Son Struggling to Pedal

tomhammersley

Hello all,

I was hoping someone might offer some advice to help with my Son's pedalling problem?

Here's the issue: Last year, he was 3 years old and pedalling well on a variety of trikes and so on. So, we got him his first bike. He's a big boy (he takes after me, I'm 6'6) so the shop recommended a 16" bike. We got it - it fits him. But he's never been able to pedal it properly.

He only uses his right leg. He can press the pedal down from top-dead-centre to bottom-dead-centre with his right leg, but then he doesn't bring his left leg into it. He just rewinds the right leg and does it again. He never quite seems to get a cycle going.

I've tried a fair few things. I've tried helping him by guiding his legs, raising the saddle, lowering it, going downhill to make it easier. I've even tried the "dog training" algorithm of offering a chocolate button if he uses his left leg... but nothing cuts it!

I don't want to make too big of a deal of it, as that's a sure fire way to put him off. Sometimes you just have to wait and these things click by themselves. But it has been a year now, he's 4 and he's just not quite getting it. He has the odd good ride, and he enjoys it, but he just can't get that left leg going.

Once he can of course, everything progresses.

He's on stabilisers (I hoped this would make a natural progression from the trike). Part of me is very tempted to fiddle with the bike and change it's gearing... he does complain he finds it hard to pedal. But then, I don't want to mess with the bike too much if it's just a child developmental issue and I wind up causing another problem further down the line.

Any ideas? Anything I've missed here? I've had a good search but not found quite this problem discussed.

Thanks.

slickmouse

he will click eventually, the problem is with the stabilizers, as if there wernt there he would have to maintain speed or fall off

I believe that teaching them with four wheels is far more of a hindrance than a help( and god know ive taught a good few'), as they have to do a lot of unlearning before they can ride with out them, and you'd be better with a scooter that teaches balance rather than the bike. A lot put great store in ''balance bikes'' which are basically your bike with the pedals taken off

once they have the idea of balance, turning, brakes et al, they give them the pedaling thing to do

tomhammersley

oxoman: Interesting you should mention the tag-a-long thing. We went to Carsington Water the other week, rented a bike with a recumbent tag a long... he loved it. I've been resisting it so far as I wanted him to learn to pedal independently, then use that to add distance... but, maybe he needs to feel the benefit to get motivated to learn.

slickmouse: I hear you regarding the balance bike. I do sort-of regret not getting him one. At the time, he was so strong on the trike, I assumed that he'd be starting the bike with the pedaling skill in place, that would give him speed, and speed would lead to balance. Seemed like a plan... but it didn't pan out. Perhaps I'm guilty of wanting to progress him to a "proper" bike too soon. He does have a scooter and he is excellent at that - does that skill transfer?

My daughter's just had a balance bike for her birthday. I might see how he goes on that, maybe take the pedals and/or crank off his bike and work it back up again from basics.

In all honesty, once he sees his sister on a bike, I can't help but hope that'll spur him into action as he's very competitive.

slickmouse

TomHammersley wrote:

oxoman: Interesting you should mention the tag-a-long thing. We went to Carsington Water the other week, rented a bike with a recumbent tag a long... he loved it. I've been resisting it so far as I wanted him to learn to pedal independently, then use that to add distance... but, maybe he needs to feel the benefit to get motivated to learn.

slickmouse: I hear you regarding the balance bike. I do sort-of regret not getting him one. At the time, he was so strong on the trike, I assumed that he'd be starting the bike with the pedaling skill in place, that would give him speed, and speed would lead to balance. Seemed like a plan... but it didn't pan out. Perhaps I'm guilty of wanting to progress him to a "proper" bike too soon. He does have a scooter and he is excellent at that - does that skill transfer?

My daughter's just had a balance bike for her birthday. I might see how he goes on that, maybe take the pedals and/or crank off his bike and work it back up again from basics.

In all honesty, once he sees his sister on a bike, I can't help but hope that'll spur him into action as he's very competitive.

they will never get balance with stabilizers fitted,,,, from hard experience,,, a couple of years ago a got a 5 yo( honorary niece) to teach, after 12 months of riding her stabilized bike round the park, she found it impossible not to learn out when cornering, hold her balance for 2 secs whilst she set off, or indeed stop with out ending in a heap, with much pain and disillusionment and me jogging many miles at the side of her, it took two years of infrequent attempts to get her to the stage where she could ride independently

this year another 5 yo ( real niece) never road a bike at all, just done many laps of the park on a hello kitty scooter, had her riding ( somewhat erratically) in an hour and an independent cyclist of some skill and daring within three Saturday afternoons

simon_e

slickmouse wrote:

they will never get balance with stabilizers fitted,

I agree. Stabilisers are a totally counterproductive. The poor child learns one way of staying upright then you take the damn things off and they need to relearn to do the complete opposite.

If you can't lower the seat and get him to scoot then just be patient. He's only 4, after all! I'm sure he will be fine in due course.