Teaching Your Child To Ride A Bike

Learning to ride a bike is a rite of passage that every child eventually goes through. Although the process can be long and tricky, especially with nervous children, once they eventually get the hang of it nothing could be better for their self esteem - learning a skill they will use again and again in adult life, which is fun but also has a feeling of accomplishment.

When looking for kids bikes to begin with, picking out a tricycle or a bike with stabilisers may be the best option. one of the first thing you child will need to get used to is the feeling of riding the bike along, steering it so they don’t crash into anything and how to use the brakes. instead of having to think about all of this as well as staying upright, using stabilisers or a tricycle will mean they get a good grasp on all of the other factors of using a bike before they have to start thinking about not falling off.

The first thing you should teach them is steering. get them somewhere with plenty of space and walk in front of them, encouraging them to follow you around using the handlebars. This will give them a good idea of what the bike can do, how fast and how much it turns, and that they are completely safe even on a sharp turn if they take it at the right speed.

From here they can start using brakes and you could take them to an area with low hills or a rougher terrain so they get used to the feel of the bike naturally speeding up on hills, and slowing down when they go uphill or or rougher ground. It can be nerve wracking at first for a child to handle a bike getting faster, but thankfully younger kids bikes rarely reach high speeds and your child should quickly get used to the speed of their bike.

The next step is to remove the stabilisers, but don’t make them try to ride the bike straight away, as this can be when the frustration kicks in. Instead get them to feel completely safe on the bike when it only has two wheels by allowing them to scoot along and then freewheel when they can. They will soon work out that when they are going at speed they don’t need to pedal and the bike is easier to stay on top of and then you can start teaching the pedals.

There is no way around it, you will need to hold onto them or the bike so they can learn to balance when pedalling. They may even need you to do this for the first few weeks as they build up confidence, but children are braver than adults, and more resilient, so once they feel safe they will probably start doing this alone.