bike riding

Success!


It's repeatable!



A little over a month ago I decided to start teaching Sparkle how to ride a bike in earnest. After a few false starts with training wheels, I decided to look up teaching bike riding on the Internet and found a method I like.

We started by lowering the seat so Sparkle could touch the ground when seated. Then I took the pedals off so they wouldn't bang her legs as she walked the bike down the grassy slope.



With enough practice coasting, eventually Sparkle felt comfortable enough to lift her feet off the ground longer and longer. The slope in the grass isn't very steep or long, so I eventually moved her to the concrete once we both knew that she could fall without getting hurt much.



Then it was time to add one pedal back. Sparkle hated this part. The pedal kept scraping her leg and she kept wanted me to take it off. Eventually she started to believe me that if she kept her foot on the pedal, it wouldn't scrape her.



It took over a month of almost daily bike practice to go from fear of the bike to actual riding. (She loved riding the half-bike behind Wander but controling her own bike was a different matter.) Some days Sparkle would practice for only 5 minutes, other days she went for half an hour. Partway through the process I stopped taking pictures because bringing out the camera seemed to jinx her and she would fall down. I also picked up a second, slightly smaller bike from Goodwill and left the pedals on it. With two bikes Sparkle could pick and switch between the bike with pedals and the bike without depending on how confident she was feeling.

Sparkle can now start from a standstill, stop the bike (without running into something), and turn in both directions. She can't do tight turns yet, and still falls occasionally, but we can now classify her as "able to ride a bike."

BTW, I don't recommend learning to ride a bike while wearing a dress and flip-flops. However, Sparkle was pretty stubborn about her attire. Wander had to get stern with her just to get her wear the helmet.