FINALLY!

[Scott Lindstrom]

You all may recall posts from me about how stubborn DS
can be when it comes to learning a new task, specifically
riding a bike. Well, it has finally happened. Two Tuesdays
ago, the BH bought him a new bike -- he was gargantuan on
his old one. A week ago, I took him to our church, which
has a big parking lot so he could practice. That didn't go
so well -- a couple scrapes. In fact, he didn't want to go,
but I said if he didn't, we would return the bike, and also
we had to make sure it fit him right. (Amazingly, he bought
that last argument -- I don't think returning the bike would
have phased him one bit) Last Thursday, BH took
him to a football field next to the High School near our
house, and he did a lot better -- he could bike without
falling. Since then he's practiced a couple more times, and
can now start by himself, and stop without falling. He's
even learned to start by himself going uphill. Every day
he asks if he can bike. I'd told him we'd bike on the
bike path that is at the end of our street this weekend,
and he's looking forward to that.

One more of life's lessons learned. Hooray!

Scott DD 10 and DS 7

[Jayne Kulikauskas]

"Scott Lindstrom" > wrote in message
...
>
> You all may recall posts from me about how stubborn DS
> can be when it comes to learning a new task, specifically
> riding a bike. Well, it has finally happened.
[]

That's great news, Scott. Way to go!

Jayne

[Kevin Karplus]

In article >,
Jayne Kulikauskas wrote:
>
> "Scott Lindstrom" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> You all may recall posts from me about how stubborn DS
>> can be when it comes to learning a new task, specifically
>> riding a bike. Well, it has finally happened.
>
> That's great news, Scott. Way to go!


We've also had pretty good success teaching my reluctant 7-year-old
son to ride a bike this summer also. He is now quite confident in
riding around on a paved playground, and can keep a straight line, do
shoulder checks, and turn smoothly. His starts are no longer wobbly and
he can stop (though not quickly enough for road riding yet, I think).
He'll never be able to stop really quickly with just coaster brakes,
but I don't think he's quite ready for hand brakes yet.

He's done a lot of riding around in circles and "lane practice", using
some 3-foot wide lanes that are painted on the playground. We had
only two falls all summer, with weekly practices: one was when he was
just learning to turn and steer and was making much too large a
movement with the handlebars, the later one was when he had enough
confidence that he tried to cycle through a gateway into the playground
at the start of the lesson and hit his handlebar on gatepost. He was
a bit shook up, but after 5-10 minutes to calm down he went on with
the bike lesson and had a reasonably good time.

He enjoys the bike lessons when he is having them, but does not want
to ride his bike at other times.

We'll probably be getting him a bigger bike, probably with a rear
derailleur or hub gears, sometime this year. I wouldn't want to climb
the street in front of our house with a heavyweight one-speed, so it
seems unfair to ask him to do so.

--
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Professor of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
Affiliations for identification only.

[Rosalie B.]

x-no-archive:yes
(Kevin Karplus) wrote:
>
>We've also had pretty good success teaching my reluctant 7-year-old
>son to ride a bike this summer also. He is now quite confident in
>riding around on a paved playground, and can keep a straight line, do
>shoulder checks, and turn smoothly. His starts are no longer wobbly and
>he can stop (though not quickly enough for road riding yet, I think).
>He'll never be able to stop really quickly with just coaster brakes,
>but I don't think he's quite ready for hand brakes yet.

Why do you say that? I've never really ridden a bike with hand brakes
very much and I could always stop quickly enough with coaster brakes.
I took my sister's bike that she won in a magazine selling contest or
a spelling bee or something and the first time I tried to stop, I took
a header. It was on gravel too. I've never really liked hand brakes
since.

