Advice - teaching my son how to ride his bike

[Pendrench]

Hello -

I also posted this in the "Bicycling Group", but I thought I would ask this here as well...

I'm trying to teach my 8 year old how to ride his bike (without training wheels) but we haven't been too successful.

He's a big kid (around 90 pounds) and so he has trouble with his balance...and of course now he's afraid that he will fall and hurt himself.

Because of where we live, we've been taking him to an empty parking lot to have him ride, but I'm wondering if this is the best location. I've heard from some people that it would be a good idea to find a small, grassy hill and have him coast down the hill a few times...I've tried running along side of him and then letting go (but that's hard because of his weight)...so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Tim

[oregonjen]

1. I know some parents take their kids to the local track

Soft landing if they fall. My neighbor used a rope and tied it to the seat and was able to keep the rope tight to give the child a sense of balance without the bike falling over.

For my son, we did two things: First, big incentive to get a new shiny bike instead of an old small one with training wheels if he could ride on his own. Second, I kept my hand on one side of the handle bars. That worked great because I was able to help keep the balance of the bike and most importantly, it didn't kill my back!

Good luck! :hi:

[SW FL Dem]

2. I had the same problem

My son has always been a big kid. When he was trying to learn to ride his bike, I spent many evenings killing my back trying to steady the bike. He got more and more frustrated and so did I. We took the training wheels off and put them back on over and over. Finally, one evening the girl who lived across the street and was a year younger than my son, took her wheels off and took off after only a few tries. My son decided he wanted to try again, so I took the training wheels off again. The phone rang and I ran to answer it, the girls dad steadied my kid, gave him a push and off he went. I came back out to the street and my son was riding his bike. He never looked back.

[Pendrench]

3. Thanks to both of you!

First of all, I wanted to thank both of you for your advice...sorry it took me so long to respond (I had to work late this evening).

I'm hoping that we will have nice weather this weekend so that we can try taking Adam out again (although it sounds like it's going to be cold and rainy)...in any event, I'll have to let you know how things go.

Thanks again -

Tim