Glide before you Bike

It’s been a looooooong time since I learned to ride a bike (understatement of the year century!). In fact, I don’t have any particular memories about learning to ride. I have vague memory of the glee I had pedaling a Big Wheel trike, but I’m sure that memory stems from an old photograph. However, despite my cycling amnesia, we’ve taken great pride in watching our children accomplish this milestone. Sam, our 4 year old, is the most recent of our brood to master this rite of childhood. Behold his (and his sister’s) prowess:

Please forgive her lack of helmet – we usually require it, but on this occasion, we happened to be out and about and the helmet had been left behind.

Here’s another clip of Sam riding his bike down a hill, focusing on braking and being in control.

We were able to skip the training wheels altogether by using a balance bike – also known as a glider bike, like-a-bike, or a run bike.   To learn more about balance bikes, check out these nifty links:

* 5 Minutes for Mom – Balance Bike Giveaway

* Buy a balance bike

Someday soon (maybe next WFMW?) I will do a post detailing why and how the balance bike has worked for our family, but I wanted to get this link up before their contest ended.

And in case you are wondering, I’m entering their contest because … although we love our balance bike, it is wooden and about at the end of it’s days.  And since we have one more rider to go, we’d love to have a new one for when he’s ready to ride (solo).

Tags: glider