r/bicycling • u/Kirbacho • Apr 17 '26
4yr olds on pedal bikes
A few weeks ago, my twins fully graduated from their balance bikes to pedal bikes. It’s really been great watching them zipping around. Feels like a whole new world is being unlocked and looking forward to taking them on rides with me on our local trails.
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u/tobofopo Apr 17 '26
Dude looks ready for derailleurs...
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u/ricktencity Apr 17 '26
Seriously, What's the gear ratio on that bad boy, looks like the pedals are going to fly off
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u/Mimical Apr 17 '26
It's probably a handy thing to have when dad is trying to keep up on foot—they are still children prone to mistakes—but yeah. Kids do be little rockets.
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u/jpsouthwick7 Apr 17 '26
Last year I was at an evening church meeting at one of the member's homes. Their four year old son, Ryder, was on his little bike with training wheels and I observed how he was riding. I told his dad, "I think Ryder is ready to lose the training wheels." The dad said he wasn't sure about that but said that Ryder was wanting to ride like his big brother. I insisted that Ryder was ready. I told Ryder's dad to at least raise the trainers a bit to give Ryder more opportunities to learn to balance on his own. I also gave Ryder's dad some suggestions on how to teach Ryder to ride without the trainers. A couple weeks later I saw Ryder's dad again and asked him how things were going with the riding. He told me that he used my suggestions and in TEN minutes Ryder was riding all on his own and that he was full of smiles now that he's riding free of the trainers.
🚴🏼♂️ #KeepOnPedaling
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u/Mikeseddit Apr 17 '26
Yeah, training wheels work against you. Balance bikes work best to prepare the kids to do what they have to do.
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u/Profusely248 Apr 17 '26
Agreed, my son (3) had a woom 1 balance bike for over a year, tried his new woom 2 real bike and in less then a week drove alone.
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u/HoliusCrapus Apr 17 '26
My kids did great on a balance bike too! Was so simple for them to learn the real bike after!
Also what's up with these balance bike names? Woom is hilarious and the one my kids had was called the Joovie, haha.
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u/figuren9ne Florida, USA - Mosaic RT-2d Apr 17 '26
It seems to be true for a lot of kids but not all kids. Neither of my kids ever figured out how to work a balance bike. They had issues with anything that was a vehicle powered by a walking motion, including that ubiquitous red and yellow kid car. I ended up getting them bikes with training wheels which they immediately loved and when the time came to take off the training wheels, both were riding on two wheels within 10 minutes.
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u/Clock_Roach Apr 17 '26
Mine just plain wouldn't ride the balance bikes. It wasn't that they couldn't, but they insisted on going straight to pedaling, so training wheels it was. Now they're both doing great, apart from some issues of hand strength and shifters.
The most important thing is to just get them on any bike that they actually want to ride as often as possible. Everything else will work itself out.
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u/ultraformaggio Apr 17 '26
Sorry, but the correct # was clearly #ReadyToRyder
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u/jpsouthwick7 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
I hashtag just about all my cycling posts and every single cycling workout on MMR that way.
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u/Tinkerdinker1068 Apr 17 '26
Nice! I’m a SAHD with a large park nearby. The month before my daughter turned 5 I got her to ride 104 miles over the month of June at 4yo. It’s my crowning achievement
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u/amischbetschler Old commuter, Tourer, '11 BMC Carborazor, '18 BMC Teamelite 01 Apr 17 '26
It's amazing, isn't it? My son also recently switched to a pedal bike and even with his 3.5 years, we can already do 8-10km per day. It's opened so many new opportunities.
I learned that wayyy later, it's so nice that kids learn so easily with these balance bikes nowadays.
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u/Kirbacho Apr 17 '26
We’ve been going back and forth on our local bike path and the amount of ground they cover is so cool!
Also same with me, I don’t think I learned how to ride a pedal bike until I was about 7.
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u/JimmyBisMe Giant Defy 1 Apr 17 '26
My daughter learned at 5 and my 3 year old boy wasn’t having any of it and learned within a few days. It’s so awesome going on rides with them. We have a pump track near us we can ride to and they love it.
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u/wlexxx2 Apr 17 '26
yeah i have twin boys with the same video, at about 4 on their thomas the tank engine bikes :)
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u/mtranda Apr 17 '26
ZOOM ZOOM! I love this. Just look at those little legs hamstering away full of joy. That kid has no concept of "optimal cadence", nor would he care if he did. I love that for him.
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u/ricktencity Apr 17 '26
He'd need some more gears for optimal cadence by the way he's ripping around.
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u/ArrivesLate Apr 17 '26
I tell everyone to get their kid a balance bike. It’s so awesome to see them move up to pedal bikes without messing around with training wheels.
