Stabilisers slow down baby bikers

A new study aims to prove that parents shouldn't use training wheels when they introduce youngsters to their first bike

There are a number of landmark moments in a child's early life; the first smile, first step, first word - and the first time they ride round in circles on a bike propped up by two extra wheels.

But now experts are arguing that stabilisers, which for decades have been used to help children learn to cycle, could actually be hindering their progress, and they are launching an experiment to prove it.

In a trial being sponsored by the London Cycling Campaign, young children in the borough of Islington will be asked not to use to use the supporting wheels and their progress will be monitored.

Julian Grenier, head teacher at Kate Greenaway nursery and children's centre in the area, came up with the idea after noticing that children who were not yet three were able to balance on wooden, two-wheeled bikes with no pedals and use their feet to push themselves along.

'We had no idea that at two years and 10 months old a child could balance on two wheels,' said Grenier. 'If they were already doing that then how could we ensure progression? With stabilisers we noticed that the kids were not balancing so they were not learning any more or making progression. We thought it might be setting them back.'

Grenier will be spearheading the experiment, which will see campaign workers train parents and teachers to instruct children how to ride bikes without stabilisers. They will use the smallest Raleigh bikes available, some with the pedals removed, and parents will be able to take them home in the evenings and at weekends. It is the first time the charity has run an experiment with under-fives.

'We might be wrong but at every stage we found that what holds them back was not them but us,' said Grenier. 'They can balance on two wheels but we are not letting them do it. There is a lot of evidence to say that strength, stamina and balance are very important for development.' With stabilisers, he added, the children were not getting as many of those benefits.

According to Tom Moulton, the campaign's community cycling officer, using two-wheeled bikes without pedals to learn balance, instead of the traditional stabilisers, is a growing trend among middle-class parents. 'Once that group makes it popular, others will pick up on it,' said Moulton, who expects to see an increasing shift away from the use of stabilisers. He said it was crucial to 'embed in the psyche' of young children that cycling is part of life.

Andrea Ledward, a civil servant whose two children attend Kate Greenaway nursery, said her daughter had made huge progress using the 'balance bikes'. 'I bought Nyika, who is three and a half, her own wooden, pedal-less bike and it is brilliant. She takes her feet off the ground and really learns to balance. I think it is much better.'

Ledward said she wanted both her children to learn to ride bikes so they could use them to get around the city, as she and her husband did.

Fiona Barnett, a mother-of-two from Epsom, Surrey, said she was upset that her oldest son Archie had not really taken a liking to cycling. She is hoping her younger son, Albie, who is about to turn two, will be more interested. But she felt a tricycle or stabilisers could help children grow used to the motion of cycling and was not convinced that a two-year-old could balance unaided on a two-wheeled bike.