I don’t remember exactly when I learned to ride a bike, or the process of learning to ride a two wheeler both with and without training wheels.  I’m pretty sure my first two wheeler was a red Schwinn Sting-Ray from Uncle’s bike store in downtown Elkhart.  It had a long, banana-style seat of the kind that I see making a small comeback among kids’ bikes today.

It was probably the Sting-Ray I was riding when, shirtless, I tore down the Nappanee overpass that connected the Mary Daly Elementary School with West Side Junior High at top speed, hit the dirt trail at the bottom of the ramp, and promptly flipped over the handlebars and slid through dirt, embedding many pebbles in my back.  It must have hurt, and I likely cried, but I don’t recall how old I was for that incident.

Later, in 5th grade, I had another slightly memorable bike accident on another Schwinn - the Streak.  I bought a black Schwinn Heavy-Duti (see photo above), also from my uncle, to use on my paper route.  It had huge wire baskets on the back, and even now, 30+ years later, the Streak, minus its baskets, is in the garage and rides well.  But on a fall day in 5th grade, I went to make a turn at the start of my paper route, hit a small patch of sand in the street, and promptly had the bike slide out from under me, causing me to crash to the pavement, breaking my thumb, and spilling papers everywhere.  The break was painful, but minor - a hairline break that required only a splint.  The point is, I know falling off a bike can hurt.  But I learned how to ride a bike, and still enjoy doing it.

For example, one of the nice things about living in a small village is being close to things, like the kids’ school, the barber shop, the bakery, etc.  An additional amenity in Lawrenceville is the Lawrenceville Swimming Association - a pool only three houses away from the elementary school where village residents can sign up for memberships.

The village, pool and elementary school are less than a ten minute walk from our house, so my plan last summer, as gas prices shot toward $4 a gallon, was to use our bikes for as many things as possible.  Trips to the farmer’s market, the pool and the barber shop were all things we can do on bikes.

To help facilitate the bike-friendly concept, we added a third wheel trailer to attach to my bike (Thanks again, Gammy & Papa, that was a great garage sale find!).  Jordan has done a great job in the “stoker” position on what’s become the back of my bike.

Of course, with two kids, we then needed to figure out what to do with Ben.  He was too big for a toddler bike seat, so through a little diligence and a little luck, I found a Papoose Caboose two wheel trailer at a second-hand store.  It’s designed to carry up to 100 pounds of kids and/or equipment, so we made many trips last summer with Ben and any pool gear in the trailer, and Jordan on the third wheel.

In theory, we can maintain this arrangement for most, if not all, of this summer.  Ben plus the beach towels and assorted swim gear, or fresh produce on Sundays, is nowhere near the 100 pound limit for the trailer.  But it would be much easier on us, and especially Christine, not to have to haul the Papoose Caboose.  If Jordan were to ride her bike, I could transition Ben over to the third wheel and we’d be all set.

Thinking this was a great idea, I started to mention to Jordan this morning, while we walked down to the opening day of the farmer’s market, that it would be a great day to practice riding her bike.  From her reaction, you would have thought I suggested making a bonfire out of every stuffed animal and American Girl item in the house.  I got the message in no uncertain terms that she was not interested in learning to ride a bike, perhaps ever.

She certainly has the physical coordination and balance to ride a bike, but she’s scared she might get hurt and so she’s refusing to try.  Jordan has a great girlie bike that she picked out herself (thanks Brian and Erika!!) and is thrilled to have, and as I had time last summer being between jobs, I was all set to help Jordan become as independently mobile as an 8 year old can be in today’s society.  We’re nowhere near ready to think about letting Jordan ride off on her bike to the mini-mart over a mile away.  But I can at least imagine letting her have the freedom to ride to her cousin’s house less than a half-mile away.

But Jordan has built up the few falling off incidents she has suffered last summer into a fear of near-phobic proportions.  Christine had what I hoped would be a project-saving idea in proposing that we take Jordan and her bike out into the large, mowed common area in the neighborhood so she could practice riding where the consequences of falling off would not be so severe.  No dice.  Jordan is sure that falling off on the grass will be very painful, especially if the bike falls on her, so she is still refusing to try.

So do I try to persuade a headstrong 8 year old to do something she’s afraid will hurt her?  Do I wait for her to decide it’s time to learn on her own?  Do I try to bribe her with the promise of something she might find valuable enough to entice her to face her fears?  Do I dangle the possibility of being able to ride on her own to her cousin’s house in hopes that will get her to reconsider?

I never imagined that getting a kid to ride a bike would be a challenge from a motivational standpoint.  My guess is, by the end of this summer we’ll have tried all of the ideas in the preceding paragraph and more.  But if the end result is that Jordan has the ability to hop on her bike and pedal around the neighborhood at will, I’ll take it.