Re: Re: tricycle or bike

[Guest guest]

Agreed. The Ready Rider is awesome. The best most helpful thing we did was take

the pedals off the bike so Noah could just push himself with his feet. Really

helped him learn balance...of course he had a habit of dropping his feet

straight down, so after we put the pedals back on, I put his soccer shin guards

on him every time we rode! It didn’t take long for him to get used to

swinging his legs out to avoid the pedals. We also found a bike with coaster

and a hand brake. We had them put a longer support for the handlebars so he was

sitting more upright too. It wasn’t cheap, I think the whole set up was over

$200, but it was so worth it. He was riding on his own in no time, and now

he’s taken over MY bike (a Townie!) The “Lose the training Wheels†is

the best for understanding how to help them learn.

Good Luck!

Karla in AZ

From: bandwsmom

Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 6:06 PM

Subject: Re: tricycle or bike

,

Our son started with typical training wheels. After a summer or two the training

wheels were tilted up, so much so that he could ride without either training

wheel touching the ground. It wasn't an intentional decision on our part; just

the way it worked out with the abuse the training wheels took.

Even then he wasn't ready to solo without the training wheels. Turns are

surprisingly different with and without training wheels. What made the

difference was a handle for the back of the bike that let me run along behind

him and hold him up. We learned about it at Lose the Training Wheels camp. Ours

came from Ready Rider but there are others that make similar products.

http://www.readyrider.com/

If you're like me - not much of a runner - it's tough to keep up but it was

worth it because it got him over the hurdle of fear and now he's off on his bike

any chance he gets.

Toward the bottom of this page there is a video and some recommendations for

bike fit and style. It was helpful to know what to look for in a bike.

http://www.losethetrainingwheels.org/parents.html

Good luck!

San

>

> Wondering if anyone could give me input or suggestions for helping my 5 year

old learn to ride. The past two summers he has been interested in trying to

ride his tricycle (we have 3 different ones) but his legs were to short, even

with " blocks " on the pedals. This year he can finally reach but doesn't seem to

want to try, but is very interested in bikes.....mostly the BIG ones though.

> What has worked for others?

>

>