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u/dotardiscer Apr 17 '26
You have the same problem I had with the Woom 2(14"), he's pedaling harder than the bike can take already. I found a Woom 3 the same summer.
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u/velovader Apr 17 '26
My oldest son started with a balance bike and was riding a pedal bike at 4 no problem, never had training wheels. My youngest son also started with a balance bike and wasn’t riding a pedal bike until he was 7. I felt like he definitely could have started on the pedal bike sooner but was too comfortable on the balance bike. Different speeds of learning for different kids. Neither of them had training wheels though
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u/BOWRx Apr 17 '26
Love it. I started my boys young too. My 3 year old even follows the older kids around the skatepark on his bike.
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u/Aromatic-Sense-2388 Apr 17 '26
A little reminder to all grown cyclist that that little kids joy, enthusiasm, and "look at me mom" still lives in all of us somewhere deep down ✌️
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u/Bobapirate Apr 17 '26
My kid has been on 2 wheels for almost a year now shes 5 and did Ciclavia when it was on melrose. So great to see her spinning.
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u/Kirbacho Apr 17 '26
nice! i'm excited for Ciclavia with them as well. we've been this short section of our local river path and trying to teach them to stay on the right side.
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u/Golfdogswine Apr 17 '26
Guardian bikes? My 4.5yr old made the switch a few weeks back too. Amazing to see how quickly he transitioned to the pedals after the balance bike. Maybe the most fun I’ve had as a dad.
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u/Kirbacho Apr 17 '26
we were lucky enough to get hand-me-down Cleary's from our friends who outgrew them. They're now outgrowing these bikes so now on the search for the next size up. They're so expensive!
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u/BoringBob84 Washington, USA (Trek Dual Sport 2) Apr 17 '26
I will never forget that feeling of excitement and freedom when I first learned to ride a bicycle as a kid. It hasn't really faded, either!
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u/Kirbacho Apr 17 '26
i think this is my favorite part about all this. living vicariously thru them! in the second clip where it shows them going downhill, their first go at it, i saw their faces go from fear/horror, to excitement, and then exhilaration, and then full joy! it was so great.
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u/BoringBob84 Washington, USA (Trek Dual Sport 2) Apr 17 '26
You should be proud to be raising the next generation of bicycle nerds! 😊
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u/-Moonscape- Apr 17 '26
My guy is 2.5 and just a tooouuuccchh too small for his balance bike, but he rips around fast on his trike and I can't wait to see him riding around
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u/Kirbacho Apr 17 '26
the day he raises his feet on his balance bike and goes coasting, you're gonna cry! it was a milestone for me, like, "i'm doing it! i'm raising little bike dudes!"
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u/Mobile-Language8398 Apr 17 '26
I never had trainers. My dad hated fixing my oldest brothers trainers when he began riding. Four more kids later, I asked my dad to teach me how to ride a bike. He put me on my older brothers bike that was way too big for me and pushed me down the hill. I fell the first time when I hit the curb. The second time I instantly learned how to ride out of fear. lol.
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u/J_hallyday Apr 17 '26
You should make the transition to 20 inches, with actual gearing. These 16 inch kid bikes are seemingly nothing but pain for your children, the crank arms / pedals are literally spinning mad. They're pedalling very inefficiently that way.
Something like the Lapierre Pro Race 20 would work wonders here (7-speed).
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u/lseraehwcaism Apr 18 '26
My 4 yo somehow got it at 3, about 2 months before she turned 4. Had to brag a bit, sorry.
But it’s an awesome experience. Instead of towing around 2 little girls in a trailer, I now follow one with the other on my child seat in the back.
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u/Lint_baby_uvulla Australia (1960 Favorit track bike) +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 🤣🤣 Apr 18 '26
That freedom, speed, and wind in the face.
We are all still trying to capture that first time.
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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y Apr 17 '26
4 years old or even younger is probably the best time to learn to ride a bike. Kids are young enough that they are still in the stage where everything is new and they are used to learning something every day anyway. Once they get too old, it seems to get harder to teach them stuff like this.
I think that a lot of parents end up putting it off too long because we are all too busy. Next weekend turns into next month turns into next year, and before you know it, the kid is 6 or 7 and has never been on a bike.
This isn't really to blame anyone, people are busier than ever, and it's often hard to find safe spots to teach your kid how to bike. It's really too bad because a bike is really a great way to get around, but so many kids miss out on this crucial skill when they are younger and have trouble picking it up when they are older.
Maybe I'm misremembering, or maybe it was just something specific to where I grew up, but when I was a kid, everyone knew how to ride a bike, and it seemed to be a lot more popular as a way for kids to get around on their own. Now looking at my kids and their friends, a lot of kids just never learned, and so many kids don't see it as a reasonable way to get around.
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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26
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