Ask RMCyclist: Teaching Kids to Ride

Hey I’m wondering how to best teach kids to ride a bike. I have a 9 year old that I’ve tried to teach how to ride a bike but have not been successful.

Susanne

Jackie replies:

The balancing part is usually of course the hardest thing to master. It can help to take the pedals off the bike and have your child use the bike as a runner bike to learn to balance. First going straight, then making turns. It tends to be easier going a bit faster than walking pace. It’s more difficult of course to keep your balance if you go slower. Once your child is more comfortable coasting with both feet off the ground for a distance, you can put the pedals back on.

Another suggestion would be to take your child, “pedals and all”, to a park with a consistent flat grass turf surface and repeatedly give him/her a push until he/she gets the hang of it. That way, there’s less fear of wiping out.

HUB Cycling runs cycling education classes at all the elementary schools in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows for grade 4 and 5s. The courses are for kids who already know how to ride a bike, but there are usually some kids who can’t ride yet, so there will be an instructor to help them. To find out if your school has been selected this year for a course, you can contact schools@bikehub.ca.

(Image: The High Fin Sperm Whale, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)