Humor Random Comments Thread

[SiberianTiger]

[Proud Dad]After many Sunday afternoon attempts, my son (4 years 9 months) succeeded in riding his bike without training wheels for a significant distance (at least 50m would be my guess).[/Proud Dad]

Wow! It's a blessing that you've posted it here right now! I am heading into the same situation exactly. How did you teach your kid to ride without the training wheels? Did you use any knee protection or helmet, or anything? My daughter is 5 years and 5 months old and she has to adapt to riding her 16"-wheels bike without those helpers next weekend. Are you asking, why so immediately? That because the left one has broken... I guess it's a great opportunity for a change...

 

[tblaxland]

Wow! It's a blessing that you've posted it here right now! I am heading into the same situation exactly. How did you teach your kid to ride without the training wheels? Did you use any knee protection or helmet, or anything? My daughter is 5 years and 5 months old and she has to adapt to riding her 16"-wheels bike without those helpers next weekend. Are you asking, why so immediately? That because the left one has broken... I guess it's a great opportunity for a change...

Good timing indeed. Actually I had the same situation exactly - broken left training wheel. Spooky.

He has a helmet but no knee or elbow protection. My both my kids (the other is 3 years 5 months) have always worn bike helmets since they started riding, even with training wheels - it is the law here. My sons bike is a 12".

This is a bit wordy, but you did ask . Like any true engineer, I had solid plan worked out in my head beforehand. Before starting we sat with the bike and explained the basic concepts of bike riding:

1. Keep the bike up straight.
2. If the bike leans, turn into the lean to get the bike back up straight. Use small fast steering inputs for that instead of large slower ones.
3. For turns, use slower steering inputs and lean into the turn.
4. Keep pedalling to keep your momentum up.

My strategy was to simply run alongside the bike loosely gripping the back of the seat (that way you can avoid the worst of the falls) and calling out instructions. On occasion I would also put my other hand on the near side handle bar to give him a feel for the steering inputs required. As his competence increased I would ease off my grip on the seat to the point of letting go, but keeping my hand nearby in case I needed to catch it again.

The biggest barrier to success was keeping his confidence up so that he would keep pedalling (each fall was like two steps forward and one step backwards) so plenty of encouragement and praise for small successes was required. In that regard, I also suggest going somewhere where other kids are riding without training wheels - it will give her confidence that she can do it herself. Also, keep your practice sessions short (we would go for about 1 to 1.5 hours, with a 15 min break in the middle) so that her legs do not tire too much. Other than that, keep up your patience and repeat, repeat and repeat some more. Good luck

 

[SiberianTiger]

Thanks a lot, tbaxland! I think I will report here on our progress. With a larger bike I anticipate a better keeping momentum, but harsher falls...

 

[Suzy]

I (and my sister) learned without training wheels - I don't think it took too long to get our balance. Also keeping the seat low so the rider's feet can touch the ground helps, and learning on grass (if possible). (MetaFilter has a post about learning to ride, though this is for an adult beginner)

 

[TSPenguin]

tblaxland, that is exactly how I learned to ride a bike.
But instead of building confidence through example, I first got to try it in the woods, where many many big hard stones and roots tear the path up. So falling was not really an option

 

[Sentient Malos]

I just got AlienGUIse Theme Manager.
I have to say, I'm satisfied and pleased.
It's free, too.

 

[cjp]

In the Netherlands, everybody rides a bike (especially children when going to school): it's a popular, cheap and healthy alternative to cars, when it comes to shorter distances. And here we often have separate lanes for bicycles, so it's still relatively safe in traffic.

But really nobody wears helmets. Maybe only some racing bicyclists who go for high speeds, and off-road bicyclists, and occasionally some children of over-worried parents, but that's all.

But this is not a problem at all. As a kid I fell countless times, and I can tell from experience that it's virtually impossible to fall on your head. You're most likely to hurt your elbows, knees and the palms of your hands, and after that maybe the rest of your arms and shoulders, but never your head. That doesn't mean it's really impossible, but personally I'd worry more about traffic situations where they can collide with cars.

