Kip on Wheels

I've been meaning to post this for ages! Finally finished it.

At the very tail end of summer Kip learned to ride the new two-wheel bike he got for his birthday in literally five minutes. If you'd asked me last summer if Kip would be able to ride a bike without training wheels, I might have said "doubtful." It has been a journey, but we indeed made it. 

I thought it would be fun to pull together some old photos of him and his various bikes through the wheels. He's always, always been attracted to wheels whether he could master riding them or not. And who can resist a cute Kip pic?

Kip got his first bike when he was just under a 18 months old. It was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa (Santa?) for Christmas.

Since we were living in Brooklyn at the time, we didn't have room for a bike at the apartment. So it lived at Mandy's place in NJ and Kip would ride it around her apartment whenever we would visit her. 

During the pandemic it made it's debut outside when we'd try to find a place to get some fresh air.

By the time we had moved to the house in New Jersey, Kip finally learned how to peddle the trike but was already beginning to outgrow it.

The following summer, before he turned four, Mandy got Kip got a bigger trike-style bike which he adored and rode around on it like it was a race car.

Somewhere in there a friend gave us her son's hand-me-down balance bike. Kip got a lot more speed from this and figured out how to glide on two wheels to the point where we felt like a trike was no longer needed. 

Then when he turned five he got a "big" bike with training wheels from Grandma.

Kip LOVED this blue bike but despite all our best attempts, he was never able to balance on it in order to take the training wheels off. Even though the bike was the right size for him, he struggled to sit on it correctly and always slouched making it impossible for him to hold his weight upright on the bike to balance. Nevertheless, he loved it and rode on it for two years.

This past summer it was apparent he needed an upgrade and I started looking at Guardian bikes because I kept getting ads about being able to learn to ride in one day. Kip was already frustrated with not being able to take the training wheels off his other bike, so I felt like it might be worth it to try something that skipped the training wheels entirely. We sprang for it as a gift for this 7th birthday.

Apparently the frame of these bike are designed for kids in a way that keeps the center of gravity low and elongates the body of the bike for more stability. You learn to ride it with no pedals at first and treat it like a balance bike. Once the child masters balancing, you put the pedals back on. Kip rode the bike balance-style a few times and then wanted to try with the pedals. I made him wear the knee pads and elbow pads in the hopes that if he fell he wouldn't give up entirely the second he got a scrape. 

Much to ALL of our surprise, he took off after just one little guiding hold and push off from Dan. He took to it instantly. Literally not one teeter or fall.

After three or four outings, Kip ditched the pads and got more and more comfortable with pushing off from the pedals. He loves the speed he can get now and the exhilaration of a life skill mastered. 

Learning to ride a bike really is a childhood milestone and it is always a thrill to watch your child reach those accomplishments.