Question

[Wolf]

My boys (aged one and two) are both obsessed with bikes and each had a plastic trike of the sit-on-and-kick-yourself-along variety. The youngest (Tangwyn) has been riding his trike since before he could walk.

On Friday I took Taliesin's trike - one of those ones that have a narrow rear and are styled to resemble a classic British bike - took the wheels off, took to the plastic body with a saw, shortened the axle a mite and put it back together with just one rear wheel - set into a nice little recess at the back. Now he has a real "bike" - albeit still reliant on foot propulsion.

He loves it, it slides out at the back better than when it had two rear wheels and it actually leans properly in the corners. He's getting very adept at balancing it as he careers headlong around the yard/living room. He's already had a few bins and thinks they were exceedingly funny.

Even Tangwyn rides it and is doing well - will have to get another similar trike and modify it for him.

My question:

What else can I do to help my boys develop the co-ordination/skills required for riding bikes?

Getting a couple of JR50's or similar is not an option at the moment and the boys aren't tall enough for them yet, anyway. What I want to do is prepare for when I can afford a coupke of JRs or similar and they're physically tall enough to ride them.

The modified plasic trike is good for balance and cornering. What I'd especially like is something to get them used to using brakes.

Suggestions, please, - bearing in mind they are not particularly tall - Tangwyn's inner-leg measurement is 280mm, Taliesin's is around 300mm (seat height of JR50 is 480mm).

[madboy]

No great pearls of wisdom to impart myself, but I have a personal pet-hate of those bloody "pavement" bikes with solid rubber/plastic tyres. Much prefer to pay the little extra and get bikes with pneumatic tyres... Of course, not entirely relevant to your two boys as neither would be big enough yet!!

My daughter now going on 6 had a little 12" sized bike from 3. By 4 and a bit she had dispensed with the training wheels. This was all by pure chance, as we didn't put any great amount of time into helping her - rather just left her to it. Every now and then I popped the trainers off and made a half-arsed effort to help her learn to ride... then one day the light came on and hello...

Her biggest problem is that her hands are only now getting big enough to really grab hold of the hand operated brakes properly, before it was a toss up between maintaining a good grip and using the front brake.

What really amazes me though is how many of her friends can't or can barely ride bikes. Perhaps it's the nana state we live in, or perhaps they've just never had the right opportunities - like flat, fenced section and all that.