How Doug Engelbart taught kids to ride a bike (without training wheels)

Apparently a much simpler way is to just take the pedals off the bike:<p><a href="http://www.sandcanyoncyclery.com/index.php?option=com_content&#38;view=article&#38;id=70" rel="nofollow">http://www.sandcanyoncyclery.com/index.php?option=com_conten...</a>

That's brilliant! Just the other day I tried taking my almost-three-year-old's training wheels off and tried to help her go straight without falling, but quickly decided she "wasn't quite ready". Maybe she still isn't, who knows, but this method sounds like a great idea -- I'm gonna try it tomorrow. :-)

Second grade I received my first bike, a pedal bike, which puts me at 8 years old. I recall, precisely and clearly the experience of being pushed on the bike, being told to pedal, and once it got going, pedaling to the very end of the road.<p><a href="http://bit.ly/gmaps-firstRide" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/gmaps-firstRide</a><p>Actually turning around was a bit of an adventure, but I managed that (and precisely recall the experience as well) - and so, 5 minutes after being introduced to my bike, I had pretty much mastered the basic skill.<p>I wonder if there is an age at which training wheels really don't make sense, and how many children after around five years old or so actually bypass the training wheels stage - I'm guessing it's a majority.

This is a perfect example of scaffolding. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding</a>

I initially learned to ride a bike on a grassy area (much softer falls, I highly recommend this). As I got much better my dad graduated me to the road. Everything was going great during this transition until I saw a kid a couple years older than me pop a wheelie. I thought this was awesome and being very confident in my new found skills, I immediately decided that I should give it a shot. I yanked up and back hard on my banana seat bike, I don't think my dad had any idea I was going to do this, and we both quickly learned my mistake as I tipped over backwards and my face met the asphalt. With my front tooth laying on the ground and my dad likely standing there wondering what the hell happened, I bolted home in search of my mom with blood streaming out of my mouth. I was probably about 4 or 5 at the time. So my advice is make sure the person/kid is wearing a helmet and possibly even a mouth guard those first few trips out and beware of the pop a wheelie.

It doesn't hurt that the gyroscopic behavior of the wheels also makes it unnecessary to do steering corrections at high enough speeds. Once you're going fast enough, you can hop off the bike and it'll still go upright for a while.

Better than the way I was taught, My older brother gave my bike a shove and told me to pedal. It only took one fall to figure it all out :)

I don't see how training wheels would help learning at all? Just wondering if there is an age when kids can not yet learn riding a bicycle, and then training wheels would enable them to use a bicycle anyway (like you wouldn't expect a 6 month old who can barely walk to be able to learn cycling, I suppose). That would be the only reason I can see for using training wheels.

I wonder if there's an equivalent see-saw for inline/roller/ice skates. The only training wheels I had were knee/elbow pads.

They're called "balance bicycles" or "run bicycles" and they're readily available from dozens of manufacturers.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_bicycle" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_bicycle</a><p>I don't know why anyone cares that Doug Engelbart discovered something already known by millions of people - that pedaling isn't the important part of learning to ride, balancing is - but hey, here's my golf clap for him. {clap clap}

I learned on my own, but on the grass.