Originally Posted by
Milton Keynes
I don't know about it being a different balancing skill. A few years back when my son was on training wheels, he also had a two-wheel scooter that he liked to ride around. Somehow he taught himself how to balance it as I saw him push off to get it going, then kept his foot up as he rode it around. I knew that he would transition easily to a bike, and the day we took his training wheels off it took less than 5 minutes for him to be riding around on his own.
My 7-year-old daughter, on the other hand, doesn't want me to take her training wheels off and is a bit timid about learning to ride. My plan is to remove her training wheels & pedals and to teach her how to balance just by coasting down a small incline. But she's going to have to want to do it. Convincing her might not be easy.
OP is about an adult trying to teach himself. Both of my kids went seamlessly from training wheels to riding unaided with less than 15 minutes of coaxing to try it. I didn't have to take off the pedals because they were used to using them from when the training wheels were on.
I have no doubt that if you can balance a scooter, you can balance a bicycle, but that's because it's trickier to balance the scooter. I see no logic behind telling an adult to learn how to use a scooter before learning how to use a bike. The other way around might make some sense.
BTW, I think what your story illustrates is that there really isn't one right way to teach kids, they all learn a bit differently.
Oh, and just to be clear, OP tried my idea of how to do it, and it didn't work. That was the way that worked with me as a child and my kids. Doesn't work well with the weight of an adult, apparently. Looks like the people proposing the slope had it about right. Also, note he didn't have to remove the pedals.