I want to ride my bicycle.....

We all know how much Joshua loves running and always wants to come out running with me. We all know how good he is at swimming and can easily swim 3 lengths of a pool on his own. Well now he is the complete triathlete as he can also ride his bike all on his own. The work with the balance buddy and gator trail finally pays off as Joshua conquers his Ben 10 bike at last.

After work tonight I took Joshua, Brandon and their bikes over the school field so that we had a nice open area to practise. I pre warned Joshua that he IS going to fall off and that he IS going to hurt himself. I then told his the story about when I learnt to ride my bike and fell off pretty much cutting my arm from should to wrist. I figured it was best he knows that he might fall off and hurt himself, but it is all part of learning. Had I not of warned him then he may have tried it once, figured this is going to hurt and just give up. Anyway within about 15 mins I had him cycling 50-100m completely unassisted.

And he is off, the push off is probably the hardest thing for the kids to learn. This still needs a bit of work but we will get there.

No problems with the balance there.

And he's off and running. Looks like I'll soon have a cycling buddy to go out with of a weekend.

Woohoo, what a proud moment watching one of your son's ride a bike for the first time.

Fir his first session he even managed to turn the bike around and return back.

Joshua has grasped the concept of stopping with his brakes and then getting a foot to the ground before toppling over.

Joshua had a few falls on the grass but nothing severe and certainly no blood was drawn like when I learnt to ride. After about 30 mins practise on the grass he wanted to try cycling on the path. The tarmac is obviously a smoother, lower rolling resistance terrain to cycle on, however it is also narrower and much faster than the bumpy grass. However Joshua managed the transition well and was racing his little brother up and down the pavement.

Me keeping guard along the wall/fence just in case he vere's off to one side.

I was the proudest father in the world tonight seeing Joshua riding his bike for the first time. Over the next few nights I will spend some more time practising with Joshua just to work on his push off a bit more and also his steering. Hopefully him seeing me cycling to and from work has inspired him towards this achievement and he will enjoy cycling as much as I do.