My kid'll be 6 in 2.5 wks (need to get cracking on the party...). He had a great run the 1st day w/ no training wheels (I know, not supposed to have training wheels...), w/ me running behind him on grass but hasn't been able to recover that. I've spoken to other people who had that false dawn effect too, a good run early on, but takes a while to recover it. Meantime, we try to work on it on weekends, but just let him ride w/ training wheels to/from school. It seems like being happy on the bike is the most important part. Though it does get frustrating to his posse (me) staying down around 2mph.