Cycling group training children

ageis

Hi

My 5yr old nephew like me has learnt on a tradtional bike with stablisers. His parents has taken them off.

I want to know if there is any reputable organisation who organises training for children ?

It can be either one to one or group based but I was thinking more group based to hopefully encourage him to participate.

imafatman

Childrens cycling club? There is one near me that rides on some closed roads/tracks, lots of younguns.

ageis

but are they not just for children who can ride?

He's not even established his balance yet.

imafatman

In that case tell the parents to get off their arse and take the little one down the car-park early one weekend and practise getting his balance. Isn't that how everyone learns to ride? Or get one of these: http://www.cyclinguk.org/balance-bike

I can't imagine a world where parents have to pay someone to teach their kid to actually ride a bike unless they are also the sort to pay someone to look after them and cook and clean after them....

tangled_metal

We started to encourage our kid to ride without stabilizers. He didn't want to. Summer changed to autumn and winter so we left it until the better weather.

Before the better weather came we gave our son loads of positive scenarios of what learning to ride without stabilizers would lead to, including a new bike. He still resisted until suddenly out of the blue he asked to ride without stabilizers.

We picked a tarmac cycle path with a moderate downhill. His bike was held, without stabilizers which were at home, and we set him off. He half got it but kept stopping. We left it a week or two then took him on a flat, smooth tarmac mixed use path. He just got it.

Basically my advice is to just be positive. Give a good future outcome if he learns to leave the stabilizers behind. Let him pick when he's ready. He's got to want it. TBH I think this is the best you can do, lessons I think are for later once he can ride. I think every kid who wants to ride without stabilizers will in their own time but pressuring them can be counter productive.

ageis

hmm maybe tangled metal has a point.

I didn't learn how to ride a bike till i was in high school.

I grew out of a very old beat up bike my eldest sister used to ride who was at uni at the time.

The seat on it was so big you could call it a mini sofa.

It wasn't long before I litterally couldn't ride it because my legs were too long then I got a silver bmx which i have fixed up.

After a few months it time for my first mountain bike which weighed AN ABSOLUTE TON.

At which point I was forced to learn how to ride without stablisers because the rear mech had this bash guard on it which prevented you from attaching the stablisers.

tangled_metal

It's worth the effort to encourage your child or in op's case nephew to ride. Our little one is only a month into riding. We got him a new bike as soon as he mastered it. He didn't need that encouragement as he loves cycling. It's an absolute joy to see! I don't know who's grinning the most, him or me!

My only problem is the local kids cycling group, linked to BC, has a lower age limit of 6, 1.5 years to wait! He's ready for it now. He's doing stunts already, his balance has truly come on with only his inability to look behind without steering the way he looks causing problems.

Seriously, be enthusiastic, give him rewards and give him a target that he can see the way to reach. Ultimately though, teaching anyone to ride has to start with the person wanting to learn. If he's ready it'll probably be fairly easy. Although in our case enthusiasm was something that comes very natural to me with regards to cycling. It's in my very blood! My son's too it seems.