5 year old and bike

fgreen79

Have a look at http://www.strider-rider.co.uk/ there balance bikes are aimed at children from 18 months up to 5 with the use of a extended seat post. They have a very good offer on a package deal with the seat post and bike at the moment. The bike comes in 6 different colors and is fab, as i have one for my son and he is already balancing on his.

happy35

i was little for my age and struggled to ride a bike, think I was nearer 7 when I could do it properly mam thinks I didnt have the strength although I did do ice skating and dancing etc.

My sister was younger, probably about 5 but she was the same height at 5 as me at 7 and definitely weighed a lot more than I did.

Your daughter is maybe not ready just yet, do you know anyone who has a smaller bike that she could borrow for half an hour? If not I would take any stabilisers off and let her use her feet to move the bike and she will eventually get the hang of it

My son didnt get on with the stabilisers and picked it up quite easily at 5 but he was big for his age and had no fear, it might be that she is a bit nervous and it will just take a bit of time for her confidence to grow

jellyhead

Both of mine hated pedal bikes with stabilisers. Eldest just used a scooter and roller skates then hopped on a bike when he was 9.

Youngest had a series of balance bikes because he just hated his pedal bike so much, then he hopped on someone's pedal bike one day (without stabilisers). Stabilisers seemed like hard work for him, and the paths here are bumpy. His pedal bike had been an expensive christmas gift, so rather than chop the pedals off that we got an old one from the car boot. The brakes were good though - that's a consideration if you will be going down hills on the way to school. Youngest's first balance bike was a lovely wooden one but it didn't have brakes.

That's an option, but your 5 year old is smaller than mine, so you could just get a balance bike if you want to spend the money on something new for christmas.

Can you take the pedals off her bike then put them back on later, or would they have to be sawn off?

At the height your daughter is now my son had outgrown his wooden bike, and I got him a balance bike from tesco direct for around £30.

Nara

Glad to see this thread, my DD is also 5 and weighs about 2 stone. Alot of her friends have been riding their bikes to school with no stabilizers but my daughter is still trying to get the hang of just riding at all!

Her little legs don't seem to have the strength to pedal for very long!

I was getting worried as all the other kids seem to be off riding fine, then again they seem to weight twice what she does and have more strength to do it.

jellyhead

yes, iirc it was the bigger kids who rode their bikes to school in reception. My youngest is very big (rode without stabilisers in reception), but my eldest who didn't ride until he was 9 is a tiny, dainty little thing.

They also have to be in the mood for it. If it feel like hard work or they are worried then they will panic and think they can't balance. My youngest begged for a balance bike, then 2 days after we chopped the pedals off a bike for him he rode somebody else's! I think it was because the pressure was off, he had his balance bike and he didn't feel under any pressure to learn to ride a pedal bike.