Written by Michaela Tate Morrison
At every Sunday Streets when you visit the SF Bicycle Coalition’s tent, you’ll see cones demarcating an area for Freedom From Training Wheels.
Freedom From Training Wheels teaches toddlers and young children how to ride a bike without training wheels. Some children will take the training wheels off during the workshop, while others will start rolling on a balance bike and never put them on! Our teachers and volunteers work one-on-one with the children, and family biking experts spend time engaging with parents on how to continue to build their children’s confidence to bike on their own.
The most important aspects of learning to ride a bike are patience and practice. Young children attending Freedom From Training wheels receive an excellent foundation to start biking, and parents gain the tools to continue educating and encouraging their children to build their biking skills at home.
Toddlers as young as a year and a half and children as old as eight or nine are all welcome. Some may come almost ready to ride a bike on their own, while others have never even tried two wheels before. Toddlers adjust to the feeling of walking, running, balancing, scooting and gliding. Others work on pedaling, starting and stopping, and looking forward instead of at the ground.
If you would like your little one to practice biking independently, swing by the SF Bicycle Coalition’s tent on Valencia Street at the innaugural Sunday Streets this season on March 11.
