No Stabilizers No More!

[middleagecyclist]

My five year old did it today. From nervously wobbling along on the last 2-3 rides with a parent in tow, crying to be stopped and unable to start off alone to today demanding she did all by herself.

Well done Golden Child.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

well done, but she may well have done it at 4 if she'd had a balance bike first…

 

[middleagecyclist]

well done, but she may well have done it at 4 if she'd had a balance bike first…

She does have one (too small now though) and has ridden it well for the last 18 months. She just would not countenance removing the stabilizers from the pedal bike! I didn't want to make a big thing of it but knew it would just click one day. That was today!

 

[derrick]

Lovely to see, my 5 year old grandaughter did it the other week, she was soooooooooo happy with herself.

 

[Andy_R]

Lovely to hear. My boy (almost 8) started on 2 wheels at age 5 too, but we never had stabilizers on, so he didn't know what he was missing. He recently did 27miles around Kielder Water, so watch out.......they've got more energy than British Gas at that age!

 

[GTTTM]

Well done.

I'm hoping my youngest leans to the "earlyish" side rather than the later one.

My middle one is a natural - hadn't tried to ride a bike for over a year (hadn't even HAD a bike) and then got on and within 5 minutes was cycling with no help whatsoever (thought he was lying when he came in and told me he'd ridden it down the path)

at 6 1/2yrs. The following month my oldest (then nearly 10!) finally, after much battling and angst cracked it.......

 

[atbman]

Satbilisers are one of the most evil inventions ever. They should be illegal.

Perhaps we should fit outriggers to children learning to walk. This would stop them falling over until they are ready.

 

[PpPete]

Funny isnt it - they all do it at different ages, but it doesn't matter a jot.

Sprogs 1 & 2 were very late starters (9 ish) - and yet competently managed an E2E aged 16 & 14 respectively ....

#3 took to it like proverbial duck, and is a superb natural bike handler, and yet was the nearest to dropping out of E2E.... he was only 12 though!

#4 had his first ride on a 700c wheeled bike today. looked far too small & unsteady. was convinced he was going to come off....proved his dad wrong again !

 

[Sara_H]

My five year old did it today. From nervously wobbling along on the last 2-3 rides with a parent in tow, crying to be stopped and unable to start off alone to today demanding she did all by herself.

Well done Golden Child.

fantastic!!!!

On the day we first tried our son without stabilisers (Age 4), we drove to a park with destabilised bike in the boot.

Getting bike out of boot we had a little bit of sorting out of the back seat, look around - son and bike have disappeared - look a bit further - son is riding along path like he was born on a bike!

He's never looked back!

 

[GTTTM]

I disagree about stabilisers being evil - for a child whose biggest problem is pedalling and steering and not the balance a balance bike is as much use as a chocolate teapot....both of mine had stabilisers on the random bikes they had from infancy - as you can see from my above post the timings were totally different.

and most children learn to walk using - a walker, a hand, or even the furniture to hold onto.........

no such thing as a balance bike where I grew up (maybe they existed but all my friends had stabilisers) - we all learned to ride bikes at different ages - I believe I was about 5, some of my friends learned older. Not to mention I don't really see the point in them.........my oldest was "too old" for stabilisers when he learned - and hadn't had stabilsers for years - he just practised balancing going down a slope without using the pedals on his normal bike.

Anyhooooo horses for course imo and lets not detract from the fact that the OP's child can now ride without a balance bike or stabilisers

 

[funnymummy]

Wahoooooey x Hope your little girl has much fun on her 2 wheels

 

[slowmotion]

Well done that young lady!

I was so happy when my little girl crossed that hurdle.

 

[NormanD]

Well done young lady ... Now ask mum and dad for a better bike than they were thinking about for crimbo

 

[PedAntics]

She does have one (too small now though) and has ridden it well for the last 18 months. She just would not countenance removing the stabilizers from the pedal bike! I didn't want to make a big thing of it but knew it would just click one day. That was today!

Clicked for my 5yr old today, proud as punch. She's very independant minded and she's already entered into the helmet debate on a number of occasions!

 

[Paulus]

It is always one of those great milestones when your youngster pedals away unaided for the first time. Still brings a tear to my eye seeing a tot pedaling on their own, even though my kids are grown up.