Forget about training wheels!

Let's face it. Once you put training wheels on your kids bike they're hooked. Sure, they can peddle around the neighbourhood and PRETEND they're riding, but you know one day those wheels will have to come off and you'll all suffer through it.

Our older daughter used training wheels for 2 years and it was such an ordeal to train her to ride without them. They had become a real crutch, she was so scared of falling over without them. We spent weeks slowly raising them and finally resorted to bribing her with candy to remove them.

Later, I ran across a technique in a bicycle book that seemed strange but worked really well. We had a chance to try it with our younger daughter and she was riding a regular 10" bike in a matter of a few weeks. Now, she's the smallest cyclist you've ever seen on the Seawall and gets lots of astonished double-takes when we go out biking together.

The key to the technique is to alter the bike to allow the child to gain experience balancing on the bike by steering without the complication of peddling. The peddles are completely removed, along with the cranks and the seat is lowered so that the child's feet can rest comfortably on the ground. This imparts a great sense of security against falling over and allows the child to move the bike by pushing against the ground.

If your neighbourhood is relatively flat you will find your child can keep up with most of the other small kids cruising on their bikes. Gradually, they will learn to go faster and you will notice their feet are off the ground for significant distances, showing they are really learning to balance.

After a few weeks of gliding around you can put the peddles back on. Leave the seat low at first to preserve confidence. Then instruct your child to push off and glide and start peddling once they are moving. Pretty soon they'll figure out they can go faster and farther the more they peddle and the initial glide will get shorter and shorter. Soon, the child will have gained enough confidence that you can raise the seat a little at a time until it's at a more comfortable height for the peddles.

Voila, they're riding and nobody shed tears!