Help! My daughter can't ride a bike

My daughter, aged eight, can't ride a bike. She can manage with stabilisers but can’t cycle any great distance and I am starting to get concerned. It isn’t that she will never ride a bike but I’m concerned about what her friends would think if they knew she was still using stabilisers. It could be a source of embarrassment for her and something I need to rectify before the winter weather kicks in.

Too much time indoors?

My daughter is a very slight child and she took time to find her feet, so it was expected that she would gain her cycling skills later than her peers. But I think there are more factors at play here – the fact that children today seem to spend so much time indoors, certainly a lot more than I did at the same age when there was no satellite television, no Internet and certainly no games consoles.

At the same age I’d been cycling for years, often on my own and often exploring the local neighbourhood without a parent in sight. My daughter has definitely spent too much time indoors and not enough outside learning to cycle. That is going to change.

Cycling proficiency

It is Ready for Ten’s post about free cycling proficiency lessons that have motivated me to sort out this cycling issue. The lessons proved to be a huge success with over 500 children taking part. Organiser David Showell from Cycle Confident told me that many of the children had started the day using stabilisers, but by the end of the two-hour lesson they were cycling independently. So I asked David for some tips on how I could get my eight year old doing the same.

Tips for kids learning to cycle

David’s advice was simple: take the stabilisers off and then spend time helping her find her centre of gravity, which requires a little practise. However there are also a few other things you can do to speed up the process:

• Make sure kids know where their breaks are and how to use them so they feel in full control of the bike
• Ensure the seat is set at the correct height so the child can place their feet on the floor
• Make sure the tyres are pumped up as this makes moving the bike easier
• Keep hold of the back of the saddle so they know you are near enough to steady the bike if needed
• Support them until they find their centre of gravity
• Don’t worry excessively about your child getting hurt, as this will feed their anxiety
• If they come to a halt, simply reset the peddle so they can push off and get moving again
• Investigate cycling proficiency lessons taking place locally
• Practise, practise, practise.

For younger children David recommends getting a balance bike before progressing to a larger child’s bike. That way, children get used to balancing and won’t need to use stabilisers at all.

Useful websites

For more information about kids’ cycling visit:

Cycle Confident

Bikeability