Balance bikes. Say goodbye to training wheels.
funeralxempire
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16 Aug 2024, 1:48 am
nick007 wrote:
TheNet wrote:
Research has shown the balance bikes (bicycles without pedals) are better for children learning to ride a bicycle than training wheels. According to research, training wheels can slow down the learning of balancing a bicycle because children become too dependent on them. Balance bikes are better and are starting to replace training wheels for beginning bicycle riders.
How do the balance bikes move the bike if those bikes do not have pedals? Are the adults supposed to push the bikes forward the entire time?You'd just use your feet to propel it, like how one does when they're getting a bike into motion from a dead-stop.
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16 Aug 2024, 9:49 am
funeralxempire wrote:
MatchboxVagabond wrote:
It's unclear how generations children could learn to ride bikes with training wheels just fine, but now it's an issue.
Unless riding a bike is a fairly easy skill to learn, even if they were held back by the first bike they rode.
It is, it took roughly a century from the invention of the bike to develop any special tools for teaching it, unless you've got absolutely terrible balance or coordination, the bike balances itself.
funeralxempire wrote:
MatchboxVagabond wrote:
Balance bikes aren't superior for learning if they were training wheels would never have been invented. It's a lot cheaper to buy a bike with no pedals to learn on than to mess with training wheels.
Unless training wheels were marketed as a superior training method. They don't need to actually be better to be marketed as better.
Except they kind of are, you can fit them on pretty much any bike and you can remove them after the learner has had a bit of time riding around on them. They aren't necessary, but the cost is pretty minimal and these days, they even make ones that are big enough for motorcycles for practicing drills that are likely to tip the bike over entirely. Balance bikes are something that were discarded for a reason.
funeralxempire wrote:
MatchboxVagabond wrote:
As why training wheels are better, just because they're on doesn't mean they have to touch the ground. The first drills prospective motorcycle riders do here is use it as a balance bike. The training wheels don't prevent that. But they do provide a little extra support to bridge the gap, it if the bike is a bit too heavy.
In other words, the issue isn't the training wheels it's that people are teaching kids to ride that don't know how to teach it.
In other words, the issue isn't the training wheels it's that people are teaching kids to ride that don't know how to teach it.
It sounds like you're saying the problem isn't with training wheels, it's that no one uses them properly. They can't be that good if they're so easy to misuse in a way that makes them no longer contribute to learning. The fact that they enable poor technique makes them a less effective teaching aid, even if it's ultimately because no one uses them right. How they end up working in practice is what matters, not how well they work in some hypothetical ideal situation.
You can say that about pretty much everything. And, I still haven't seen you address the question of why it was fine for decades, but now we've got to buy balance bikes to teach how to ride when it was never previously required. A balance bike is an extra, and as I've already explained, completely pointless purchase, families are scrapped for cash, but at least a set of training wheels can be had for under $30 including tax from reputable retailers.
funeralxempire wrote:
MatchboxVagabond wrote:
Anything shy of a big boy bike with hand brakes and gears is similarly cheating by your definition.
No actually, you're just strawmanning my position because you lack a solid retort. My position is that literally any proper sized bike that doesn't have training wheels is superior to any bike with training wheels for learning to ride a bike. That includes balance bikes that don't have pedals.
Many bikes don't even include multiple speeds so why would someone need them to learn to ride? Are BMXes and fixies not 'big boy bikes' for you? They certainly are for me.
No, it's not a strawman at all, it's RAA, and don't get mad at me, you're entire argument boils down to people being able to use them improperly. Which, again, somehow didn't used to be a problem. There is literally nothing that you can do with a balance bike that cannot be done with a regular bike. The difference is that with a balance bike, you have to spend extra money to get a bike that does all the bike things after you've learned to balance on it.
funeralxempire wrote:
MatchboxVagabond wrote:
It worked for me in a matter of minutes and I likely would have been able to earlier had my parents been able to afford an appropriately sized bike.
I think this supports my hypothesis that riding a bike isn't actually that difficult, rather than that training wheels are a good method of learning.
A balance bike just teaches a kid to do what everyone on a bike does at very low speeds, placing their feet on the ground. When they get some momentum it's just like coasting on a regular bike. At no point does it teach bad habits the kid will need to unlearn when riding a real bike.
This doesn't really follow, learning to ride a bike just isn't that difficult in general for anybody that doesn't have balance or coordination issues. Learning on a balance bike doesn't carry any actual benefits other than giving more money to retailers.
16 Aug 2024, 9:50 am
funeralxempire wrote:
nick007 wrote:
TheNet wrote:
Research has shown the balance bikes (bicycles without pedals) are better for children learning to ride a bicycle than training wheels. According to research, training wheels can slow down the learning of balancing a bicycle because children become too dependent on them. Balance bikes are better and are starting to replace training wheels for beginning bicycle riders.
How do the balance bikes move the bike if those bikes do not have pedals? Are the adults supposed to push the bikes forward the entire time?You'd just use your feet to propel it, like how one does when they're getting a bike into motion from a dead-stop.
Which is generally possible with a regular bike as well, making the entire existence of them just the stupidest thing ever. As long as the pedals aren't fixed to the chain and the chain fixed to the wheel, you don't even need to keep the feet clear of the pedals.
