POD used to enjoy riding her bike but when the stabilisers came off she refused to get back on it. While the bike has made it into the great outdoors several times, its largely remained in the boot of the car. Scooting has been POD’s preference over the past year and having perfected her skills to and from school over recent months, cycling just hasn’t appealed to her.
This summer we decided it was time she learnt so we took her bike to Northern Spain with us. There was ample space outside the cottage and a hill too which meant she could get a head start without having to pedal. Although her steering and braking left a little to be desired initially, she did crack it and quickly too. As we suspected she loved it when she went in a straight line and she only careered into the bushes once. When we returned to the UK, we took her to Alice Holt forest so she could get some more practice in. Having mastered the basics, she still needed to push off herself and learn to control the bike better. We took a cycle route the first time we visited which resulted in taking a much longer trail and getting lost in the process. This time around we were much more prepared.
You see you can’t go wrong if you follow The Gruffalo can you? There are two trails we know really well at Alice Holt too so we took one of those so we knew we’d be able to get back without walking (or running) several miles. POD is doing so well with her cycling now. She can steer and brake as well as push herself off if she’s on a hill. She’s not got to grips with building enough momentum to cycle up hill yet but oh my goodness she is just loving the independence cycling brings. She’s got much quicker now too so running along behind her is some challenge. I can’t imagine it will be too long before we’ll need to invest in some bikes ourselves.