Anyway IMHO, you adjust to the equipment you have. That goes for car
or truck and trailer brakes and acceleration, bike brakes, motorcycle
brakes and shift points, how long it takes to stop or turn your boat,
or whatever form of transportation you are using.
>
>He's done a lot of riding around in circles and "lane practice", using
>some 3-foot wide lanes that are painted on the playground. We had
>only two falls all summer, with weekly practices: one was when he was
>just learning to turn and steer and was making much too large a
>movement with the handlebars, the later one was when he had enough
>confidence that he tried to cycle through a gateway into the playground
>at the start of the lesson and hit his handlebar on gatepost. He was
>a bit shook up, but after 5-10 minutes to calm down he went on with
>the bike lesson and had a reasonably good time.
>
>He enjoys the bike lessons when he is having them, but does not want
>to ride his bike at other times.
>
I felt that way about some lessons too. Not bike riding because I did
that with friends, but other types of lessons.

>We'll probably be getting him a bigger bike, probably with a rear
>derailleur or hub gears, sometime this year. I wouldn't want to climb
>the street in front of our house with a heavyweight one-speed, so it
>seems unfair to ask him to do so.

grandma Rosalie

[David desJardins]

Rosalie B. writes:
>> He'll never be able to stop really quickly with just coaster brakes,
>
> Why do you say that? I've never really ridden a bike with hand brakes
> very much and I could always stop quickly enough with coaster brakes.

Coaster brakes can't stop a bicycle quickly because they are on the rear
wheel only. When hand brakes are properly applied, most of the stopping
power (about 75%) comes from the front wheel. That's because, when
stopping, most of the rider's weight shifts onto the front wheel, so it
has better traction. The main role of the rear brake is just to prevent
the bicycle from somersaulting over the front wheel.

David desJardins

[FibbersCloset]

The discussion here prompted me to make getting my DD 7 to learn to ride a
bike this summer a goal. Your posts made me realize that she wasn't alone
in being reluctant. I posted about our experiences, but never saw it
appear. Some factors that made it a success were:

Bribery. It hadn't occured to be before until someone mentioned it. The
reward for learning to ride was an American Girl doll that she had been
asking for.

PedalMagic. A videotape of a method for teaching riding without training
wheels http://www.pedalmagic.com/. Someone else recommended it here, and I
considered it a good $25 investment. A good approach when your child
approaches things mentally rather than physically.

She learned well enough that at the end of the summer we bicycled around
Mackinac Island, Michigan (8 miles on a state highway that does not allow
motor vehicles).

Dena


"Scott Lindstrom" > wrote in message
...
>
> You all may recall posts from me about how stubborn DS
> can be when it comes to learning a new task, specifically
> riding a bike. Well, it has finally happened.

[Kevin Karplus]

In article >, David desJardins wrote:
> Rosalie B. writes:
>>> He'll never be able to stop really quickly with just coaster brakes,
>>
>> Why do you say that? I've never really ridden a bike with hand brakes
>> very much and I could always stop quickly enough with coaster brakes.
>
> Coaster brakes can't stop a bicycle quickly because they are on the rear
> wheel only. When hand brakes are properly applied, most of the stopping
> power (about 75%) comes from the front wheel. That's because, when
> stopping, most of the rider's weight shifts onto the front wheel, so it
> has better traction.

Correct. In an emergency stop, your deceleration is limited by the
pitchover vector---the line from your center of gravity through the
front wheel contact with the ground. When you subtract the
deceleration vector from the gravity vector, you have to end up with a
vector pointing more down than the pitchover vector, or you'll flip
the bike.

Controlling front and rear brakes so as to be able to do an emergency
stop takes practice---practice most bike riders nowadays never get.
John Forester's book "Effective Cycling" describes the technique well,
and it is taught by the League of American Bicyclists.

It is not possible to flip the bike with rear-wheel brakes, since the
deceleration drops to zero as the rear wheel is unweighted. This
makes coaster brakes easier to operate, hence their dominance on first
bikes for kids. Unfortunately, your deceleration is limited about a
third of what you can get with both front and back brakes, so you have
to ride slowly in order to keep your stopping distance safe.

In flat country, young kids generally don't go so fast that coaster
brakes are inadequate, but in hilly country like here it easy to end
up going too fast down a hill and not be able to stop in a reasonable
distance with just rear-wheel braking.

