bicycles

Balance bikes are just better

…

if [the option of a balance bike] isn’t available, you can convert a normal bike into a balance bike by removing the pedals and lowering the seat. Once the kids has learned how to balance as they roll, add the pedals, raise the seat, and watch them go.

…

Sean McPherson

An excellent suggestion from fellow RSS Club member Sean McP (he’s been full of those lately; I’ve been enjoying encouraging drivers through our village to slow down by smiling and waving, too).

Like Sean, I learned to ride a bike using training wheels (“stabilisers” on this side of the pond). Unlike him, I didn’t have any trouble with them, and so when I came to hear about balance bikes as an alternative learning approach I figured they were just two different approaches to the same thing.

But when our eldest learned using stabilisers, she really struggled, and only eventually “got it” with an un-stabilised bike and lots and lots of practice. It’s true what Sean says: for most children, learning to balance atop a bicycle is harder than learning to pedal and/or steer, so that’s the bit we should be focussing on.

Our youngest is (finally) ready and keen to learn to cycle, and so I’m thinking that when I get him his first bike (maybe for Christmas!) I’ll get him one that, were I to put the seat into its lowest position and remove the pedals, he could use as a balance bike for a day or two to get the feel of the thing before re-attaching them and letting him try the full experience.

Dan Q found GCAAD6C El pont sobre el riu #14 Set a La Pobla Cérvoles

This checkin to GCAAD6C El pont sobre el riu #14 Set a La Pobla Cérvoles reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

My family and I are staying in El Vilosell, so this morning I borrowed a bike to take the trail over the hill from there to here. The ride was beautiful, and the easy downhill rides between cliffs and terraces more than made up for the tiring and bumpy sections of uphill pedalling. At the highest point, I met a fox, on his way to bed I guess as the sun crested the hilltops.

Despite the recent heavy rain the Set riverbed was almost dry: just a trickle of a stream. From the description, I was initially worried that the cache might be underneath, which looked challenging, but a peep at the hint reassured me that there were more-likely hiding spots.

A little finger-work and the cache was in hand. Nice spot! That’s when I discovered that there was a hole in my pocket and my pen had escaped! Oh no! I hope a photolog will be sufficient to show that I found this cache.

TFTC/GPC. Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK.

Second Place

I came second in the Cymru Prosper Wales “Enterprising Student” competition, which earned me £100, this morning. Pretty much made my late night and early morning worthwhile. Now I’m back at the office. Needed to come in this afternoon to deploy a new version of a piece of software to a client.

Think I pissed Claire off by trying to bum a lift into the office. Gave up and hoofed it in the end (tried to get the bike fixed – something’s gone wrong with the gears – but the bike shop didn’t have enough hands-on to get it done ‘while I waited’).

Knackered. But full of creamcakes, which is good.

In the absence of this work deadline and CPW, things should return to normal tomorrow. Then I can get back to some much-needed Three Rings code.

I need to get a t-shirt printed with “I’m blogging this” on it. Yes, I know ThinkGeek do one, but it’d be cheaper to have The Don here in Aberystwyth print one for me than to pay international shipping charges, considering it’s only a one-colour print.