UKC

My Mum, aged 61, wants to learn to ride a bike. She is mostly interested in going for gentle rides in the park with my 2.5 year old niece, who is whizzing along nicely on her balance bike.

I suggested she buy a cheap second hand bike, lower the saddle and remove the cranks and follow the balance-bike to pedal bike progression with my niece, but she is far to embarrassed to be seen scooting on a balance bike in public, and too scared of hurting herself to just go for it and try pedalling.

Has anyone else taught an older adult to ride, or learnt as an older adult? Anyone have any suggestions?

I think she would go to a class if such a thing were available but I can't find anything. High Wycombe area if anyone does know of anything.

In reply to kathrync:

If you look at the Bikability courses nearby and contact whoever does them they might be able to point you in the right direction.
Or could try this, bit of a drive but not a huge one. Donated a bike there a while back and they seemed a nice enough bunch.
http://watfordcyclehub.org.uk/womens-only-cycling-courses/

In reply to kathrync:

If you go on the British Cycling website there's a search facility in the coaching and Instructing section. There's details for a Bikeabiity instructor based just north of Slough who would be worth contacting. Massive respect to your Mum for giving it a go.

In reply to kathrync:

im a bikeability instructor . the peddles off option is the way forward . or you could leave them on and get her to scoot the bike a bit to get the feel of the balance . then put one foot on the peddle and push and see how far she can roll . normally when you get to the stage when she can do this it`s just a matter of putting the other foot on and peddling . sounds easy I know but just keep trying and it will come . flat or slightly down hill slope is best . just make sure she knows how to use the brakes.

In reply to kathrync:

Can't offer any advice whatsoever but it's a wonderful to read her motivation to learn to ride. Best of luck to her, hopefully it's not too long before they're both pootling aling together.

In reply to all:

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and links, especially the Bikeability links. I'll see if I can make contact with the instructor near Slough.

In reply to kathrync:

It might be worth a trip to cyclopark http://www.cyclopark.com/ one day soon. It's near Gravesend, but worth the drive. Smooth, grippy tarmac, no cars, no potholes, bends, hills, flat oval etc. An hour or two pedalling around there, with your niece too, would be a few hours well spent for both of them. There's also a mountain bike trail - undulating and not technical at all. Café's good too.

As a club we go there periodically. It's very good for confidence and bike handling generally.
It's where I learned that two drunk cyclists can ride their bikes home from the pub by leaning on each other to prop themselves up.....

In reply to kathrync:

In my local park they run 'women's returning to cycling classes'. I know she's not returning but the idea is to allow adult women to gain confidence cycling in a safe environment. Some of the participants clearly hadn't been on a bike for a very long time. Seemed like a good idea.

I felt bad when I quietly and quite slowly passed someone on a (very) wide cycle track and she let out a blood curdling scream as I'd unfortunately surprised her.