassed because he still had his training wheels on and his friends didn't.

It was then that I realised that he was ready to go that extra yard and I removed the training wheels from his bike.

Once done it only took about 30 minutes before he was pedalling along and having the time of his life.

The first step took about 5 minutes this was the easiest part, I sat him on his bike and lifted the seat and the back wheel off the ground and told him to pedal without stopping.

The second step was more difficult, I held the seat and ran along with him, this went ok until he had to turn, so I got him to stop pedalling and pushed him along getting him to do some turns as we went, this went great and he mastered turning without pedalling.

The Third step was easy after that running along beside him hand on the seat while he pedalled away, and yes he steered the turns perfectly.

The Fourth Step was to let go of the seat without him knowing, this was a scary step for me but hey it had to be done. I let go of the seat and he went along great until he realised that I wasn't holding him up any more, he stopped pedalling, steered left steered right steered left, right and then fell off, my heart was in my mouth but that's what his helmet, knee pads and elbow pads were for.

The fifth step the standing start ok he mastered the push start how would he do from a standing start? To my surprise, he got it first time one leg on the ground other leg on the pedal and away he went.

The sixth and final step was to show him the brakes and to teach him that he should always hit the back break slightly before the front brake (if you hit the front brake first there is a chance that you will go over the handlebars and the bike following you).

Robert was very proud and told everyone he saw in the next week that he could go his bike without training wheels.

A little patience is required when first teaching a child how to ride a bike, but it is worth it when you get the big hug and the thanks afterwards