livedarklions

Don't take the brown bike lube.

Gonzo Bob

One thing I don't think that video got right is how to balance. A rolling riderless bicycle is actually pretty stable due to the design. If the bike starts to lean to the left, the front wheel turns slightly to the left to bring the tire contact points back under the center of gravity. This is also what you must do when riding. It takes a little while to internalize this and to do it early enough and just enough, but not too much. An open field is probably the best place to learn.

Also, counter-steering must be used to initiate a turn and it takes a bit of practice to internalize that.

smashndash

"Results revealed that when the balance bike’s approach was used, learning age (LA) occurred earlier (M=4.16 ± 1.34 years) than with the bicycle with training wheels’ approach (M=5.97 ± 2.16 years) (p<0,001); or than when there was only the single use of the traditional bicycle (TB) (M=7.27 ± 3.74 years) (p<0,001). Children who used the BB as the first bike had a significant lower LA than children who didn ́t use it (p<0.001). To maximize its effects, the BB should be used in the beginning of the learning process."

https://assets.researchsquare.com/fi...f?c=1631855551

Granted, this paper is thoroughly unscientific as it's subject to sampling bias and hasn't been peer reviewed. And I will admit that the waddling stage, especially for an adult, is short. But how long does it take to take off the pedals? Like 2 minutes? It's low cost, low reward. Do it... or don't. It doesn't really matter. I don't know how we ended up here.

Maelochs

Funny, with the variances listed there .... it is pretty much all the same age.

Maelochs

Hazards of learning to ride a bike as an adult ....

Your friends will mess you up every time .....

livedarklions

I don't think that survey methodology would survive a real peer review. Huge number of problems starting with recall being notoriously inaccurate. For example, it's been more than 20 years since I taught my oldest child to ride a bike, and almost 20 for my younger. If I had to answer the survey questions, I would just be guessing what their exact age was at the time. This is going to be a systematic problem with this survey design.
Also, this just might be demonstrating that people who get balance bikes train their kids younger and have nothing to do with the kids' response to the different bikes. There's a glaring causation/correlation falacy going on here.

Chuck M 

Nobody does. But in typical internet forum fashion, in a matter of a few days an argument ensues and the OP will probably never return leaving us all wondering if and how he got up on two wheels.

70sSanO

OP is probably more concerned with getting to 100 replies.

John

BlazingPedals

Trikes and training wheels never taught anyone how to ride a 2-wheeler. Training wheels are just crutches. My eldest rode with training wheels for over a year. He happily rode it around, canted at a 30 degree angle, not displaying any sense of balance whatsoever. When I took them off, he cried, but the next day he got it bike and within a couple of hours he'd learned. My granddaughter got a balance bike at age 3 and learned to ride it same-day.

veganbikes

I only liked it because I know there are people out there with this problem, I am super skinny and definitely don't enjoy eating large amounts of pasta and rice

In terms of learning to ride, as people have said do the balance bike thing. Remove pedals (have your local shop do it if you are unsure), lower your saddle so you can put some feet on the ground and scoot. There is a local cycling advocacy group that does the same thing for adult learners.

If your friends can't handle you not knowing how to ride a bike, then probably they aren't really your friends. If you didn't learn as a kid, there is no way you can change that past, you just have to move forward.

Route 66

I'm beginning to think that the OP has little or no interest in this thread.

kahn

That's kind of what I was thinking coming to it on day three.

But I'll throw in more advice which might have been mentioned since admit to not having read each reply.

Church parking lots can be wide open and empty on weekdays if parents are not there teaching their kids to drive. School grounds on weekends can serve the same purpose. I did like the ideas of finding a low angle grassy slope (not a grassy knoll) and coasting down it.

But my childhood story of my first bike "ride." I had been having trouble and my cousin took me to a school yard. He stood behind holding or balancing the bike as I tried to get the hang of balancing. A few mistakes but we did not give up. Next thing I'm shouting "stop the bike" as I'm heading to the cyclone fencing at the perimeter. He is not helping - because he is now 50 to 100 feet behind this balanced bike careening toward the fence and then into the fence. My FIRST BIKE RIDE. Followed by more than day with a bit more control and now by decades of cycling.

I do hope that the OP was sincere and wants to learn how to ride. My friend was just over and is teaching his 32 year old son who never wanted to drive, how to drive. We all start somewhere.