Advocacy & Safety - training wheels on kid's bikes

I saw the cutest little girl today and she was out riding with here family, but unfortunatley none of the family were wearing helmets, and what was worse was the little girls bike had those training wheels on it, those things never seem to work properly, one wheel is always off the ground and because of that the bike is tilted to one side and leaning over, I was scared that the little sweetie was going to fall off and get hurt. Are those training wheels all that bad?

Sounds like a cheap dept. store bike.
An LBS will sell quality kid bikes, like Gary Fisher, with very sturdy training wheels that makes for a very stable ride.

I think it was a cheap bike, but the least the kids parent's could do was make sure both training wheels touched the ground when she rode.

Hmmm... I thought they were supposed to touch one side or the other... thus encouraging the rider to learn how to stay in the middle. The only way training wheels will both touch the ground is if the third wheel, the middle drive wheel, is off the ground.

Now perhaps the gap can be reduced, but there has to be some gap to allow the regular bike wheel to do the work.

Hmmm... I thought they were supposed to touch one side or the other... thus encouraging the rider to learn how to stay in the middle. The only way training wheels will both touch the ground is if the third wheel, the middle drive wheel, is off the ground.

Now perhaps the gap can be reduced, but there has to be some gap to allow the regular bike wheel to do the work.

Genec, I think you are correct, but this litle girl was leaning to one side when she rode. Something was wrong, with the training wheels.

Genec, I think you are correct, but this litle girl was leaning to one side when she rode. Something was wrong, with the training wheels.

They may have been poorly adjusted, but the young rider is going to ride one side or the other if only one training wheel touches.

Hopefully she will soon tire of this and start to balance... and the wheels will be removed.

The idea of learning with training wheels is that they feel that the bike should be up straight so they learn intuitively how to balance. As they become morer configent you gradually raise the training wheel to allow them to lean more whil cornering. Last sunday I went to a park and saw a little boy speeding along with training wheels; I was sure he would tip over when he came to a sharp corner, but he leaned it over so the inside trainer wheel was firmly on the ground.