7 ms·
From the article: > Given the benefits of balance bikes, why did it take so long for them to replace training wheels? Answer: because buying a dedicated bike
by yboris 6y ago
From the article:
> Given the benefits of balance bikes, why did it take so long for them to replace training wheels?
Answer: because buying a dedicated bike just to train how to use a bike is not something you can do unless you're affluent. Adding or removing training wheels is cheap and means you can keep using the same bike.
- MattGaiser 6y agoAlso, the assumption of balance bikes is that you have lots of time/energy to let the kid learn. Training wheels make a bike rideable very quickly.
- sjg007 6y agoYou can start balance bikes at a younger age.
- bigfudge 6y agoThere are great videos of a Swedish three year old on a half pipe on a balance bike! My kids were not so fearless, but my son did a 8 mile ride (flat ex railway line) on a balance bike when he was 3. And before anyone accuses me of pushy parenting... we didn't make him! The plan had always been for my wife to ride with him separately, but he insisted on coming the whole way with his two siblings. It was a really memorable day.
- kmanlives 6y agoI thought a balance would be great, but neither of my kids liked the balance bike we bought. They rode with training wheels for quite a while. What got them riding without training wheels was learning to ride Razor scooters. One afternoon when I saw them both riding sweeping S curves on their scooters, I took their training wheels off. At 6 and 7 1/2 yrs, they when from total terror on their bikes to riding comfortably in a few hours. It only took a few rides with me running alongside holding on (continually holding on less each time). It was amazing.
- bigfudge 6y agoBut riding with training wheels looks miserable... it destroys the smoothness and joy of a bike. I'm surprised kids want to persist with it at all... My kids loved balance bikes (i.e. normal bikes with no pedals) because they don't have the resistance and weird balance issues of a tiny third wheel.
- didgeoridoo 6y agoCan you take the pedals off a regular bike to make it into a balance bike? Or is there something special about the balance bike design?
- fanf2 6y agoYes, though you need to lower the saddle as well as remove the pedals.
- burnte 6y agoAnd usually the proper way to mount training wheels is higher than the ground by a couple inches so they only touch the ground when the bike leans a little, encouraging balance.
- derekp7 6y agoI tried that, and the kid will then just ride the bike with it leaning all the way to one side till the wheel hits the ground. I'd really like to see training wheels with adjustable spring tension. Gradually make the spring weaker so the training wheels have less effect every couple weeks, until they aren't really doing anything at all.
- mrfusion 6y agoWow you should patent that. Or do a kickstarter. That sounds pretty useful.
- jjk166 6y agoHow does the kid steer? Bikes need the front wheel to be pretty close to perpendicular with the ground. Tilted over, you'd just go in a tight circle forever, and trying to turn would lift you off the training wheel.
- derekp7 6y agoYou can still steer, since it is supported by the training wheel then the front wheel can be turned any direction as it isn't needed to be pointing a specific way to maintain balance. Also I'm talking about the training wheels being lifted an inch or two. Causes a lean of maybe 10 - 15 degrees I'd guess.
- jjk166 6y agoWell there's your problem, you're supposed to lift up the training wheels over time. At the beginning they may be used all the time but by the end they should only be there to catch a bike that's falling over.
- SeanLuke 6y ago??? It's even cheaper to remove the pedals and cranks from the kid's bike and to lower its saddle. Instant balance bike.
- sidlls 6y agoIt’s much easier to add and remove training wheels than mess with an integrated part of the design.
- hcho 6y agoEh? They are bolted on with screws and get regulary replaced. It's not any difficult than removing training wheels.
- sidlls 6y agoDefine "regularly". I've replaced pedals on bicycles I've owned exactly once in my lifetime. That includes the 4 year period prior to COVID that I commuted by bicycle and caltrain. It was much more difficult to loosen the bolts and get them re-fastened than the training wheels on my oldest's bicycle. Not to mention the handling of the chain.
- hcho 6y agoI switch between toe clips(for commuting) and cleats(for longer rides) at least once a month. Why would you need to handle the chain? Pedals are attached to cranks.
- y42 6y agoNope, thread starter has a point here. It's not only pedals and screws. You probably would like to remove the front gears and therefore the chain, that requires you to remove the whole rear weel. What if you have a back-pedalling brake hub. Besides that now you have a "hole" in the gear area, maybe full of oil, Also the bike designed to perfectly run with the full gear on. And so on... you may not want to tamper that "perfectly" aligned system if your kid is playing with it. Nope...it's not just about removing the pedals.
- wbeckler 6y agoIt seems like your answer suffers from the very bias being described, because you don't have to "add" a balance bike to your inventory. You can just "subtract" the pedals off the one you've got.
- gandalfian 6y agoTake the pedals off and lower the seat. Tell kid to use his feet. Hey presto, it's a balance bike.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- lurquer 6y agoI’ve had the privilege of ‘training’ three kids to ride bikes. As those of us who ride bikes know, there is no way to explain how to do it. Running alongside the kid with a hand on them (or on the handlebars) is useless. Training wheels are useless. The only way for the kid to ‘get it’ is to allow the bike to fall: only when they start to fall, and they instinctively jerk the handlebar the other way, will their muscles ‘understand.’ It only took a couple hours with each kid... pushing them up to speed and then letting go. They’d fall, there would be tears, and we’d try it again. And, then, after several scraped knees and bruised shins, that magical moment would occur when some little cluster of neurons finally makes the new connections, and voila... they’d be bike riders. All the tears and frustration would be replaced by euphoria. Clearly a two or three year old, perhaps, is better off with a scooter or balance bike. But, as an old fart, watching 7 and 8 year olds in the park riding ‘balance bikes’, I get the sneaking suspicion that the parents are stretching out a couple-hour process to a couple-month or year process merely because they can’t permit themselves to let the kid wipe out. Don’t even get me started with swimming...
- scarecrowbob 6y agoI trained two kiddos using the parent's method. Taking the pedals off seemed functional equivalent to a balance bike, and I taught my 4 and 5 year old to ride their bikes the same afternoon. Same with swimming. It's kinda goody to judge other parents, tho. A lot of stuff that is easy for me is hard for other folks. But I've been divorced twice, and a lot of folks haven't. So very difficult to judge. I don't, in general, think that your description of why folks aren't teaching the kiddos using your method is accurate. IME, most folks are just ignorant that it can be done at all.
- cameronh90 6y agoWhen I was young, we just used learnt on a regular non-adapted bike. It usually involved a few minor scrapes and bruises, but you learnt very quickly.
- dang 6y agoThat "the article" was https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-brain-typically-overlooks-this-brilliant-problem-solving-strategy/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-brain-typical.... (We merged https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26740085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26740085 hither.)
- grahamburger 6y agoIME the the balance bikes are about the same price as a set of training wheels. And also re-usable - my youngest two kids used the same balance bike.