Scott Learns To Ride

Scott has been riding a bike for a couple of years now, but never without training wheels. For his birthday, this past July, we got him a bigger bike, since he had outgrown his first bike. He hasn't been able to ride it yet because it doesn't have training wheels. A few days ago, before he rode to school, I decided to raise the training wheels on his old bike up a couple of centimeters. It didn't even seem to phase him. Every once in a while, he would lose balance a little and his training wheels would catch him, but otherwise he did fine. Time to take them off, I think...

So, Saturday morning, the family headed out to the park before it got too hot. I took the training wheels off his bike and Scott was excited. I wasn't sure he would be since he sometimes lacks confidence in trying new things. But he was quite positive about the idea of being a big boy and riding without any help.

We put on his biking gloves, elbow pads, and knee pads (we forgot his helmet, DOH!) and then got his bike ready for him. He did some fine tuning on the direction of the bike, the position of the pedals and then lined the wheels up with a crack in the sidewalk (what that does, only he knows). I got behind him, put my hand on the bike seat and told him how to get started. He took a couple of unsteady pushes with his foot and then off he went.

I was fully expecting a few crashes, some crocodile tears and plenty of drama, but none of that materialized. He just went. I jogged behind him as he went down the sidewalk, and though he was a little unsteady at time, he never once came close to falling. After a little bit of coaching on how to get started (that's the hardest part, you know) he became an expert. He rode all around one end of the park, and just kept going. I really think he likes his new found freedom.