I took Jake to Halfords to buy a new helmet. I wanted him to get excited about riding his bike and also to give him an incentive for getting rid of the stabilisers. To this end I left the shop £50 worse off. We bought not only a new helmet, but some cycling mitts and a set of elbow/knee pads.
When we arrived home I retrieved the bike from the shed and we headed for Hilly Fields. I chose the flat path that loops to the right as soon as you enter the park. Armed with a rather large adjustable spanner I raised the stabilisers to their full extent. Jake climbed upon his steed and carefully we set off. I was bent double holding onto the back of the bike seat trying to keep Jake upright. We did a couple of runs in this manner with my back protesting fervently. On the third run we speeded up and I began to momentarily let go of the seat. Hey presto! Jake was cycling solo albeit in a wobbly fashion. This was a classic dad moment :-). After a few more runs I could sense Jake was getting the hang of keeping his balance on his own. To my surprise as we returned up my hill to the park gate, Jake asked to remove the stabilisers.
Well there’s not a lot more to add. With every run he got better and better and after half an hour he had cracked it. In fact I exclaimed to Jake ‘you’ve cracked it!’ and he thought the bike had cracked 😉 so I had to explain what it meant. Before heading home we tried the long gently sloping hill that dissects the middle of the park. Jake pretty much rode all the way down on his own.
Later that afternoon, so as to strike while the iron was hot, we all headed down to Ladywell Fields for another session. Mia in her buggy and Jake on his bike. Jake again improved immensely, smiling proudly as he sailed past Amy and Mia with my good self running behind. Jake decided that he wanted to cycle the whole way round, not just Ladywell Fields but the athletics track too. He did all of this himself bar starting and stopping safely(that’s for the next lesson). As you can imagine I was immensely proud :-).