Give a Kid a Ride and She Rides for a Day, Teach a Kid to Ride a Bicycle and She Rides for a Lifetime

With spring on its way (at least, I’m hoping…after this weekend, I’m not sure I’ll ever be warm again,) I’m looking for ways to teach Mini how to ride a bicycle. She’s had bicycles with training wheels, but has been stubbornly refusing to be interested in riding a two-wheeler. She’s been so stubborn that last year I tried to bribe her with a new bike for her birthday, if she’d learn to ride without training wheels. She never wanted to learn and thus didn’t get a new bicycle.

Bicycling is an efficient and enjoyable form of transportation and it’s safe and it’s important to me. For most of 2009, I commuted from Downtown Jacksonville to Camp Lejeune by bicycle and, though I’ve taken several months off from riding, I’m planning to get back on the saddle soon.

And these are all logical, reasonable reasons for me to want Mini to enjoy bicycling. But the main reason I want her to learn, and enjoy, riding a bicycle is the unique and amazing experience it is. I don’t want Mini to develop a worldview from the inside of a car. I don’t want her to think that being hermetically sealed in a big steel box is the only way to travel. Bicycling allows the rider to experience the smells, sounds and flavors of the world. That’s what I want for her. It may be years before she realizes it, but that’s what I want.

Thanks to Google and the late Sheldon Brown’s website, I know the way to teach her to ride. It’s getting her on the bicycle that’ll be a challenge. I’ll try offering a new bicycle, after she learns to ride, of course. But beyond that, I really don’t know what else to do to tempt her. I’m open to suggestions.

Did you have troubles teaching your child to ride a bicycle? How did you overcome them? Leave your ideas, suggestions and questions in the comments.