How To Teach A Child To Ride a Bike…on Their Own!

They say, there’s no other joy in the world than teaching your kids to ride a bike. Sure I hear ya, but my back doesn’t seem to agree. I’ve tried many times to run behind my daughter’s bike while holding her seat but to later feel back spasms from hunching over.

While we were at last year’s Interbike, we saw a guy selling pedaless bikes made out of PVC pipes. Though his idea was great, I just couldn’t buy into the high price point he was offering per unit. I figured, there’s gotta be a cheaper way.

So I took my daughter’s Giant Puddin’ bike and started to remove some of the parts.

I removed the cranks to get the pedals out of the way. I could have just taken off the pedals, but then the crank arms would have hit her legs.

Once I removed the cranks, I made sure I cleaned up the bearing cups making it free from grease.

Then I broke the chain and set it aside with all the other parts.

Last step is to remove the training wheels.

Then we were out on the front yard and she practiced. The whole point of removing the cranks and training wheels is to teach her how to balance the bike. She propels herself with her legs, pushing with both feet at the same time. I showed her how to push with her legs and she said to me…”Oh, just like a bunny!”

After a while she started to get it. But she did fall over once or twice, but she just got back on and tried it again.

If she keeps practicing with her bike, and learns how to balance with it. Then we’ll install her cranks back on. To me it was important for her to learn how to balance before learning how to pedal.