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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:07 Teaching your child to ride their first bike is a big milestone, but it can be daunting for parents.
00:13 Children's bike expert and founder of Islay Bikes, Islay Roundtree, says it's actually possible to teach them everything they need to know in just 45 minutes.
00:21 So is it really possible? I'm here to meet the lady herself.
00:25 [MUSIC]
00:28 So I'm joined here at Herne Hill Velodrome by Islay now. Is it really true that 45 minutes is all it can take to get a child started?
00:35 Yeah, obviously every child varies and there's a really wide spectrum of how quickly children ought to get to grips with something like cycling.
00:44 But that's typically a fairly generous amount of time just to get them balancing unaided. Starting and stopping can take longer.
00:51 That is provided that they're ready to ride and that coordination development that has to come first, it is quite important that you wait for that
00:59 and don't try and force it on a child that's not ready and make it stressful.
01:03 I certainly think there's a window when they find it easier to learn to ride and I would say that's typically between four and six years.
01:11 If you don't get them cycling pre-six, then they seem to become more cautious about it and perhaps find it psychologically more challenging to learn.
01:21 There's perhaps two reasons for that, a heightened sense of fear as they get older, but also they're further from the ground.
01:28 If they're taller, it's further to fall.
01:30 [MUSIC]
01:35 So we're joined now by little Anna who's going to help us out today. What's the first step in getting started?
01:40 The first thing is to choose a suitable place for your first lesson. Somewhere nice and flat and a big open space is ideal.
01:48 We don't want any nasty hills where our beginner's going to whiz off out of control.
01:53 It's really tempting to choose grass because it feels like it's going to be a soft landing, but that actually makes learning quite difficult
01:59 because you have to push quite hard on a small bike on the pedals.
02:02 Now, before we actually start riding, we need to check that the saddle height's right for the child.
02:07 We're looking to set the saddle height so they can just get the balls of their feet on the ground.
02:12 That's the front bit of the foot where you run on.
02:15 It's tempting to put the saddle lower so the feet go down flat, but that actually makes pedalling more difficult.
02:20 You want the bike to be able to wander at will so that the child can feel how it responds to leaning.
02:26 So it's important not to hold the handlebars. You will see some parents trying to support them and make their child feel more secure like this,
02:33 but you actually end up fighting with them with the handlebars and it makes it more difficult.
02:38 We find it easiest to support the bike while they get on between your legs and then support the child under their armpits.
02:46 You can actually steer them by leaning their body then and they can feel how the bike responds to that.
02:53 Okay, so you're actually holding onto the child as opposed to fixing onto the bike.
02:57 Exactly. You ready? Pop your feet on the pedals and you're going to look up. Off we go.
03:03 Okay, and you can see that we can steer the bike by leaning her body.
03:09 So we lean it to the right and she steers to the left and she's learning how the bike responds to the leaning.
03:17 And she's starting to go on her own. There we go. Look at that.
03:23 Now Anna's balancing really well already, but it's important that I stay with her because she hasn't learned how to stop yet.
03:32 We don't want to abandon her and she's riding on her own. Look at that.
03:38 Did you know you were riding on your own? Yes you were. I wasn't holding you. Congratulations.
03:46 Can I high five? Anna was very, very confident getting going there. Is that usually the case or are there sometimes more challenges with children when they're getting on for the first time?
03:57 It varies a lot from child to child, but also at what age you make the first attempt with them to ride.
04:03 A child very often will pedal backwards or pedal backwards for half a stroke and forward for one and a half and then flail and their feet coming off.
04:12 If you try for 10 minutes or so and they're really not able to turn their feet in circles, they're probably just not ready and they're better off continuing on their balanced bike for a few more weeks and then have another go a bit later.
04:24 When they're ready, they will typically get that forward pedaling motion within 10 or 15 minutes.
04:31 You can actually help with that when they pedal forward if you push them.
04:35 When they're pedaling the wrong way, actually stop pushing them so they feel the bike slowing down, then they associate forward motion with pedaling in the right direction.
04:44 Most children have got the coordination potential to learn. They develop that at some point between three and a half and four and a half.
04:52 Once they've got that potential, a session like this will get them going.
04:57 Some children develop that really early, as young as two and a half we've known and some not until they're five or five and a half.
05:04 It doesn't matter. It's important not to push them before they're ready.
05:08 We don't recommend covering starting and stopping before they've actually learned to balance because it's overloading them with information.
05:18 Once they've got to Anna's stage where they're balancing really quite confidently, you're going to need to teach them to set off and to stop safely.
05:28 For setting off Anna, we need to get the pedal in the position for you to ride.
05:33 That's right. Now put your foot on top.
05:36 Look where you're going and I'm going to support you again and give a really good push and see if you can set off by yourself.
05:43 You ready? Go. That's it.
05:46 Now we stop the bike by using the brakes.
05:49 We've got a brake lever here. Watch what happens to the wheel when we pull that on.
05:54 See it stops. Alright?
05:56 You're showing the child how the brakes work and it helps them understand what they're trying to do.
06:00 We're going to do a little walking exercise. Put your hands on the handlebars and see if you can reach the brakes.
06:06 When they first learn to ride, they'll probably just pull the brakes on very hard to stop.
06:11 We want them to get a feel for stopping progressively before they're actually cycling.
06:16 Anna, can you walk with the bike for me, pushing it along. Just walk with it and then pull the brakes on.
06:23 That's it. It stopped very suddenly then, didn't it?
06:26 Now do it again and pull them on a bit more gently this time.
06:30 A little bit more gently and both hands together.
06:35 Gently.
06:37 That's better. Yay! And again.
06:41 Gently. Gently.
06:44 That's better.
06:47 So as we've seen, Anna's been so confident she just can't wait to pedal away and get going.
06:51 Is that because she's progressed perhaps from a balanced bike and not stabilisers?
06:55 If a child's progressing from stabilisers, we'd expect that initial balancing phase to take quite a bit longer.
07:03 You still use exactly the same technique as we have today,
07:07 but when you're pushing the child along holding under the armpits,
07:11 they will tend to ride the bike like a tricycle, so they'll be trying to push their body away and hold the bike up.
07:17 And when you're leaning to steer, they will try and fight that.
07:21 Carry on in exactly the same way as we did today, but expect it to take quite a bit longer
07:25 and encourage them to keep their body in line with the bike.
07:28 And they will get the feel for it, but you might have to have perhaps a little bit longer
07:33 or maybe two or three sessions at it before they're actually riding unaided.
07:37 And in terms of giving advice to parents that might be really nervous about this process,
07:41 how can you make sure it's safe and take that stress and worry out of the equation?
07:46 I think the things that we mentioned at the start about finding a safe place, a big open space.
07:51 You'll notice that Anna's wearing some little gloves.
07:54 If they do have a spill, they're going to put their hands out and they'll stop them grazing their hands.
07:58 But the main thing is not to abandon the child when they're actually riding.
08:02 Stay with them. It's really important to avoid a tumble at this stage because it can really knock the confidence
08:08 and that can put a child off even having another go potentially for months.
08:12 We want to avoid that, so stay with them. Lots of encouragement.
08:16 And if you're there until you're really sure that they can manage on their own and start and stop safely,
08:21 catch them if they get a wobble on their concentration.
08:24 And there's not much that can go wrong there.
08:25 No, that's right. You can just literally grab them under the armpits and hoist them out of the way and let the bike fall away.
08:30 You can pick a little one up.
08:32 Brilliant. Thank you so much for joining us today, Isla. And Anna, thank you. Well done.
08:37 [MUSIC]