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This article at bicycles.SE may help: bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/452/… –  James Bradbury Mar 11 '13 at 10:15
Every child is different and develops the ability to padel at different age- as talkind, toilet training, eating with a spoon and so on. Give time and patience. My older son was ridding his bike at 2 1/2 yoa. The younger one is 3 and can not ride even the tricycle. : ) –  user9364 Jul 11 '14 at 4:15

7 Answers 7









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This is how I finally got my son to ride a bike:

  • Found a gentle grass slope.
  • Started at the top with the pedals removed and the seat low enough so that he could rest his feet on the grass.
  • Sent him down a few times and gradually raised the saddle so his feet were off the ground.
  • Once he had his balance I put the pedals back, so he could now freewheel down with his feet on them.
  • As he came to the bottom of the slope and the bike began to slow - shouted 'Pedal, pedal, pedal.'

After a while of doing this he had the confidence to start the bike from stationary. It was a lot of fun to do.

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This sounds like a great method. I added some formatting, it looked like you intended that. –  Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Jul 14 '14 at 18:51


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There are two ways one could handle this.






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Both pedaling and balancing are skills that need practice. In The Netherlands (where I live), most kids start with balancing bikes before they can pedal. They later learn to pedal on a tricycle, and eventually combine both skills. This was the case for my son, who, at 3 years and 3 months sat on a pedaling bike for the first time, and could immediately ride it.

I think that there is no huge difference between a tricycle and training wheels, frankly. Both serve to let the kid practice pedaling without falling over. If your son has a good sense of balance, I don't think training wheels for a short while will particularly hinder him.

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If you already have a bike you could try something like these. I'm not saying you should buy from this shop, or those brands I that link, but it gives you an idea of what I mean. We have three boys and my middle child, age 4, can ride a bike pretty well now, but did initially struggle with pedaling. As such, his stamina is not very good, and when he gets tired he puts his feet down and tries to walk his bike while still on the seat. It sounds awkward right? Because it is. We got him a tandem trailer because he's too big for the "baby" trailer. Indeed, having him plus my youngest plus the trailer is too much for out of shape middle aged me to haul! With the tandem trailer, he pedals himself as much as he can, at his own pace and can rest if he needs to, without slowing us down.

I understand that it's not exactly a perfect solution, since your child would be able to not be "forced" to pedal. Perhaps being able to watch and imitate someone pedaling, while experiencing the ride without having to concentrate on balancing, would be a good environment for him to practice? We love our tandem trailer and nobody else suggested it so I figured I'd add my two cents.

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