More biking news...

Maya’s been riding bicycles since she was two years old. She had her “red bike” that she rode for two summers, even riding it to junior kindergarten sometimes. When she was four she got a bigger bike for Easter, her “pink bike”. She rode that to senior kindergarten pretty much whenever the weather allowed and last year she started riding the trail-a-bike, which attaches to a parent’s bike. She has over 500 km on the trail-a-bike so far this year so she definitely knows how to pedal, and she knows all about braking from her pink bike, but she’s never had to balance before.

She’s been talking about taking her training wheels off this summer but was somewhat hesitant. A friend of hers from school who recently learned to ride a bike without training wheels learned the balancing part from a “run bike”. This is just an old bike, without training wheels, that has had the pedals removed. Basically you push with your feet and when you’re up to speed you lift your feet and coast and have to maintain your balance by yourself. Maya borrowed the run-bike and to no one’s surprise figured out the balancing part pretty quickly.

So we took the training wheels off her pink bike. She put on her helmet and gloves, I gave her a little pep-talk, and then gave her a little push and she was gone! First try!