Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Riding bike ?

Ds turned 7 in June, and still can't ride his bike. We took the training wheels off in the hopes that he would take off - but he just doesn't want to. He doesn't have kids in the neighbourhood, so no peer pressure or need to ride his bike, but it would be nice if he could ! He does great with other physical activities - is great at soccer, had no problem ice skating in the winter - can't swim, but loves to try - so why can't he ride his bike ? I figure that when he wants to, he'll finally figure it out, but it's pretty frustrating for me right now that he just doesn't care Dh even went out and bought himself a bike at the weekend, so we could go for bike rides together - let's hope that helps motivate him !

DS6 just learned. He was overusing his training wheels, and I said "that's enough". I encouraged the mess out of it b/c he's the "I can't" perfectionist if he thinks it's too hard. At first we tried to hold on while he was going, but that proved to be a disaster. So, I got on my bike and showed him how to balance and take off and brake. And bam, he just did it. Now if I can get him to STOP before he gets in the garage and crashes into everything!

My older DS just turned 6, and he's still on training wheels, too. He's my cautious one, and is just starting to enjoy riding his bike. Plus, we haven't lived on good bike-riding streets, so there's been little opportunity. In our old neighborhood, it was very hilly. Now, even though we live in a gated and quiet neighborhood, there is still plenty of traffic down our street and we don't have sidewalks. We recently lost a 7 year old in our area to a car driving only 15 mph, so now I'm back to being paranoid-Mom about anything near the road.

I was starting to wonder if we should help him out more, but then at our neighborhood parade I saw that there are lots of 6 and 7 year olds around who aren't bike-proficient yet. I think by the time it's really a social issue, they'll just quickly figure it out and be off!

It really helps at the beginning to remove the training wheel and have the bike seat low enough that their feet touch the ground. Then practice just leaning from one foot to the other.

Then, practice while sitting on the bike, just use the feet to push forward on the ground, coasting a bit.

That lets them get the feel of it.

We bought a small bike and hid the training wheels before showing DC. Then did the above.

DD7.5 only JUST learned to ride her bike this spring. She had flat-out refused to get on it without training wheels previously. Luckily, she did have some peer pressure from her neighbourhood friends, but they were also incredibly supportive. The three of them rode alongside her and helped to keep her from becoming too frustrated. They gave her a lot of encouragement and all cheered like mad when she finally did it.

For her, like a lot of things in life, if she can't do it perfectly the first time she tries than she doesn't ever want to try again. When we finally got her on the bike without training wheels she was so short-tempered and cranky and almost in tears the whole time. She kept saying "I can't do it, I hate my bike!" When she finally drove off by herself she all of a sudden loved her bike.... go figure!

I feel your pain. I was really frustrated with her last year. We now use this as a good example of how important it is to practice and how it is okay to not be good at something.

If I can offer a suggestion, a neighbour gave us the heads up that they learn more quickly if you put their seat down as low as possible so that their feet are flat on the ground. It gives them more confidence and they can push off easily. She was riding within a day of us doing this.

These are great tips! At the risk of dumbing myself down (haha!), I had Regis on at the sports club last week while I was on the treadmill, and I saw Kelly Ripa learning to ride a bike from a bike expert. They had her coasting down a shallow grassy slope at first with her feet dangling until she got the balance (similar to what the moms above just suggested). They also suggested that she not use her brakes until she got used to it. If she can do it, surely our little smarties can when they're ready, right?

I think the coasting idea is great. Also, can you raise the training wheels so they are a couple of inches above the ground? That will let your ds get used to the trick of balancing without having to fear falling over.

I think I was 7 when I learned to ride without training wheels. It was not a pleasant experience for me, but I think it might have been downtrigh traumatic for my parents... Looking back, I wonder -- Why? What was the high stake situation here?

Anyway, it took -- in addition to the types of things mentioned above -- LOTS of bribery (for me, it was in the form of lots of dinosaur and other animal models). So, you might want to sit down with DS and figure out some sort of incentive system.

The good news is, once you get over that hump, then ta-da, the kid can ride the bike and the issue is basically over.

We also took the pedals off the bike, took her over to the parking lot of the school (giant empty paved area with a very gentle slope), and let her coast while balancing and steering. Then added the pedals back in, with someone holding her while she pushed off. Then she tried pushing off herself. It took about an hour before she was completely independent and confident, with only one wipeout and no scabby knees.

We haven't kept up with it, though, so she's lost most of the bike-riding ability.

jesse - the coasting helped DS6 too!!!

Both of my girls had issues with learning to ride bikes. Dd11 was somewhat harder, though, b/c she is very cautious by nature. Both of them were impacted by perfectionism. It didn't help that dh kept insisting that putting the seat down low was a bad idea, so we didn't have the parents on the same page in terms of how to teach them.

I wasn't really worried when they were your ds' age - maybe b/c that's about the age when I learned to ride myself. With dd11 we put our collective feet down on learning to ride when she was 10 b/c she was a 6th grader at that time and it was becoming a social issue. She kept insisting that she was going to fracture her hip if she fell. Like most things, she finally got it down when we gave up on trying to teach her and let her teach herself in whatever manner she could.