Bringing a smile to a father’s face

December 27, 2010 • Posted by: Michael McKisson

We’ll resume regular news posts tomorrow, but I wanted to take a moment to be a proud papa.

Santa was good to me this weekend. I got some really great bikey things including; a belt made from bike tubes, several great bike-related books, a mobile sound system for my bikes and an amazing custom head badge.

The greatest gift, though, was seeing Luci “ride” her first bike. Santa brought Luci a Wishbone Bike, which is actually a push trike and bike in one.

Eventually — when Luci is ready — I’ll remove one of the wheels and make it a two wheeler. I’m convinced that teaching kids how to ride using balance bikes rather than using training wheels is the way to go. Plus, this way I was able to get her on a bike sooner.

Check out this post over at Utility Cycling about teaching kids to ride using balance bikes.

I had low expectations about how well the trike would go over. In fact, I didn’t even think she was tall enough to push the bike on her own. I figured I’d have to push her around on it for a while.

I was thrilled when she got on the bike and did this:

YouTube version here.

Every time she sees it, she smiles and is getting better every time she gets on it.

Here is a photo of the great head badge Irene got me. She ordered it from Laura Crawford of Path Less Pedaled.

I guess since the head badge is JB welded to the bike I’ll have to stick with Tucson Velo for the long haul. Thanks for reading.

Did you get any good bikey things for whichever winter holiday you celebrate?

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6 comments

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Tim Nichols

Great story about Luci, who is probably more excited at that age of seeing her dad's approbation of her endeavor. The balance bike idea reminds me of the story by Charles R. Hobbs (Time Power Institute) who said he taught his youngest child to ski by teaching them the mental steps of the activity. The point that ties the two together is to teach the child almost as if they were an adult, which is what you'll be doing. BTW, saw this blog through the Path Less Pedaled Facebook post. Great layout.

Ignaciordr

Looks great Mike. Merry Christmas. Good to see that she is learning early because when I teach Bike Safety through the schools and the Safe Routes programs I always have a small hand full of kids in every 4th grade that do not know how to ride. So in fact have removed pedals from bikes that I have so they have their own kick bike. I'll get one of those bikes though and maybe her and Damiano can cruise together. Happy New Year!