The Secret to Learning to Ride on 2 Wheels!

I feel like we discovered a secret. Well not really, whoever invented the balance bike discovered the secret and actually they were smarter about it, because they are making money off of this secret. Those of you with small children have probably seen or even purchased the balance bike pictured here:

If you are not familiar with this bike, it is built very similar to a regular bike however it does not have pedals. The children use their feet to make it move, like the Flintstone's car. For us, when we bought Elijah (now 4 years old) his first bike for Christmas last year, we bought a bike with training wheels like we thought we were supposed to as his first bike. As he transitioned from his tricycle to this bike, I began to notice many children on these balance bikes. I realized something. Learning to ride a two-wheeled bike is pretty difficult especially coming from a bike with training wheels. The training wheels are not level with the ground and are designed to catch the child when the bike tips. Therefore, when they are riding it the bike slightly tips back and forth because they never really are balancing on the two wheels. It becomes a clutch for them. So, when the training wheels are taken off, two wheels is even more difficult to learn because it's like they are starting over again. They become accustomed to having that clutch of the slight wobble. If a child begins with the balance bike they learn to balance first as they use their feet to move the bike and lift their feet once going fast enough. So when they attempt a regular bike with pedals, they already know how to balance and so they are only learning one extra step which is pedaling while they balance.

I looked into purchasing a balance bike which are equally or more expensive than a regular bike, so, we improvised. We used his bike by taking off the pedals and chain, creating our own balance bike. He figured out how to balance in a couple days, and within a week or so he was coming down the driveway on his "balance bike." After we felt he had gotten the hang of it, we put the pedals and chain back on. He literally took off on a two-wheel bike the first time he got on. I honestly feel that because he had the balance part of learning down already pedaling came naturally. If we had started him on a balance bike first, I definitely feel he would have been riding on two wheels even earlier. I'm confident that any child could learn this quickly. For us, the purchase of a balance bike wasn't needed, just the technique and purpose of the balance bike. He is still riding the original bike we bought, but on two wheels. And when Liliana (10 months old) is ready for a bike I'm going to do the same thing, buy her a two-wheel bike and take the pedals and chain off.