HAMILTON COUNTY — Going on a bike ride this summer might sound fun, unless you have a little one who is struggling to get rid of their training wheels.
What if there were a course that could teach your kids to pedal (without training wheels) in less than two hours?
Learn2Ride started three summers ago in hopes of accomplishing this task.
"We had a woman in Lebanon, and she saw our ad on Facebook, and she thought it was a total scam," laughed Matt Tanner.
Tanner is the founder of the program. He said when he saw 10, 11, and 12-year-olds riding bikes with the help of training wheels, he knew that was a problem.
"It just didn't make sense to me, like why kids couldn't ride bikes," Tanner shared. "I thought there was a need, and we've kind of identified how to address it."
Tanner compared himself to a coach of any other sport for kids. He just happens to be a coach for bike riding. The kids in Monday's class all called him Coach Matt.
One student who passed the class is 7-year-old Milly. She's unstoppable when it comes to most sports.
"I do a lot, like basketball, tennis, soccer, gymnastics and swimming," Milly explained.
This isn't the case when it comes to riding a bike. Her mom says a fear of falling meant the training wheels stayed on the bike.
"We've been trying since she was four. And she's seven now," Mom Hillary Downs explained. "She would just stop."
That changed thanks to Coach Matt.
There are four simple tasks. The kids start without pedals on their bikes.
Step one: balance on one leg, like a flamingo. They started balancing on the ground first, then practiced holding their balance sitting on the bike, switching from leg to leg.
Step two: hop like a frog. The kids pushed off the ground with both feet to propel their bike forward. They tried to go a little more distance with each push.
Step three: glide with both feet off the ground. They tried to hold the glide for at least fifteen seconds. At first, kids were starting with glides of one or two seconds, but they quickly added more and more time.
The kids all agreed that step three was the most difficult one.
After gliding, they moved to step four: pedal. Instructors added pedals back onto the bikes and ran along behind each biker as they learned to push down on the pedals while keeping their balance.
Some were a bit more wobbly than others, but they all got to the goal eventually, riding a bike without training wheels.
The whole process actually ended up taking less than two hours.
It was a quick process today, but this will be a lifelong skill for Milly.
"I'm proud of myself!" she said with a grin, sitting atop her bike.
"We go on family bike rides, and she was always having to be in the trailer or the back with her little baby brother," Hillary Downs said of Milly. "That has been huge for her. She says she feels she's free."
This program operates in Hamilton County, but Tanner says he's had students from all over the country take his lessons.
