Bike Riding 101

...or maybe I should have titled this "Teaching Bike Riding 101". Fortunately, the entire experience was a cinch! I guess waiting until your child is more than old enough really makes everything about bike riding that much easier. A few weeks ago a friend of ours loaned us a bike for Susie to borrow (until she receives her new princess bike for her b-day). The bike, however, had no training wheels on it. I decided in a split instant to remove the training wheels from Tyler's bike and use them on our loaner for Susie. Tyler has never truly loved riding his bike since he got it almost 2 1/2 years ago. The training wheels have always seemed to hinder him--the bike has always felt wobbly and it really has bothered him. He's never ridden the bike with confidence. I figured whether the training wheels were on or off, he wouldn't dislike it anymore than he already did. He has always preferred to ride his Big Wheel or Razor Scooter.

After removing the training wheels, I marched Tyler up to the top of our backyard. There is a grassy area at the top with a slight hill. I put Tyler on his bike, let go, and he easily balanced himself to the end of the grassy area. Wow! I didn't know it could be that easy! By the end of the day I had him on the cement patio riding back and forth to the grass. Of course, I still had to help him start every time. A few weeks passed, and I really didn't practice too much with him. Then yesterday afternoon, we couldn't pass up the opportunity. The weather has been so gorgeous for the last 5 days (however a week ago, we woke up to a couple inches of snow). By the end of the day, Tyler had learned to start himself on his bike, and was even riding around the pool. The video posted below is from yesterday. You can hear me in the video telling him to "keep pedaling". That was his biggest problem yesterday. He would forget to pedal and lose his balance.

Today the blue skies and high 70s were calling us to come outside once again. We headed over to a nearby park with cement paths. Tyler got in about 45 minutes of good practice. He really had it down by the time we were done. Also, by the time we were done, I had tightened Susie's training wheels that don't fit quite right about 20 times (no joke). And, Tyler's pedal had fallen off twice! I finally had had enough of all the repairs and we went home. Tyler, surprisingly (remember he's never liked riding his bike), wanted to keep riding in the backyard. Now he goes around the pool, does a circle around the planter in the middle of the patio, heads down the hill, circles around the basketball court, and makes it back up the hill. Whew! He is so proud of himself! I think he finally has learned to love bike riding.