How to Teach Kids to Ride a Bike in About an Hour

Bicycles. We all have them. All our kids need to ride them. How do we get there?

Especially as busy parents, with limited time, maybe limited space.

Our young son went from training wheels to free-riding just this week, in less than an hour of my time. This is how we did it.

First, get them on a decent bike with training wheels, obviously. After a few minutes of making sure, they can steer a bit and stop using hand or reverse foot breaking, let them ride for a while.

How long doesn’t matter, maybe weeks or months, etc. as long as they just get the hang of speed and a few mishaps, avoiding others, etc.

Second, after things are going well, adjust their training wheels UP as far as possible, even bending them up if you can, so they get less support as they ride. It’s not clear if this really helps, but it’s easy and can’t hurt.

Now comes the real work.

Take the training wheels off. They will complain it’s impossible, “can’t do it, dad”, etc. Just tell them you know they can, but it will take work and practice, and promise a nice gift when they can ride around a full 100-foot circle without your help. A big ice cream was sufficient for our son.

Now, with the wheels off, spend 10 minutes per day in guided riding. No more than 10 minutes or so per day. Why? Because muscle memory builds while you rest and sleep, so 6x10 minutes vs. 1 hour all at once are worlds apart in learning a new skill. You’ll be tired after 10min, trust me, and it’s enough, and you’ll see big progress the following day.

Day one is with you having STRONG control of their movement side-to-side for the first day, so they can’t fall over. It’s really for you to just get a sense of control, them riding, how all the dynamics work so they don’t hit or run over your feet. And know you are there to protect and encourage them. Remember the ice cream.

Then on day two, relax a bit and try to be less controlling, more hands-off for 1–2 seconds at a time, if possible. It’s probably too early for 1+ seconds, but get a sense of their balance, and where they are on the success curve.

Speed helps — don’t go too slow, i.e. walking pace is not fast enough for early stability. You can start walking, but it’s much more stable at a very fast walk or slow jog, trust me — and even a LITTLE bit downhill can help propel them along. Of course, they’ll have a helmet at all times.

On day 3, start releasing a bit more, and get them to pedal, as this seems helpful in maintaining balance. You’d think it’d make things harder, as it takes more coordination and effort, but pedaling seems to help their body keep moving more dynamically (rather than a static lump on the seat).

For day 4 and beyond, work to release them more and more, 3, 4, 5 seconds are the magic numbers, since after 5 seconds on their own, your job is essentially complete.

From 5+ seconds, it’s all about working on turns, starting from a stop, and mastering riding skills. But 5 days to 5 seconds is really all it takes to get them started on a lifetime of riding pleasure.

That’s it. It’s taken less than an hour of your time.

It’s all downhill from there.