Teaching daughter to ride.....need help!
 

So today I took the training wheels off my 8 year old daughter's bike. I only have her every other weekend and she lives off a gravel road so her step-father cant teach her.
If anyone has any techniques they used with thier kids, I'd love to hear them. Today, I just tried to work with her on balance and starting position. I had her put the right pedal at 2 o'clock with her foot on it and her left foot on the ground and told her to push off woth her left foot and down with the right to get a good start. Make sense?? She tries to jerk the handlebars hard to the left though and she loses balance. When she does get going, I have her follow the middle of the road, telling her not to look down but ahead.
Maybe its all about repitition and practice. She did keep the momentum for a while at times and as i was running behind her, I only barley kept my hand underneath her seat.
Anyway, any help you guys have would be great.

Thanks,
Chris

What worked for my kids was to lower the seat until both feet were flat on the ground and to take off the pedals. Let her use it as a push bike for a couple of days to get used to balancing. By the third day I put the pedals back on and my son was riding fine.

a pair of dads old riding gloves for the inevitable fall??

An excellent way of teaching anyone to ride! It splits the task into two parts: (1) balance, (2) propulsion. It's so obvious that it amazes me that parents still try to teach their kids using training wheels. As far as I can see, training-wheels are just feeble excuses for the parents to avoid spending time with their kids helping them to learn to ride a bike.

- Wil

Thats how I taught a 30 year old to ride. First- master the balance and coasting. Only after that should you go for pedaling. Taking off the pedals may help simplify things. Lowering the seat is important. she must be able to put both feet on the ground while seated.