Sidney Porter

These videos might be useful to the op. Does you daughter ride the balance bike like the second video if yes she can balance if no then you need to encourage her.

She still needs to learn pedaling and braking. You can do that wuth training wheels or running with the bike. If tge later get the balance buddy

Succhia Ruota

My 5yr old daughter is really having a hard time with learning to ride her bike.

Good to know that others have problems with pedaling and coaster brakes - she really struggles with them - AND we live in a hilly area.

My objective for this summer is to really build her confidence by getting her to practice every day if possible.

Any special tips or pointers, or is it just a matter of consistency?

kbarj

Our youngest learned with training wheels. Didn't drop them until he was 5 1/2. He decided one day he didn't want them and was riding up and down the street without them almost instantly. At 8 he is doing 20+ mile rides with us. Yesterday was 25.4 miles averaging 10 mph. So the slow start didn't seem to hurt him.

atbman

Hi - you don't say what stage she's at, so I'll try to cover all the options:

1. Frequency is one of the main keys
2. You say it hilly - do you have a flat area where she can practise or is she past that stage? If not, a flat area can get her concentrating on the basics without getting too hung up on the coaster brake (I'm somewhat biased against them but others swear by them, so you takes your pick). It also means that she can move on to practising with the coaster brake without worrying about losing control down your hills - baby steps.
3. If she needs her confidence boosting by a little helping hand from you, I've found that resting the fingertips only between her shoulderblades give sufficient help without pushing her in a slightly different direction from where she's steering.
4. We use counting as a distraction - get her to count the number of seconds (very roughly) or pedal strokes she can manage before having to stop. We find that they're so focused on trying to beat their last count they forget it's hard
5. As far as coaster brakes are concerned, they're really an excuse for not installing proper child-sized, efficient brakes and levers. People have probably got tired of me pushing Islabikes (now mail order from Portland). they're expensive but superbly designed and built with all component sizes relevant to the size of the bike/child. You can get good s/hand ones on Ebay etc. they're stil pricey, but that gives you an idea of how well they're liked.
Please feel free to come back with any other info or queries - there'll be bound to be someone who can answer them

Succhia Ruota

Awesome advice, thank you for responding!

Yes, she's five and only barely getting started with training wheels. I tried to start her last summer, but she took a spill from turning too sharply and scraped her knuckles. I couldn't even bribe her with anything to get back on it after that.

She's having a very hard time with all of it; pedaling, watching where she's going, steering, and of course, braking. But I'm going to try some of what you posted.

We have a relatively flat cul-de-sac at the end of our street where we will practice. It's just getting her over her anxiety that will prove to be the difficult part.

joejack951

As discussed in this thread (https://www.bikeforums.net/general-cy...ild-pedal.html) I think you'd be better off teaching them balance first then pedaling for the reasons I explained in my post (https://www.bikeforums.net/19379183-post30.html)

And I'll second atbman's Islabike's suggestion. My son is on his second. Started on a CNOC 14 at age 3 and got a Beinn 20 Small for Christmas (age 5). My only gripe with the CNOC 14 (purchased in 2014) was the coaster brake and lack of rear hand brake. I rectified that with a BMX hub, caliper brake, and spare lever from Islabike's. The new CNOC 14's have a rear hand brake now and Woom makes a cheap 14" freewheel hub wheel to replace the coaster brake one (wish I had known about this before I went the expensive route I did).

The Beinn 20 is simply awesome if you child is ready for more than one gear.

DSC_8505 by joe jackson, on Flickr

kbarj

For the balance side of things, a cheap alternative was mentioned earlier...a razor scooter. I think that helped our boy a lot.

atbman

As you'll have gathered from other forumers, the general advice is - Bin the training wheels (most misleading description ever(?)), take the pedals off, make sure she can reach the floor with her feet very easily and get her to gradually take longer "strides"

Good luck - which means she'll learn to ride confidently and then your worries will really begin

grizzly59

Dad took off the training wheels and I first rode without them in a big mown grass park, didn't hurt to fall down.

Julia P

sure! to me-- why not! I myself started from those when I was small) and no regrets XD