Advice as to When to Take Training Wheels Off

I am starting the same process with my six 1/2 year old daughter. I think 8 is a great time. Someone told me to take one off and have you stand on that side of her as she pedals, then help her if she starts leaning over. That gives her the support on one side, but not completely going without anything. The big thing is to build up trust with you that you will jog along side her on the side without a training wheel and you will not let her fall over. Then that will help her figure out the feeling of balancing, once she has mastered just riding without the one, then take the other off. The main thing is maybe sometimes someone like an aunt, uncle, family friend teaching her as I know with my daughter more of the battle is her losing patience with me personally, hee hee. I would try the taking one off method, you staying on that side with her and jogging along side. Teach her to not lean a certain way but keep her back up straight and focus ahead of her instead of ever looking down...
Good luck, I have to hit this hard within the next month, my goal is to get her out of training wheels by the time we get her 3 1/2 year old brother a bike this summer!!!

When my son was five or six (now 11), he saw a younger neighbor (age 3) riding without training wheels. The fact that a 'baby' didn't have training wheel motivated him to try learning to ride with two wheels.

Another neighbor and I took our kids down to the park by our house. We set them up In the grass with a very slight hill. The incline got them started and if they tipped over, they fell in the soft grass. It only took a few runs and they were off on their own! The grass made them less fearful of falling. The park was wide open so there was no danger of the kids running over people or going into the street if they got out of control. One girl picked it up a little faster than my son, but again, it motivated him to keep trying. I guess this is an example of positive peer pressure!

Does your daughter have a trusted friend or relative that could help and motivate her? Sometimes I find that if someone other than myself helps, my son is more open to learning something new. With my neighbor there, son my son could see that it wasn't just mean 'ol mom 'making' him do something. Maybe you could get the other kids you know who are still on training wheel and make it a learn to ride party. Have a picnic after they master the task! Whatever motivates!

Of course, you don't want to force her. Maybe she could try a scooter to help her feel more confident with her balance. They are fairly inexpensive. My son was already whizzing around on his scooter before he did the two wheeled bike.

Good luck and don't forget a cool helmet for any wheeled activity!

My kids are grown now but I remember raising both training wheels so that they were off the ground and leaving it like that until the kids asked to have them taken off. The training wheels were there if they started to tip but not all the time, and the kids knew when they were ready to go wihout them.

I hope that helps some, kids really do know when they are ready. Good luck.

My neighbor helped her girls learn to ride without training wheels by taking the pedals off of the bike as well as the training wheels. They spent a summer coasting on their bikes everywhere. The one danger is that without pedals there are no brakes so stay on even ground. But the genius behind that is that the girls learned to balance without having to think about pedaling. They had their feet readily available, instead of the training wheels, to catch them as they learned how to balance. And when their confidence regarding balance was up, then she added the pedals and it was a great experience for her girls. My friend did not do the run-and-hold-onto-the-bike thing either. She said she didn't want to deceive her kids by telling them she wouldn't let go and then letting go. That is how I plan to help mine learn when I think she's ready.

I babysat for a family who had all their kids off of training wheels by the time the kids were five. Likewise, I never had training wheels, and I learned to ride when I was five...my dad took me, on a Sunday, to the parking lot of his office, and we just practiced all day, and I got it! How is her balance? I would set aside a day to try getting her to ride without the wheels, with the idea that if she isn't ready, you can always put them back on. Take her somewhere paved, flat, with no traffic, and just practice with her. I bet she'll get it quickly!

Hi, our son had a bike without pedals (called a "like-a-bike") that he loved from an early age. He could coast really fast. Then we got him a "real" bike with training wheels and he learned how to pedal. When we took off the training wheels, he put the pedaling and balancing together. I think learning the balancing first was helpful. Don't know if this would work for your daughter? Maybe lower the seat and take the pedals off and let her gain confidence and have fun that way first? Good luck!

I'm not there yet but I heard a tip on how to know when they're ready that I thought might help.

Watch her when she's riding her bike and when she gets to where she depends on her training wheels less than half the time, they don't touch the ground when she's going straight and only sometimes when she turns, then she's ready to have them taken off. You can also encourage her by telling her what you're looking for to show that she's ready to be more "grown up" on her bike so that she can start practicing now when she still has the security of the training wheels. You can also adjust some training wheels so that they are a little higher off the ground to help her in the process.

I hope this helps.