Riding a bicycle: braking, cornering and other skills

When your child has learnt how to pedal their bike on their own, without stabilisers, they can move to new skills.

There are 4 main skills to work on:

• balance
• braking
• cornering
• pedalling

Remember cycle safety. If your child is cycling on the road, they should always wear a helmet and reflective gear.

Balance bike method

Pedal bike: learning to ride for children with disabilities

Challenge to help balance

As your child's balance skills improve, draw a path on the ground with 2 parallel lines.

Encourage your child to stay on the path and inside the lines.

You can make this playful and creative. For example, use colourful chalk or let them draw the path. As they improve, make the path narrower until it is a single line.

Stationary bike challenge

Try encouraging your child with the ‘stationary bike’ challenge:

1. Draw out a 1 metre by 2 metre box.
2. Ask your child to slowly ride into the box.

The game is to see how long they can stay within this box, barely moving.

When learning to balance, encourage your child to:

• keep looking up to see where they are going
• keep their arms relaxed with elbows almost straight

If your child wants to stand up off the saddle, encourage them to keep the pedals and crank horizontal.

Braking

Teach your child to gently squeeze both brakes evenly. Teach them to have their index and middle fingers over each brake ready to pull at all times.

Some children's bikes still use a pedal brake, called a coaster brake. This is where you pedal in reverse to lock the back wheel in place. This type of brake can help children who have difficulty using their hand strength to operate the brakes.

Avoid using 1 brake only

Help your child understand which hand operates which brake.

If your child presses too hard on the front brake only, they can be at risk of going over the handlebars in a sudden stop.

If they press too hard on the back brake only, the brake power is limited. The bike can rear wheel skid causing loss of control.

When learning to brake, some children will cycle at speed up to the obstacle. They will then apply brakes in an emergency stop manner before colliding.

Try to teach your child how to judge stopping speeds. Teach them to use their brakes to slow the bike well before stopping.

Games to help teach

Use chalk to draw a ‘brake line’ and a ‘stop line’ across the path.

Encourage your child to learn how to brake smoothly and with control. As they brake, teach your child to push back with their arms and move their hips backwards. This will prevent them going over the handlebars.

Another game to try is to draw a single line across the path. Encourage your child to cycle as fast as they can from their start line. But stop with their front wheel exactly on the line and both feet on the pedals.

Cornering

Discourage rapid turns of the handlebars. This is likely to cause your child to fall.

Steering is more about leaning with the body than turning the handlebars.

Before a corner, tell them to:

• slow down
• look where they want to go
• lean slightly into the turn
• keep the inside pedal up
• follow their line
• enter wide and leave wide

Games to help learning

Set up cones or chalk marking on the ground with spaced gaps.

Encourage your child to go in and out of them without hitting the markings. It can be a good habit for your child to learn to keep their inside pedal (closest to the marking) up.

As your child’s turning improves, they will begin to find a steady rhythm with smooth, even leaning. Set out some markers in a row. Ask your child to ride around 1 marker in a full circle before moving on to circle the next. This helps them practise balance and control, and gentle leaning through each turn.

Gadgets that may help your child

Handy gadgets that may help your child include:

• mirrors - you can buy these to attach to the handlebars
• indicator backpacks with handlebar remotes for children struggling with hand signals

These can be found at bike shops or on websites.