Comment by tartoran

> The pedalless bikes aren't as effective.

I taught my two kids to ride a pedal bike when they were three, after enjoying their balance bike for like six months before that. The switch from balance bike to pedaling was very simple, and because they had enjoyed their balance bike for so long, they were very skilled at staying upright.

I'm not saying your method was bad. I'm saying that there's more than one way to skin a cat.

One big benefit of coaster bikes is that they’re entirely under the kid’s control. Your method works, but only with you attached. I’d rather empower kids to learn on their own.

Coaster bikes also teach kids to dab instinctively, which is a great skill.

Our kid started riding a pedal bike on their own at 3 years, 3 months thanks to the sheet method.

We started on an indoor bike-like ride along, thing.

Then a balance bike outside, then a small kids bike with no pedals, then pedals with freewheel, (no coaster brake) but two hand brakes and the sheet.

I used a muslin baby blanket for the sheet.

We did not take the support away suddenly at any time though.

We jogged with them a lot, constantly ready to catch her. I did, a handful of times save her from wrecks. This took a fair amount of athleticism, attention and reflexes.

But it also allowed us to talk about core bike safety and new nuances like “watching your white circles” (the handle bar ends were white) and make sure not to let them touch anything while riding.

Our kid got really comfortable pedaling and toward the end of the sheet use, I mostly just let it hang jogging along. It was the sense of security that allowed plenty of practice in advance of going without.

One day they just picked up their bike and started riding across the playground. Plenty of miles since then no wrecks yet.

We were not going for precociousness, but it was really great to get it down so young. I can ride my old coaster bike alongside when it’s dry, and we’ve done night rides.

We did not push any step of it, but did have the next bike available to them to see and look at and talk about. It was very smooth, I wish something like this process was available when I was a kid.

> I've taught 5 kids to ride bikes this year. The method is quite simple and takes only a few minutes and some light jogging behind them.

You need to compare this against the base method as a control (see above for my anecdote using my own kid).

The control method (i.e. do nothing other than scoot around) is about 5m. Maybe 10m at most. I don't know what I'd be saving if I got that number lower using props like a rope (or the sheet mentioned by a sibling).

My daughter—who is not at all coordinated-learned how to ride a bike with this technique.

Holy smokes it works. She learned how to ride in maybe 10 minutes. Tops.

Incredible.

What was the youngest age you taught with this style?