Teaching your child to ride a bike

Remember learning how to ride a bike? Falling off, grazing your knees, and that wonderful, exhilarating moment when you got the hang of two wheels? Well, guess what? You’re going to go through it all again, only this time it’s your child you’ll be pulling out of the bushes…

Learning to ride a bicycle helps your child grow in confidence and gain new skills. However, whilst some kids take to cycling like Lance Armstrong, others need a little more encouragement and practice. Here’s how you can help.

What you’ll need

Apart from patience, the most important thing you’ll need is, of course, a bike.

To begin with, experts recommend a LikeaBike, a wooden bike without pedals that allows kids to scoot about the place.

Get the right bike
You're far better off with a wooden scooter bike such as a LikaBike, as it teaches kids to steer with the front wheel, like a real bike. Stabilisers teach them to steer with their bodyweight, which is why they tend to come a cropper when you take them off. David Dansky, Cycling Training UK

An alternative is to buy a child’s bicycle and take the pedals off. This allows your child to scoot along much as he would with a wooden bike.

The smallest bicycles, for kids of three and over, have 12in wheels. The next size up, with 16in wheels, is for five-year-olds and up. Take your child along to a good bike shop to find the right size.

Opinion is divided about helmets, but if you do get one make sure it’s fitted correctly – again, ask your bike shop about this. If you’re ultra-cautious, you could also kit him out with cycling gloves, knee and elbow pads. Oh, and you’re probably going to need a puncture repair kit and a pump.

That’s it; you’re ready to roll.

• Life skills you can teach your child

When and where to start

This partly depends on how confident and keen your child is, but most children are ready to take to their wheels around the age of four.

And the best place, according to David Dansky from Cycle Training UK, is somewhere with lots of room. "Go for a wide, flat expanse of tarmac, rather than grass," he says. "You might be tempted to use grass because you're afraid he'll fall, but grass is much harder to ride on than tarmac."

Try a big, empty car park rather than a narrow path until he's got the hang of steering.

• Some things to plan ahead for in your child's life

How to teach your child

David believes it is possible to teach a child to ride in just 40 minutes – which saves you running round the park for hours! 

DON’T teach your child to balance before showing him how to stop. The reason why kids pedal off and crash into trees is generally because they don’t know how to brake.

DO tell your child to keep the brakes on when he’s not cycling.

• Support his bike by the handlebars and balance for him while he gets used to the pedals and brakes.
• Get him to set off, pedal a couple of times and brake, while you balance for him.
• When he knows how to stop, move behind him and hold his hips or shoulders. Show him that he should always steer the way he’s falling, as this puts the bike back under him.
• And remind him to keep looking up and ahead, not down at his feet!

Carry on like this until he has the eureka moment – when everything suddenly falls into place and he can ride without you supporting him.

• Supporting your child's education: what you can do

Look at me, Dad!

• Once your child can balance on his own, work on steering in a general direction, rather than towards specific objects. Looking where you want to go forces the body to follow.
• Finally, get your child doing figures of eight in both directions to tighten his turning control.

Once your child’s at this stage, there’ll be no stopping him, meaning that you get to sit back on the park bench and watch him whizz by happily.

Shop for bikes at Toys "R" us.

Author

Dan Roberts is a feature-writer and columnist with over ten years’ experience of working for The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, Daily Express and Mail on Sunday, as well as numerous national magazines. His areas of expertise include health, wellbeing, relationships, psychology and parenting. Dan also writes two monthly columns, including Diary of a Single Dad, a humorous but affectionate account of raising his ten-year-old son, Ben. The best of Dan’s work can be found on his website at www.dan-roberts.net

Your tips

Got any tips for other dads? Use our comments system below to share your wisdom.