I had exactly the same thing with my daughter. She’d been riding a balance bike for ages, but when she rode it all the way down our gently sloping garden with her knees together on the wooden frame (like a moto gp) we decided it was time to give the pedal bike a go. Tried (stupidly) stabilisers to start with, but she just couldn’t get over the ‘tipping’ when leaning the bike to steer.
Stabilisers off, first run down the garden she nails it! And through a narrow gap in a trellis thing as well. By the end of the afternoon (in the summer) she was pedalling up to the top of the rise as well.
Our lad is not three until April and is a demon on his balance bike. No fear, though. I arrived home on evening in the summer, and knowing they would be in the garden I went straight round the side of the house. As I opened the gate and looked up the garden I saw him flying through the air horizontal to the ground. He’d clipped his bars on the frame of the swing trying to slalom it. There was a sort of ‘oooooooofff’ noise as he landed, but he actually didn’t stop at all, just straight back to his feet and back on the bike.
It is one of those things that Dads are supposed to do with their kids, riding bikes and having little crashes, it is so much fun and very rewarding.
