Now they have balance bikes for toddlers. Guessing those kids won't need training wheels.

bike tipped over.

Hope you weren't injured.

I know. I have some old black and white pictures of me on each.

in the stone age, Deb. I sure didn't have them & wouldn't have worn them anyway. Sissy stuff.



Ps - helmets are an excellent idea!

been much, much worse for sure.

I don't remember falling, but I probably did.

They are now out of fashion, as there are better methods to teach riding the bicycle. They involve splitting their training between a three wheeler and a Balance Bike. The three wheeler is optional but I feel it helps until they are a little bigger as the smallest bikes can be hard for small kids to pedal. The idea of a Balance Bike is that it teaches them to balance first as the standard training wheels cultivate habits that don't align with free biking.

https://www.mffy.com/blog/i-am-a-huge-fan-of-balance-bikes

So why do balance bikes work in teaching a child to learn to ride a bike?
Balance bikes have no pedals. The toddler’s feet are flat on the floor. There is nothing complicated to confuse, so the rider simply starts walking the bike along. Initially, they normally don’t even sit down and shuffle it along. As the bike leans to one side, the rider will naturally bring it back up-right, in order to move forwards. Balance is being taught without even realizing it.

Stabilisers introduce the concept of pedalling first, but this is the quickest and easiest skill to learn. However once removed, we see children falling over to one side immediately, as they have not learned to balance. As the process of riding a balance bike is instinctive, the kids are simply having fun, gaining speed and confidence, without realizing they are learning. The little ones love the feeling of accomplishment, whilst having fun and they feel safe.

As confidence grows they start sitting down and picking up their feet for longer periods of time, and start moving quicker. This whole time, balance is being learned, motor skills and coordination improving and the child is having fun! It also allows you two free hands to push a buggy, carry shopping and get somewhere quicker.

went up on my bike, while my father held the rear wheel, he told me to pedal. I was doing fine until I realized he was no longer holding the rear wheel.

When I heard him shout (from a long way off) ""by Jove, I think you've got it!" I immediately crashed into a roadside ditch.

Thanks, Deb!

I'm sure that I wrecked too. I've been riding a bike ever since. I was a statistic to the emergency room during the Evil Knevil days tho.
Switched to a recumbent 10 years ago.

" I can jump that... easy!"

At the bottom a tee in the road and a tall hedge. I only ran into the hedge once.

learn.

They also neglected to teach me about BRAKES! I went hurtling screaming down the street until I hit the curb and fell over.

brakes. Needless to say as I was going down the street, I went for the feet brakes. That's the day I crashed into a bush. Never did learn how to use speeds and hand brakes.

I would put it in third gear (or something-- sort of the middle), and then never change.

... before the bicycle, there was a tricycle. I suppose that counts as training wheels.

at the start. A little later I looked and I was all by myself, I got shook up and ran over a bank, I was lucky I didn't get hurt. I still ride a bike today at 77, rode 30 miles this morning.

As soon as I was able, I made the transition to a Pontiac, though.

When I was four, my best friend was an older boy from next door. he had me riding a two-wheeler in ten minutes.

When my son got his first bike, his mother insisted that I put the training wheels on the bike. I still had him riding on two wheels in a couple of weeks.

was a failure of ridingg a bike . parents kept nagging at me . one day after church,and on my own. opened the backyard gate , took off , no help from adults . kame back and told them what had happened didnt have training wheels thereafter..

I wish I could go back and give him a love trophy for the laps he ran up and down the street while bent in a weird angle holding the back of my bike. Then there was the last one when he stopped and I didn't know until I turned around.

Adult bike.
I think I remember my uncle letting go of the back. I was OK.
In '66 or so. No helmets, let alone anything else.

Had an accident at some point (could of been worse) I turned on the pebbly, gravelly drive way on the hourse around the corner. Down I went with some little rocks part embedded in my right elbow.
I guess I walked back.
Red Mercurichrome. Ouchie!

Had a big scar for decades! I think it's all gone or very faint. and

At another cousin's, too, another burb town and there we went further; whether we had foot, or hand brakes I don't remember.

I even rented bicycles in Central Park, NYC.
Fun!

I'd love to have the sit back adult tricycle!

adult tricycles would be great.

I taught myself to ride my Pop’s 27 inch three speed English racer when I was three. I stepped inside the frame and reached up to the handelbars. Ridding was easy peasy, but the dismount was ugly. Brakes? I learned that part later.

Maybe a couple of weeks and then I made my Dad take them off and after a couple of falls finally got my balance and I was offf!

My dad kept raising them, so I kept riding the bike more slanted.
He could tell I really didn't need them, so he took them off.
I was pretty nervous, but I was riding the bike without them the next day.
Not sure why I remember that so clearly, but I do.

tend to remember them. I rode the slanted bike too. I went home thinking I would never ride a big girl bike. And like you, I did. Thank you for post.

Dad ran behind me holding the back of the seat until he felt I could do it alone. Learned quickly.