How to teach your child to ride a bicycle in 5 lessons |
|
Remember the first time that you rode your bicycle without the training wheels? I still remember the pure exhilaration of feeling the wind in your face and the magical balance provided by forward motion when, as a child of 5, I teetered on my red Raleigh in the driveway of my parent's house in Ampang Hilir. About 10 seconds later, I had my first crash.
Fortunately, there is a simple and formulaic way in which children can be taught to ride on wheels relatively painlessly. It usually takes about 5 lessons for a 5-year old to begin cycling on her own using this method of instruction.
The primary difficulty with learning to ride a bike is that the child is expected to master 2 skills at the same time: Balance and Propulsion. The very act of pedalling puts the child's balance out of whack, sometimes leading to frustration for the child. The answer is then relatively simple, allow your kid to learn Balance first, before adding Propulsion to the equation once the former is mastered.
Tools
But, before you begin, the following equipment are essential:- helmet. Kid's helmets can be difficult to get in Malaysia. I've had good luck with ToysRUs in the past but their stock seems variable. Bike shops like Bike-Pro Center may sometimes carry them - at the time of writing (2001) Boon Foo had some adjustable helmets in the "Mango" brand, which appeared well made and attractive.
- elbow and knee pads. These are easier to get, as they are also used for skateboarding and in-line skating.
- gloves, essential to prevent abrasion to the palms in the event of a fall. Almost impossible to find in kid's sizes. I ended up getting some in Performance in LA. Mail order stores such as REI will carry them. Skating gloves are unsuitable because they have the metal inserts which will prevent your child from gripping the handlebars properly.
- small-sized kid's bicycle. The bicycle must be small enough so that your baby can reach the ground with the saddle adjusted all the way down.
Adjustments
Make sure everything fits and is in working condition. So far, I have never seen a new kid's bike that has been properly set up by any shop. You will have to make sure that the brake pads make sufficient contact with the rim when the brake levers are engaged. All too often, the components used are so capalang that even an adult will have difficult pulling on the brakes, such is the friction in the cables and levers. An easy way to overcome this is by fitting good quality Shimano cables and housing (available by the foot at most bike shops) and a decent pair of 2-finger brake levers, such as the Ritchey Logic or the Dia-Compe SS-5. (These are old non-V brake levers that you will probably have lying around in your garage after you upgraded your brakes to XTR. You might even find some new ones in the broom cupboard of some backwater bike shop.)Balance
The objective is to teach your binky-binks to be able steer and balance the bike on two wheels without having to worry about pedalling just yet. You will need to do the following to the bicycle:- Remove the training wheels
- Remove both pedals
- Push the seatpost all the way down so that little precious can touch the ground with her feet.
Learning balance should take about 3 lessons of an hour each.
Propulsion
At the end of the 3rd lesson or so, fit the pedals back on to the bike. (You will have to monitor the right time to do this; some children are quicker to attain balance than others, and will soon get bored with coasting. If this is the case with your cahaya mata, replace the pedals earlier. Similarly, less co-ordinated children will take more time to get comfortable on a bike.) You will have to hold the bike upright for her at first by gripping the middle of the handlebar with one hand and the back of the saddle with the other. A gentle push should be enough to get the momentum going for her to place her feet and start pedalling. Do not hold the handlebar while she is riding because it will prevent her from feeling and understanding the balance. Try to get her to relax and not to grip the handlebars too tightly or tense up her body (they tend to do this for about 10 minutes at the beginning of each session).She will begin slowly at first, maybe 3 or 4 pedal revolutions. At the end of the 4th session, she should be able to ride for more than 50 feet without putting her feet down.
During this time, monitor your child's progress and evaluate whether her saddle can be raised to give her greater bio-mechanical efficiency. During this learning stage, do not raise it beyond the point where she can reach the ground. Raising the saddle will often improve her steering, especially if the bike is small for her.
The final lesson
Once they are comfortable with propelling themselves forward by pedalling, they will usually figure out very quickly how to start pedalling from a stationary position without the need for someone to hold the bike upright for them. They'll know to position the pedal for their "chocolate foot" (everybody tends to have a favourite leading foot) in the 10 or 2 o'clock position before starting to pedal.Good luck!
