My son's first ride

Sisyphus · Post by **Sisyphus** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 4:45 am

4 1/2 years old, got him pedaling 'round on a bike the other day without the training wheels touching. Took about five minutes of coaching, in a parking lot, so he understood balance. That bike is too big for him, so I thought on Saturday we'd put him on the little bike w/o the training wheels.
Took to it like a circus bear, grinning ear to ear. Here's the funny part: Properly sized bike is a hand-me-down. It's pink with lovely purple and white accents, says "Princess" on the side, has white tires on purple rims and little mylar butterflies on the spokes.
He wants it painted.

Metalredneck · Post by **Metalredneck** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:37 am

FLAT BLACK!

Sisyphus · Post by **Sisyphus** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:11 am

I think he's hoping for orange... lol...

Rabbit_Fighter · Post by **Rabbit_Fighter** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:05 am

Oh no . . . .already a KTM fanboy.

WeAintFoundShit · Post by **WeAintFoundShit** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:05 am

Paint a little KTM on there, and you're all set!

Pattio · Post by **Pattio** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:52 am

Sounds like a really fun moment- and to be honest, I can still pretty much recall how good it felt to learn to ride a bike. It's really a striking thing, when you get down to it, that pure awesomeness of the wheel, especially two of them and a little gravity, quite literally never gets old.

Zim · Post by **Zim** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 1:51 pm

This was a wake up call.

My 5 1/2 year old is lacking bikeability. Wobbles crazy on her Dora the Explorah training-wheel equipped velocipede. Those outriggers never seemed right to me, so I removed them today, along with the chain, pedals and crank. Turned her bike into a poor-man's version of a Strider. She was cruising down an incline, feet up, within 5 minutes.

Pattio wrote:that pure awesomeness of the wheel, especially two of them and a little gravity, quite literally never gets old.

Penny farthings notwithstanding? (How's the arm?)

JoJoLesh · Post by **JoJoLesh** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:46 pm

Humm...Followed that strider link, and watched the "Advantages of" vid.

My Neighbor girl was in a fairly traumatic bike accident (hit curb hard) had to be rushed off to City hospital, after seeing the little country clinic. (Thank God she was wearing her helm)

She is kinda skitish around the pedal bikes now, criourious if this Strider bike thing may be in order

Sisyphus · Post by **Sisyphus** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:45 pm

Both my kids have the pedal-less bikes. The idea is to get them confident of the whole balance thing, and learning to pedal later on. I highly recommend them. The older one has one with a brake lever on the right side 'bar. He's all about the brake.
The little one has a Strider, doesn't come with a brake and the quality is kind of iffy overall but for the time they spend on it it's alright.

Zim · Post by **Zim** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:08 pm

Damn, that was fast.

She got two afternoons worth of moving about without the crank and pedals. Put the bike back together this afternoon and she was pedaling upright, on her own, within 1/2 hour.

There were a few crashes, but she kept at it.

SpecialK · Post by **SpecialK** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:18 pm

Nice Zim! Get that girl rolling. Training wheels are awful. I'll never forget standing outside the bike shop one day, when a posse of little kids went rallying by and turned a corner. They all went zooming around except the one in the back who levered himself onto just the front wheel and the outside training wheel and royally wrecked himself. Training wheels just teach you how not to ride a bike.

Sisyphus: My first bike was a Strawberry Shortcake model. It was the year I got everything on my christmas list. A hotwheels and a RED bike. Strawberry Shortcake= RED. I was stoked.

calamari kid · Post by **calamari kid** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:24 pm

Very cool. That sense of empowerment and freedom that comes from the first mastering of the bicycle is powerful stuff. That day is still clear in my head today. But I gotta tell my sisters story, 'cause it's funnier.

My dad had told her that when she was five she could ride a bike. She interpreted this as, once you turn five, you magically acquire the ability to ride. So her birthday rolls around and she gets a bike. She also gets in trouble and sent to her room. Pretty typical birthday experience for her back then.

So she sneaks out her bedroom window, hops on the bike and rides it straight into one of those mailbox stations with a half dozen or so mailboxes in it. Gave herself a pretty good shiner too. She doesn't want to come crying home because she doesn't want to get in trouble for sneaking out, so she just picks it up and keeps at it until she figures it out. My folks were so shocked that she was riding that she never got in trouble for sneaking out.

piccini9 · Post by **piccini9** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:30 pm

Bicycles are the awesome.

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My son's first ride

My son's first ride