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did the balance bike thing. my kid just yesterday is riding a real bike at 3 years old. just told him to get going and put his feet on the pedals and he was rid

did the balance bike thing. my kid just yesterday is riding a real bike at 3 years old. just told him to get going and put his feet on the pedals and he was riding his bike in less than 5 minutes.

Kon-Peki 2y ago
Nice job! Balance bikes aren't even all that necessary and a lot of them are so poorly made that they aren't doing much of anything. Get a decent real bike of the appropriate size and take the pedals off of it (lower the seat so they can sit while both feet are flat on the ground). Teach the kids to glide. That's it. Start with gliding a few centimeters and work up to gliding multiple meters/feet. Go at whatever pace is comfortable. It could take months or minutes. You'll know when the time is right to put the pedals back on and raise the seat. At that point, you are 5-10 minutes max from riding a bike like a pro. For my oldest kid, I paid $50 for a "we will teach your kid to ride in ONE HOUR" class and watched them teach it (my kid took 45 minutes). Since then, I've taught little kids, older kids, adults. This stuff really works. It is seriously hard to believe that the old way of teaching people to ride bikes ever existed.
- denimnerd42 2y ago
  Yeah the balance bike was a present at 1 year old to gauge interest as he grew. Definitely not necessary. We went all out with a Strider 12 pro though. He was able to walk with it very early on but the 2 front wheel scooter captured his attention more. He loved riding on the Shotgun Pro seat though on our bikes. The gliding is definitely the skill needed. It helps to have somewhere with a slight incline like a driveway apron too. At least it made it less boring for my son. The problem I see with the gliding is that it wasn't all that interesting to my son. So it really took him to get old enough to realize it would be a step towards riding a real bike. What I can't believe is that the high end companies like Specialized, Trek, etc hadn't figure this out years ago. I can't believe they even still allow themselves to sell bikes with training wheels. I get that it's a short term sale for parents who don't know any better but you'd think they'd be better off if the kids actually learned to ride quickly and graduated to bigger bikes instead of maybe never learning to ride until much older. They should sell the bikes with the crank arms that can pop on and off with a quick release and without actually taking off the front sprocket. Even taking the pedals off the crank arms are still in the way.

did the balance bike thing. my kid just yesterday is riding a real bike at 3 years old. just told him to get going and put his feet on the pedals and he was riding his bike in less than 5 minutes.

Kon-Peki 2y ago

Nice job! Balance bikes aren't even all that necessary and a lot of them are so poorly made that they aren't doing much of anything. Get a decent real bike of the appropriate size and take the pedals off of it (lower the seat so they can sit while both feet are flat on the ground). Teach the kids to glide. That's it. Start with gliding a few centimeters and work up to gliding multiple meters/feet. Go at whatever pace is comfortable. It could take months or minutes. You'll know when the time is right to put the pedals back on and raise the seat. At that point, you are 5-10 minutes max from riding a bike like a pro. For my oldest kid, I paid $50 for a "we will teach your kid to ride in ONE HOUR" class and watched them teach it (my kid took 45 minutes). Since then, I've taught little kids, older kids, adults. This stuff really works. It is seriously hard to believe that the old way of teaching people to ride bikes ever existed.

denimnerd42 2y ago
Yeah the balance bike was a present at 1 year old to gauge interest as he grew. Definitely not necessary. We went all out with a Strider 12 pro though. He was able to walk with it very early on but the 2 front wheel scooter captured his attention more. He loved riding on the Shotgun Pro seat though on our bikes. The gliding is definitely the skill needed. It helps to have somewhere with a slight incline like a driveway apron too. At least it made it less boring for my son. The problem I see with the gliding is that it wasn't all that interesting to my son. So it really took him to get old enough to realize it would be a step towards riding a real bike. What I can't believe is that the high end companies like Specialized, Trek, etc hadn't figure this out years ago. I can't believe they even still allow themselves to sell bikes with training wheels. I get that it's a short term sale for parents who don't know any better but you'd think they'd be better off if the kids actually learned to ride quickly and graduated to bigger bikes instead of maybe never learning to ride until much older. They should sell the bikes with the crank arms that can pop on and off with a quick release and without actually taking off the front sprocket. Even taking the pedals off the crank arms are still in the way.