How To Teach Children To Ride A Bike In 45 Minutes

Teaching your child to ride their first bike is a big milestone but it can be daunting for

parents. Children's bike expert and founder of Isla Bikes, Isla Roundtree, says it's actually

possible to teach them everything they need to know in just 45 minutes. So is it really

possible I'm here to meet the lady herself. So I'm joined here at Herne Hill

Velodrome by Ireland now is it really true that 45 minutes is all it can take

to get a child started? Yeah I mean obviously every child varies and there's a

really wide spectrum of how quickly children will to get get to grips with

something like cycling but that's typically a fairly generous amount of time just to get them balancing unaided starting stopping can take longer. That

is provided that they're ready to ride and that coordination development that has to come first

it is quite important that you wait for that and don't try and force it on a child that's not ready

and make it stressful. I certainly think there's a window when they find it easier to learn to ride

and I would say that's typically between four and six years. If you don't get them cycling pre-six

then they seem to become more cautious about it and perhaps find it psychologically more

challenging to learn. There's perhaps two reasons for that, a heightened sense of fear as they get

older but also they're further from the ground. If they're taller it's further to fall

So we're joined now by little Anna who's going to help us out today. What's the first step in

getting started? The first thing is to choose a suitable place for your first lesson. Somewhere

nice and flat and a big open space is ideal. We don't want any nasty hills where our beginner's

going to whiz off out of control. It's really tempting to choose grass because it feels like

it's going to be a soft landing but that actually makes learning quite difficult because you have

to push quite hard on a small bike on the pedals. Now before we actually start riding we need to

check that the saddle height right for the child We looking to set the saddle height so they can just get the balls of their feet on the ground That the front bit of the foot where you run on It tempting to put the saddle lower so the feet go down flat but that actually makes pedalling more difficult

You want the part to be able to wander at will so that the child can feel how it responds to leaning

So it's important not to hold the handlebars. You will see some parents trying to support them

and make their child feel more secure like this, but you actually end up fighting with them with the handlebars

and it makes it more difficult. We find it easiest to support the bike while they get on between your legs and then support the child under their armpits

And you can actually steer them by leaning their body then and they can feel how the bike responds to that

OK, so you're actually holding on to the child as opposed to fixing on to the bike

Exactly. You ready? Pop your feet on the pedals and you're going to look up. Off we go

Okay, then you can see that we can steer the bike by leaning her body

So we lean it to the right and she steers to the left. And she's learning how the bike responds to the leaning

And she's starting to go on her own. There we go. Look at that

Now, Anna's balancing really well already. But it's important that I stay with her because she hasn't learned how to stop yet

We don't want to abandon her. And she's riding on her own. Look at that

Did you know you were riding all on your own? Yes, you were

I wasn't holding you. Congratulations. Give me a high five. Anna was very, very confident getting going there

Is that usually the case, or are there sometimes more challenges with children

when they're getting on for the first time? It varies a lot from child to child

but also at what age you make the first attack, with them to ride. A child very often will pedal backwards or pedal backwards for half a stroke and

forward for one and a half and then flail and their feet coming off. If you try for 10 minutes

or so and they're really not able to turn their feet in circles they're probably just not ready

and they're better off continuing on their balance bike for a few more weeks and then have another

go a bit later When they ready they will typically get that forward pedalling motion within 10 or 15 minutes You can actually help with that when they pedal forward if you

push them and when they're pedalling the wrong way actually stop pushing them so they feel

the bike slowing down then they associate forward motion with pedalling in the right direction

Most children have got the coordination potential to learn. They develop that at some point between

three and a half and four and a half. Once they've got that potential a session like this will get

them going. Some children develop that really early as young as two and a half we've known and

sudden not until they're five or five and a half it doesn't matter it's important not to push them

before they're ready. We don't recommend covering starting and stopping before they've actually

learned to balance because it's overloading them with information and once they've got to Anna's

stage where they're balancing really quite confidently. You're going to need to teach

them to set off and to stop safely. So for setting off Anna, we need to get the pedal

in the position for you to ride. That's right. Now put your foot on top. Okay, now look where

you're going and I'm going to support you again and give a really good push and see if you can set

off by yourself. You ready? Go. That's it. Now we stop the bike by using the brakes

So we've got a brake lever here. Watch what happens to the wheel when we pull that on

See it stops. Alright? So you're showing the child how the brakes work and it helps them

understand what they're trying to do. Right, we're going to just do a little walking exercise. Put your hands on the handlebars and see if you can reach the brakes. Now when they first

learn to ride they'll probably just pull the brakes on very hard to stop and we want them

to get a feel for stopping progressively before they're actually cycling. So Annie, can you

walk with the bike for me, pushing it along. Just walk with it and then pull the brakes

on. That's it. Stopped very suddenly then, didn't it? Now do it again and pull them on

a bit more gently this time. Okay, a little bit more gently and both hands together. Gently

That better Yay And again Gently gently That better So as we seen Anna has been so confident she just can wait to pedal away and get going

Is that because she's progressed perhaps from a balance bike and not stabilisers

If a child's progressing from stabilisers we'd expect that initial balancing phase to take quite a bit longer

You still use exactly the same technique as we have today, but when you're pushing the child along holding under the armpits

they will tend to ride the bike like a tricycle, so they'll be trying to push their body away and hold the bike up

And when you're leaning to steer, they will try and fight that. Carry on in exactly the same way as we did today, but expect it to take quite a bit longer and encourage them to keep their body in line with the bike

and they will get the feel for it but you might have to have perhaps a little bit longer or maybe

two or three sessions at it before they're actually riding unaided. And in terms of giving advice to

parents that might be really nervous about this process how can you make sure it's safe and you

know take that stress and worry out of the equation? I think the things that we mentioned at the start

about finding a safe place big open space you'll notice that Anna's wearing some little gloves

if they do have a spill they're going to put their hands out and they'll stop them grazing their hand

but the main thing is not to abandon the child when they're actually riding

stay with them. It's really important to avoid a tumble at this stage

because it can really knock the confidence and that can put a child off even having another go potentially for months

We want to avoid that so stay with them, lots of encouragement and if you're there until you're really sure that they can manage on their own

and start and stop safely, you can catch them if they get a warm or loose concentration

There's not much that can go wrong there. No, that's right. And you can just literally grab them under the armpits

and hoist them out of the way and let the bike fall away. You can pick a little one up

Brilliant. Thank you so much for joining us today, Isla. And Anna, thank you

Well done