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but if they are unnecessary and don’t speed up the process, then why bother with them?
Did you read the previous page?
I did
If you want your kid to learn to ride a bike then don’t use stabilisers. End of.
All four of mine used stabiliser. Yet are all able to ride bikes now.
I did
Cool.
Anyway, do what's right for your kid(s). Neither balancers or stabilisers are wrong, as long as they get a love for bikes 😀
(I'm nice me)
Top words Mr B. What works for one child won’t for the next and they’ll learn in their own time
All kids are different, and will go at their own pace.
Yup. I had exactly the same issue as OP with eldest FO Jr. Simply wasn't interested in his bike and I. Tried. Everything. Eventually I just gave up, rather than trying to force him and then ending up with a kid that never biked at all. In the end it was a bikeability class run at the local leisure centre that did it. An hour with kids a lot younger than him riding bikes was enough to eek out a bit of competitiveness in him and now we can't get him off the thing. Which is great. That's at nearly 7 years old.
Youngest FO Jr is completely different. 2 years old and he goes down to nursery on his (3 wheel) scooter, and has a typical 2YO tantrum if we attempt to just walk. He'll be riding a bike before he's 4 I reckon.
I recently taught my 5 year old without stabilisers, picked up a 5 quid set of elbow and knee pads and used a piece of grass with a slight slope to help, within 1/2 hour he was pedalling, afew tumbles but the pads took the fear away.
Moved onto a path to help him start on his own which he did eventually and removed the pads later that day.
It did help that he actually wanted to ride without stabilisers though!
Really helpful post.
Our son was whizzing on a balance bike at an early age but at 4 we gave him a bike with stabilisers and he just struggled with pedals and became reliant on stabilisers and lost interest.
After reading this took pedals, stabilisers off, lowered saddle and can't get him off it now.
Next step is pedals on and hopefully riding. He also says he wants an uppy down post now!
Wait till she sees somebody she wants to copy riding a bike. Then she'll want to copy them.
Not sure where you live, however Blackrock Sands (or any flat beach with compacted sand) is a great place try. I managed to get all three of mine off stabilisers and pedalling in an afternoon (different years, obviously).
Cezza
Our son was whizzing on a balance bike at an early age but at 4 we gave him a bike with stabilisers and he just struggled with pedals and became reliant on stabilisers and lost interest.
Well, yeah - why would you go from a balance bike.. to stabilisers? 2 different learning methods. The whole point of balance bikes is stabi.. why am I explaining this? 😆
The whole point of balance bikes is stabi.. why am I explaining this? 😆
Agreed. Going by the responses to my post the stabilophiles aren't going to be convinced so I wouldn't bother trying. 😃😁
The plan was to bypass stabilisers altogether but he just could not get his head around it for various reasons. We went with what he was comfortable with at the time even though that was not ideal. As long as he gets there in the end and enjoying bikes is the important bit.
I should add my son is autistic which adds another dimension entirely
is the general consensus that if your child starts on a balance bike, the transition to a pedal bike is one without the need for stabilisers? Or is there no trend with this?
#2 was better than #1 on a balance bike, but decided that, as her peers had stabilisers, she needed them too, and wouldn’t be convinced otherwise.