And about these injuries on my elbows and knees: I can't find any scars. It's something that's painful, and a scary experience for a small child, but when treated well it won't leave any permanent damage. And, as far as I remember, it were usually the boys who had accidents, so I think the risk depends much behavior of the kid.

 

[RangerPL]

I haven't used my bike helmet in years. Nobody pays attention to helmets, you only really have to go into a post or something to get a head injury.

 

[n122vu]

Every time I sing "The Farmer in the Dell" to my daughter, I always end up feeling sorry for the cheese.

 

[TSPenguin]

I couldn't help but ride my bicycle into a car once. 100% drivers fault and I could not have prevented it.
I hit the bonnet and the windshield, got thrown a few meters, landed in front of a bus which came to a stop on top of me. I was very lucky to land in the middle of the lane!
End of the story, the right side of my face and my forehead were a mess but everything healed nicely.
I was wearing a helmet but the energies were so high that the safeties engaged and it came off when hitting the windshield.

The driver went roughly 30 km/h, came out of a very narrow alley where I couldn't have seen her, went past a stop sign and a give way sign.

 

[astrosammy]

I once had a accident with my bike, but the driver of the car that hit me had just started driving, so was very slow and just causing me to fall. I'd say it was my fault, I crossed the street without looking for traffic (Still happens to me sometimes in FSX, xD). I'm not against helmets, but I think the punishment for drivers that endanger cyclists should be increased instead of making cycling without helmets illegal.

 

[Andy44]

Helmet laws: Laws to force the populace to be wimps.

My mother never worried about me riding with no helmet, and she cares about me a whole lot more than any politician cares about your kids.

I have a friend who says she won't ride with me unless I wear a helmet. I told her that's too bad, I'll miss her. Freedom is the wind in your hair as you cruise down the trail on your bike.

---------- Post added at 08:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:35 PM ----------

Random link: I found this cool website with interesting stuff posted to it everyday, good reading.

http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/

Enjoy.

 

[tblaxland]

I have a friend who says she won't ride with me unless I wear a helmet. I told her that's too bad, I'll miss her. Freedom is the wind in your hair as you cruise down the trail on your bike.

I'm inclined to agree with you, but my thought was to get my kids into the habit of wearing their helmets since the laws are unlikely to go away anytime soon. The Roads and Traffic Authority have no jurisdiction off-road (you are a mountain bike fan IIRC) so that would be OK here. My observation is that head injuries are really only significantly increased in risk where cars are around. That said, most off-road cyclists wear their helmets anyway (I think it is just habit from when they are on the road).

 

[Andy44]

Actually, I don't do any true mountain biking, just a few easy dirt trails and paved-over railroads. But mountainbiking is one of the few bike activities in which I would wear a helmet willingly, along with road racing.

But I understand you have to teach your kids to obey the laws, even the stupid ones. If I ever have kids, I will do the same, and when they're old enough, I will explain to them the difference between law and morality and let them take it from there.

 

[TSPenguin]

This thread looses it's entropy.


Railroads blossom in the sun,
Flowers rule the world of Kreknok!

 

[Artlav]

Entropy turns to order. Order diffuses into entropy.
Welcome to our chaotic universe!

 

[Dig Gil]

I love Chaos that becomes Order!

There's a terrible lack of bicycle lanes in my country. And none on my town...

The worst parts of AddOn Development are modelling fine details and getting textures to go right.

I should read Ar81's tutorials more closely...

 

[Andy44]

Proof that Marines are crazy. Would you get this close to a jet engine in a test cell?

 

[Dig Gil]

I wonder why this thread has the prefix of "Humor" if any random stuff gets here.

I wonder if the purpose of a thread like this is to keep it over others on the list the most of the time possible.

I wonder who has played Portal.

I wonder who has played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (whatever sequel/prequel)

I wonder (this should be a rare one) who has watched "Stalker" from Tarkovsky.

 

[Artlav]

I wonder who has played Portal.

I did, and liked it.

I wonder (this should be a rare one) who has watched "Stalker" from Tarkovsky.

I tried, but like the book, it takes a specific mood to watch/read.