Jr. track program GREAT!

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

daughter interested in cycling at a young age. She didn't even get off
training wheels until she was 8, and was shamed into it by a friend who

was

Quoted message said:

having a birthday party where they were all going to ride bikes the three
blocks from the house to a park. My son was off training wheels at 3 1/2.

Can you pass on any tips to getting a youngster started on 2 wheels ? I
have a 5 y.o. and wish to avoid training wheels. Last summer he was still
riding a tricycle, some. He is not afraid.

http://www.chainreaction.com/trwheels.htm

That's actually a photo of my son, 11 years ago.

And also...

http://sheldonbrown.com/teachride.html

The "Undersized Bike Approach" is what I think sounds most likely.

Here's an elaboration:

http://www.experienceplus.com/reading_room/archives/2006/05/learning_to_r
id.html

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Ryan Cousineau said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Can you pass on any tips to getting a youngster started on 2 wheels
? I have a 5 y.o. and wish to avoid training wheels. Last summer
he was still riding a tricycle, some. He is not afraid.

http://www.chainreaction.com/trwheels.htm

Quoted message said:

And also...>
http://sheldonbrown.com/teachride.html

The "Undersized Bike Approach" is what I think sounds most likely.

A hybrid approach: pads, thick clothing, undersized bike, and remove the
pedals to turn the bike into a scooter. When the kid can balance well enough
to scoot along while sitting on the saddle, put the pedals back but have
the kid continue to scoot along (with a slightly wider stance to avoid
hitting the pedals with fragile ankles. This is the reason why the bike
should be undersized).

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted post said:

Charles said:

Quoted message said:

daughter interested in cycling at a young age. She didn't even get off
training wheels until she was 8, and was shamed into it by a friend who

was

Quoted message said:

having a birthday party where they were all going to ride bikes the three
blocks from the house to a park. My son was off training wheels at 3 1/2.

Quoted message said:

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Can you pass on any tips to getting a youngster started on 2 wheels ? I
have a 5 y.o. and wish to avoid training wheels. Last summer he was still
riding a tricycle, some. He is not afraid.

Don't use training wheels!

Here's my boy at 5:

http://arbitrary.org/jump.JPG

And a movie at 3:

http://arbitrary.org/iagobike.mov (3.6MB)

Joseph: your kid is a hammer! He's like some natural-born Classics rider.

Quoted message said:

I taught him to ride by never using training wheels.

Proper bike fit is also very important. My daughter also learned, but
not as quickly. I think this is because when she was ready, she was a
different size than my son and her bike didn't fit as well. The 12"
wheel bike was too small, and the 20" was a bit more unwieldy. I think
this made it harder. They have to be able to get their feet on the
ground, but also be able to get reasonable leg extension while
pedaling. Some kids bike really suck and have strange geometry with
super high bottom brackets making proper positioning difficult. Check
around. Also I took apart the bike and greased and adjusted all the
bearings. There was a HUGE amount of drag right out of the box. The
movie shows what I consider a very suitable kid-position. I also
swapped the cog on the kids' bikes. All the bikes came with a very
high gear that made even microscopic inclines difficult, as well as
getting started.

This is really interesting and useful advice. I haven't seen anyone else
discuss the geometry and gearing issues of kid bikes.

I have a niece and a nephew who are about to learn how to ride bikes.
This is good info.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Ryan Cousineau said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted post said:

Charles said:

> daughter interested in cycling at a young age. She didn't even get off
> training wheels until she was 8, and was shamed into it by a friend who
was
> having a birthday party where they were all going to ride bikes the three
> blocks from the house to a park. My son was off training wheels at 3 1/2.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> --Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
>www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Can you pass on any tips to getting a youngster started on 2 wheels ? I
have a 5 y.o. and wish to avoid training wheels. Last summer he was still
riding a tricycle, some. He is not afraid.

Quoted message said:

Don't use training wheels!

Quoted message said:

Here's my boy at 5:

Quoted message said:

http://arbitrary.org/jump.JPG

Quoted message said:

And a movie at 3:

Quoted message said:

http://arbitrary.org/iagobike.mov (3.6MB)

Joseph: your kid is a hammer! He's like some natural-born Classics rider.

Crit practice at 6:

http://arbitrary.org/DSC00186.JPG

I'm waiting to see what sort of body type he has before nudging him in
any particular direction. :-) Right now I think I have the bases
covered with ice-hockey, xc skiing, figure skating, and cycling.
Specialization comes at a later age.

I have a secret plan to get him a road bike this summer. They are
building a bike path which will be done in the fall that goes
essentially door to door the 4.5km from my house to school. We'll see
how that goes!

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I taught him to ride by never using training wheels.

Quoted message said:

Proper bike fit is also very important. My daughter also learned, but
not as quickly. I think this is because when she was ready, she was a
different size than my son and her bike didn't fit as well. The 12"
wheel bike was too small, and the 20" was a bit more unwieldy. I think
this made it harder. They have to be able to get their feet on the
ground, but also be able to get reasonable leg extension while
pedaling. Some kids bike really suck and have strange geometry with
super high bottom brackets making proper positioning difficult. Check
around. Also I took apart the bike and greased and adjusted all the
bearings. There was a HUGE amount of drag right out of the box. The
movie shows what I consider a very suitable kid-position. I also
swapped the cog on the kids' bikes. All the bikes came with a very
high gear that made even microscopic inclines difficult, as well as
getting started.

This is really interesting and useful advice. I haven't seen anyone else
discuss the geometry and gearing issues of kid bikes.

I have a niece and a nephew who are about to learn how to ride bikes.
This is good info.

I bought my daughter a new bike (pink!) to learn on, but it was
hopeless and I threw it out. It had 12" wheels like the green one in
my son's movie, but the bb was almost 2 inches higher! I don't know
what optimal geometry is for a kids bike but that green one was very
good. I can meause it if anyone is interested.

Joseph

In article <[email hidden]>, Ryan Cousineau

Quoted message said:

This is really interesting and useful advice. I haven't seen anyone else
discuss the geometry and gearing issues of kid bikes.

One thing about small wheeled bikes is that they tend to have pretty
fast steering, i.e. small inputs on the bars seem to make the bike turn
quickly. What I've seen done that seems to work well is to turn the fork
around backwards for a while. The increased trail makes for greater
stability.
--
tanx,
Howard
Never take a tenant with a monkey.
remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?