I had been struggling to teach my oldest son, Jaken, how to ride a bike.  I tried several approaches throughout the learning process.  We started off with the traditional route of raising the training wheels off the ground so he would have to learn how to balance on his own.  However, all he did is lean at an angle so that one training wheel was touching the ground at all times.  Next, we went with the old "dad running behind while holding the seat approach.  This just led to him feeling scared and not being willing to try again for a while.  He was feeling discouraged and so was I. 

My wife told me about a friend of hers who had used a “push bike” to teach her children to ride so we decided to give it a go.  A push bike is simply a frame, handlebars, a seat, and two wheels.  You take the two most complex parts about riding a bike out of the equation, the pedals and the breaks.  I took Jaken’s old, small, training wheel bike and took the pedals off.  I say “took them off,” but after trying to get into the pedal assembly and seeing how hard it was to dismantle, I just hacked the pedals off at the base with a  saw.  It was a five dollar yard sale bike anyway. 

Next, I showed Jaken the principal of what he was trying to do--which was to learn how to balance on two wheels.  I told him that he needed to get going fast enough so that he could pull up his feet and glide.  His brakes and training wheels were now the bottom of his shoes, which he thought was cool.  The whole idea is to let them get a sense of the balance while in total control.  After a total of about two hours on the push bike, Jaken asked if he could try his big boy bike.  I gave him one little push and he was off never to return to the world of “assisted riding.” 

I just wish I would have known about this solution earlier.  I believe Jaken would’ve easy been riding by the age of four, or even earlier had we known.  Our friend’s children rode two wheel bikes at age three using the push bike technique. 

Good luck and have faith.  We tried everything before this to no avail.  It worked and worked great.