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denjen

Certified Lift Whore
Sep 16, 2001
1,691
36
Richmond VA
Not DH related

Taught my 4 year old how to ride a bike last night. Took the training wheels off Sun. night and held him up down the street. A guy at a local bike shop gave me some tips on getting them on the bike and they worked great. Took him to a park with a small grassy hill and within 10 minutes he was pedaling down the hill, I thought I was going to cry :p Sorry to post this here but anyone with a child will understand how big this is for a kid. On another note he also learned how to swing by himself last night, my kid was rockin last night
 

Fshflys

Monkey
Jun 29, 2005
139
1
I remember those days, the first one I was bent over holding the seat on a 12" wheel bike, by the end of the day my back was killing me. For my 2nd, I took an old broom handle, stuck it into the triangle just below the seat post & steadied him holding onto the broom handle. I'll often give that advice while visiting the LBS. BTW, the son that I used the broom handle trick with will be racing DH JrX, 16 & under @ Mammoth, the older one will be shooting pics.
 

denjen

Certified Lift Whore
Sep 16, 2001
1,691
36
Richmond VA
What I was told to do was lower the seat down so that he could stand flat footed with the seat just uder him. Then I took the pedals off so that he had to walk the bike with his feet and then lift them up and coast but could easily catch hiself. When we went to the park he coasted down the hill 3 times without the pedals then he said lets put them back on and he was gone pedaling down the hill the first time.
 

RATM

Monkey
Aug 5, 2004
210
0
Washington DC area
Thanks for the tip, my son is ready to ride without the training wheels, but I think I might have the seat too high, I'll lower it a little and see if that helps. He's 4 as well and the last thing I want is for him to get frustrated and not want to ride anymore.
 

corey_rideDC

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
1,368
0
DCmetro
awesome, congrats denjen! my boy's only 2 months old, but i already can't wait to get him on a bike. thanks for passing along the tips as well :thumb:
 

McGRP01

beer and bikes
Feb 6, 2003
7,793
0
Portland, OR
denjen said:
What I was told to do was lower the seat down so that he could stand flat footed with the seat just uder him. Then I took the pedals off so that he had to walk the bike with his feet and then lift them up and coast but could easily catch hiself. When we went to the park he coasted down the hill 3 times without the pedals then he said lets put them back on and he was gone pedaling down the hill the first time.
Cool....thanks for the tips! My daughter is ready to make the leap to w/o training wheels as well! :thumb:
 

denjen

Certified Lift Whore
Sep 16, 2001
1,691
36
Richmond VA
One other thing. Dont push them, they will get frustrated and not want to do it. For the last several months I have been pointing out other kids riding with out training wheels and saying we can take his off when ever he wanted to. We went out for a walk sunday night and he rode his bike, about half way into the walk he said lets go back and take these stupid things off.
 

sayndesyn

Turbo Monkey
My dad wasn't much of a biker, but I think he knew a bit about inertia... I started biking at 4 and my dad took the training wheels off after about 2 hours and gave me a push and said if you start leaning just go with it and pedal harder. So I was riding in circles first try ; ) Worked though.
 

Kntr

Turbo Monkey
Jan 25, 2003
7,526
21
Montana
My daughter turned 3 a few days ago. I can hardly wait till she is ridding w/o training wheels.