> The main role of the rear brake is just to prevent
> the bicycle from somersaulting over the front wheel.

Nope---the rear brake provides additional braking power as long as
some weight remains on the rear wheel. Under normal (not emergency)
braking, about 1/3 of your braking comes from the rear wheel. If the
extra braking all came from the front wheel, the steering would become
difficult, as steering relies on the difference in friction between a
rolling wheel and a side-slipping wheel. You can also use
rear-wheel-only braking when you want to slow down gradually.


--
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Professor of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
Affiliations for identification only.

[Brandy Kurtz]

Scott Lindstrom > wrote in message >...
> You all may recall posts from me about how stubborn DS
> can be when it comes to learning a new task, specifically
> riding a bike. Well, it has finally happened. Two Tuesdays
> ago, the BH bought him a new bike -- he was gargantuan on
> his old one. A week ago, I took him to our church, which
> has a big parking lot so he could practice. That didn't go
> so well -- a couple scrapes. In fact, he didn't want to go,
> but I said if he didn't, we would return the bike, and also
> we had to make sure it fit him right. (Amazingly, he bought
> that last argument -- I don't think returning the bike would
> have phased him one bit) Last Thursday, BH took
> him to a football field next to the High School near our
> house, and he did a lot better -- he could bike without
> falling. Since then he's practiced a couple more times, and
> can now start by himself, and stop without falling. He's
> even learned to start by himself going uphill. Every day
> he asks if he can bike. I'd told him we'd bike on the
> bike path that is at the end of our street this weekend,
> and he's looking forward to that.
>
> One more of life's lessons learned. Hooray!
>
> Scott DD 10 and DS 7


WTG! My 7 YO DS also learned how to ride a bike this past weekend! He
learned in a parking lot of a defuncted store! Cool! oooh but no
street riding just yet...:)

Brandy

[Scott Lindstrom]

FibbersCloset wrote:

> appear. Some factors that made it a success were:
>
> Bribery. It hadn't occured to be before until someone mentioned it. The
> reward for learning to ride was an American Girl doll that she had been
> asking for.


Wow! That's quite a reward. DS only got a bionicle.
DD would do just about anything for an AG doll -- although
come to think of it, she probably wouldn't -- she'd just
ask Grandma for it for Christmas. ;)

We biked on the nearby multiuse bike path last night -- about
3 miles total. He did a pretty good job, although I was
cringeing a couple times when he was too close to the
center line as people came the other way. He doesn't really
bike in a perfectly straight unwobbly line ;) The one time
he actually crossed over the other side of the path,
no one was coming, and he ended up falling for the first
and only time of the night. But after crying for a
while, he got up and biked the rest of the way home.

Scott DD 10 and DS 7

[Nicholas Chang]

Scott Lindstrom > wrote in message >...
> You all may recall posts from me about how stubborn DS
> can be when it comes to learning a new task, specifically
> riding a bike. Well, it has finally happened. Two Tuesdays
> ago, the BH bought him a new bike -- he was gargantuan on
> his old one. A week ago, I took him to our church, which
> has a big parking lot so he could practice. That didn't go
> so well -- a couple scrapes. In fact, he didn't want to go,
> but I said if he didn't, we would return the bike, and also
> we had to make sure it fit him right. (Amazingly, he bought
> that last argument -- I don't think returning the bike would
> have phased him one bit) Last Thursday, BH took
> him to a football field next to the High School near our
> house, and he did a lot better -- he could bike without
> falling. Since then he's practiced a couple more times, and
> can now start by himself, and stop without falling. He's
> even learned to start by himself going uphill. Every day
> he asks if he can bike. I'd told him we'd bike on the
> bike path that is at the end of our street this weekend,
> and he's looking forward to that.
>
> One more of life's lessons learned. Hooray!
>
> Scott DD 10 and DS 7


Good job, Scott! My little one Jessica (5) is still on training
wheels, but Jillian (6) had enthusiastically learned to ride a
2-wheeler. "I'm growing up now, right, Daddy?" she would always say
to me.

Nick Chang