Most children are ready to learn how to ride a bike around the age of 4. It is a big milestone in their lives that will help them to gain confidence, perfect new skills and get plenty of exercise at the same time.

Therefore it’s really important to make learning to ride enjoyable and safe for your child. If you are unsure where to start, here are 4 things you should consider before you teach your child how to ride their bicycle.

Patience and Encouragement

The top rules when teaching your child how to read a bike are patience and a positive attitude. Encouraging your little boy or girl during this phase is essential, so you need to make sure that you start off slow and set aside plenty of time for the first lesson. Some children take longer than others and it might take several weeks before your child can ride confidently and independently. Patience is a virtue!

Bike Safety

Biking is great fun but accidents do happen. The 2 basic safety rules that you should teach your children to ensure safe riding are wearing a helmet and how to avoid traffic.

It is very important for kids to understand the importance of wearing a helmet when riding a bike as it can significantly reduce the risk of head injury in case of a fall or other accident. To encourage them to wear it, you should buy one in colours they love, one that matches their bike or even let them choose a helmet for themselves.

You should also teach them how to wear it correctly and to use the helmet every single time they ride their bike. It might be a good idea to speak to their friends parents and parents of people who live on the same street as you to ensure that they all wear helmets too. That way your child won’t feel like the odd one out. Just make sure that you set a good example and wear a helmet too!

Teaching the kids to be traffic smart is also very important. Children should not ride their bike in the road until they completely understand the traffic rules. Begin by explaining everything that’s going on and what you’re doing and why when you take them on a ride with you or when you’re in the car. You may also want to enrol them into cycling proficiency classes.

Where to Start

Parks, playgrounds or big empty car parks are the ideal location to start to learn to ride a bike. It is important that your child has enough room to ride until he or she has got the hang of steering.

The Balance Bike Option

Balance bicycles are simply kids training bikes that have no stabilisers or pedals and help children learn balance and steering. Basically balance bikes help kids to stay upright on a bike first; learning to pedal comes later when they get a proper bike. Children as young as 2 can learn how to ride a balance bike!