By: Danny May
Don’t think I’m a bad dad, but my boys are 6 and 4 and they still use training wheels. Well, up until last fall when our oldest started bending the training wheels because they couldn’t support his weight anymore. I mean, it was asking a lot of those tiny pieces of metal to hold up my boy. He’s a big ol’ boy. “Solid,” as I like to call him.
You should have seen him, it was the saddest thing. He was pedaling for all he was worth when slowly the whole bike started leaning to the left, Luke gradually shifting his bottom and leaning the opposite way to compensate. I was walking right behind him and saw it all in slow motion, saw the bracket easing under his weight until he just couldn’t stay upright anymore. Then, flop!
“DAD!!!!”
He bounced right up! Thankfully. But that training wheel was toast.
“Well, buddy. It’s time we learn how to ride this thing.”
I’d been putting it off for a while, remembering back to my own childhood and picturing my mom running behind my Schwinn with her hand on the banana seat for days, or weeks, or what seemed like an entire summer until I finally caught on. None of that sounded like any fun to me!
Man, I was not looking forward to chasing him hundreds of times back and forth down our front sidewalk to the stop sign and back. There’s got to be a better way!
That’s when I had the moment of inspiration. I recalled my neighbor, casually pedaling his mountain bike behind his little guy, who couldn’t have been over two and a half, with his little legs pedaling faster than pistons pumping in an engine. Somehow he did not have training wheels, yet he was in complete control, not a care in the world, just pedaling like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Hey, how’d you teach him to ride that young?”
“I bought a balance bike.”
“A what?”
“A balance bike!”
“A what?”
Apparently they make little bikes with no pedals so you can teach kids how to learn balance and equilibrium. The idea is to let them push with their feet to get the bike going, then prop their feet up and glide as far as they can. Each time they glide a little further as they gain confidence. Then, when they get their equilibrium you just move them to a real bike and they take off pedaling. Simple.
So, I ordered a balance bike online. In the meantime, research!
Of course I consulted YouTube on the best ways to teach a kid to ride a bike. The first video I saw suggested using a bed sheet. I’m not even kidding! The guy tied a bed sheet around his son just under his armpits and supported him that way instead of holding onto the bike. But that still meant he had to run incessantly behind the bike. Nope!
The next video was pure genius. All the guy did was take the pedals off his son’s bike and treat it just like a balance bike. Brilliant! Except I just dropped $60 on a balance bike! (Doh!) The next video I saw said the same thing. I was started to see a trend.
Time for some expert advice. First, I called “Bike Doctor” Ryan Clark at Legend’s. Turns out I should have checked with him first because Legends keeps several different models of balance bikes in stock. Ryan is a big fan of balance bikes. “They are the quickest way to learn,” he said. “And they’re especially good for children with special needs or sensory disorders.”
Now for the field test! I first tried the balance bike with our 6-year-old, but he was too tall. (Like I said, “Solid.”) So I resorted to taking the pedals off of his real bike. In about 20 minutes he was gliding all the way down our driveway. Then I put the pedals back on, packed his bike in the truck, and took him to an empty parking lot. Once I got him going, he took right off! Another few attempts and he could start on his own and even stop by back pedaling. All in all it was less than an hour of teaching. Score!
Next, I put our 4-year-old on the balance bike. The only problem was he just wasn’t interested in gliding at all. “I want to step it!” he said, looking at me like I was crazy, then took off walking the bike and making motorcycle noises. Pretty cute, but not the intended outcome.
So, it looks like it’s going to take some more work with my little guy. But that’s okay. At least now I have a better game plan!