What are some tips for teaching a child to ride a bike?

Given her age... Safety. Helmet, and preferably pads too--let's face it, she's probably going to fall while learning. Make sure she knows how to use the brakes. Try losing one training wheel at a time if your daughter has trouble. The slower weaning process works better for some kids as they build up their balance skills moving from 4 wheels to 3 then finally 2, rather than simply cutting the number of wheels in half from the get-go. Run with her as she learns and give her encouragement--it's so much more comforting for a young learner to know someone is watching over them. Encourage her to space things out and not get frustrated if she doesn't get it in a day or two or three. Let her spend an hour or two each day, and then encourage her to do something else to take a break. This type of motor coordination tends to require repetition rather than a few marathon sessions.

Most adult bike riders have forgotten that riding a bike combines several skills. The order in which the child learns these skills can be important. Try teaching the skills in this order: 1. Falling off the bike. Find a patch of grass and teach the child how to fall off a bike. The bike need not be moving. Specifically, teach her to let go of the handlebars when falling, roll to the ground, brush herself off, and (most importantly) get back on. After a couple of stationary falls, grab the back of the bike's seat and push the bike a few inches before the fall. Increase the speed and distance a little bit on each repetition. 2. Stopping the bike. After a few practice falls, introduce braking technique. This includes applying the right amount of braking pressure, a slight lean, and putting a foot down at just the right time. Being able to control this process is a big confidence-booster for new riders. 3.  Riding the bike. Having mastered skills 1 and 2, your little one will already have a pretty good feel for the bike. Grab the back of the seat, get her pedalling, and get yourself ready to do a bit of a run and a good push (see skill #4, below). Encourage her to pedal hard, because a fast bike stays up better. Listen carefully for that first big laugh -- you'll never forget it. 4. Starting the bike. This is the most challenging part for a new rider. It's technically difficult, and overcoming intertia is physically demanding. Teach this last, preferably on a different day. Other tips that I've found usefull: Make sure the bike fits. Start in a wide open, forgiving space. Don't expect more than a few minutes at a time. Lectures about helmet safety and brain injury might frighten the child off riding. Just normalize the wearing of helmets by doing it yourself, pointing out riders without helmets, etc. Have bandages in one pocket, and candy in the other.

Yes to Ohad and Chris.  I used a Like-a-Bike with my 2.5 year old.  Pedal-less, brakeless strider bike.  It is far and away the best single item I purchased for my now 8 year old child.   I truly love the design of the Like-a-Bike, but there are many choices now, including just taking a small bike and removing pedals. The one sure way to not learn a bike is training wheels. Learning to pedal is easy, it is the balance thing that scares kids to death. I would also resist the urge to get a bike that your kid will grow into.  Get the smallest bike you can find with the smallest wheels that aren't ridiculous.  Buy it on Craig's List for $30.  When your kid masters the bike, then invest in the "good" set of wheels.

I never taught a kid to ride a bike, but the biking forum I used to participate in had a 3 phase method: Remove pedals completely from bike and lower chair as much as possible Let her push forward while sitting on the bike, each time trying to keep her legs off the ground after the initial push for as long as possible After three days, reinstall pedals. Voila! Again, never tried it, but at least 10 people I know claim that it worked very well for their kids.

In our effort to avoid training wheels we discovered three basic tools, a combination bike, a strider, and wheel stabilizer. We also found kids bikes need to be adjusted a little differently. Below I provide some links for each of these bikes and then talk a little about sizing a bike for a newbie kid. Our experience: We used a combination strider type bike (like-a-bike) and training wheels for our oldest who was pedaling on his own at 4 years old. We didn't really want to use the training wheels, but he wanted the pedals on his bike to feel like a big kid. Our youngest is now three and has only ridden a strider bike. We anticipate him pedaling next summer as he turns 4. Gear: We were using a Trek bike called the Float which has easily removable pedals. He just wouldn't go for that and wanted the training wheels on so he could pedal. http://www.trekbikes.com/flash/kids/float/ Then, we purchased a Strider for our 2 year old and the older boy would regularly get on it and show us all how good he was. It wasn't long before he got back on the bike with training wheels and wanted them off. Took them off and he had it. http://www.stridersports.com/ The no-pedal striding option is a great way to go. There is another cool option out there called the Gyrowheel by Gyrobike. Basically it provides adjustable levels of stability to the front wheel and avoids the use of training wheels. Really cool. We did not use this, but considered it. They make two different sizes of wheels. http://www.thegyrobike.com/ Adjusting the saddle height to get them riding: One thing we discovered was that to help kids feel comfortable pedaling without training wheels or support, you should adjust the seat very low so that the child feels very comfortable putting their feet down without having to lean the bike. In our experience adjusting the seat so that there is a slight bend in the knee when the pedal is at its lowest (the typical recommendation for sizing and adjusting a bike) results in a seat that is too high for kids. I suggest erring on the side of having the seat too low. The kid will still be able to pedal just fine, but won't be as intimidated by trying to stand over the bike.

What my dad did is tell me that he was going to hold on to the back of my bike to keep me steady (that dealt with my fear), and then lied and let go. It worked really well. :-)