SteelyKid has a new prize possession: a training-wheel bike!
You can't quite hear what she says at the end of this, when she stops the bike, but it's "That should be a full video!" She knows her fan base.
On the way back, she wiped out (the first bad crash on the new bike) and has been much more cautious since. But she's practicing a lot (around the neighborhood, in the Field House, around the neighborhood again...), and will hopefully gain confidence.
Here's hoping your weekend brought you something a tenth as much fun...
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For many people, it is the time of the year to put the bikes away. I live in Louisiana, so now is the time to get the bikes out (too hot in the summer). Learning to ride a bike is a curious thing. Most parents use training wheels to get kids started. I do not think this is the best strategy.
Minneapolis is the City of Bikes. There are more bikes here per capita than any other US city, I'm told. Many Japanese cities have more bikes per capita and even less room, so the whole bike parking issue in Japan is pretty severe.
Dan Meyer at dy/dan just posted about teacher-student analogies. His analogy is that the student is like a weight lifter and the teacher is the spotter. I like this.
My friend J sent me a link to this gyrobike (http://www.thegyrobike.com/index.php). From what I can tell, it's a flywheel that you put in the front wheel of a bike. The site claims that this will help kids learn how to ride a bike.
Next you'll get to teach her how to repair the bike, and in ten years you'll find her arm deep in lithium grease and bearings.