Learning to Ride a Bike: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners

Learning to ride a bike is a significant milestone, offering a sense of freedom and joy. Whether you're a child transitioning from training wheels or an adult embarking on this adventure, this guide provides step-by-step instructions and valuable tips to help you master the art of cycling.

Is It Too Late to Learn?

If you find yourself jealous of people riding their bikes around town or going on adventurous bike trips across the world, know that it’s never too late to start cycling. And by learning how to ride a bike as an adult, you can gain a plethora of benefits, for both your physical and mental health.

When to Start: Age and Readiness

While learning to ride a bike is often seen as a childhood milestone, there's no specific age to begin. Many children start using a balance bike-a bike without pedals-between 18 months to 2 years to help develop their balance and coordination skills. Generally, the ideal age for a kid to learn to ride a regular bike is between 4 to 6 years old. The most important thing is to start when you or your child is ready - when they have the balance, coordination, and physical strength to successfully operate a bicycle.

Gear Up for Success

Before you get started, make sure you have the right gear. A comfortable and safe learning experience begins with a bike that fits you well. Creating competent cyclists starts with choosing the right equipment. Children’s bikes are sized according to the diameter of the wheel in addition to how your kid looks and feels when they are sitting on the bike.

Choosing the Right Bike

Bike riding is one of the few instances where an oversized hand-me-down just won’t do. Select a bike that fits your size and skill level.

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For Children: When buying a bike for beginners, their feet should rest flat on the ground when seated, and their arms should maintain a slight bend in the elbows. Schwinn SmartStart bikes are a great choice for kids learning to ride since they aren’t just two wheels on a kid size frame, they’re actually engineered for kids’ proportions.
For Adults: You should be able to straddle your bike with your feet flat on the ground and your crotch at least a couple inches above the frame. A bike that's comfortable will be easier to steer and control. Lower the seat, so your feet can touch the ground-this is helpful for a new rider. You should be able to reach the handlebars and brakes comfortably.

If you’re not sure where to start on choosing a bike, we’ve got a list of the best beginner bikes to choose from.

Helmet Fit

Aim for Goldilocks’ standards when fitting with a bike helmet-not too big, not too small, just right. Wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of serious injury by 70 percent. Start by checking for a safety sticker inside. Ensure straps are properly fastened. When the helmet is on, the straps should form a "V" shape around the ears. The helmet size affects how it fits around the head. A good-fitting helmet should be snug but not too tight. It should sit level on your head (not tilted back) with the front edge one inch or less above your eyebrows so your forehead is protected.

Additional Safety Gear

You may also want to invest in additional safety gear, like elbow and knee pads.

Preparing the Bike

Once you’ve found the perfect bike and gear, it’s time to make some essential adjustments for a comfortable ride. Ensure the brake levers are conveniently placed for easy access and check the seat post for proper height adjustment. You need to make a few preparations before embarking on your first ride. Next, adjust the seat height and handlebars for a comfortable fit. Squeeze the brake levers to check that they are engaging properly. A comfortable and safe riding experience depends on correct seat height and handlebar position.

Adjusting Seat Height

To adjust the seat height, lower it until you can comfortably have both feet flat on the ground while seated. This position will help you maintain control and balance as you learn to ride. Ideally, your feet should be flat on the ground when seated, with a slight bend in the knees.

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Handlebar Position

When adjusting the handlebars, loosen the bolt on the stem and move the spacers up or down to achieve the desired height.

Removing Pedals (Optional)

For children using pedal bikes, it can be helpful to remove the pedals for this stage, or just have them ignore them. To remove the pedals, grab a 15 mm wrench and loosen the pedal where it attaches to the crank arm. Always turn the wrench towards the back of the bike to loosen, or towards the front of the bike to tighten.

Finding the Right Environment

New riders learn best on flat, expansive surfaces. Find a flat, open space to learn: Find a paved area that is large and flat, such as an empty tennis or basketball court or a parking lot. Avoid grassy areas because you won't be able to get enough speed on them to learn to coast and glide. You’ll want a flat, open space free of obstacles and traffic. A soft grassy yard may seem like a good idea, but smooth pavement is the best to allow the wheels to roll easily.

Mastering the Basics: Balance, Steering, and Braking

Mastering balance and steering is a pivotal part of learning to ride a bike. Developing confidence in braking is a fundamental skill for beginner cyclists.

Mounting and Dismounting

With the seat and handlebars adjusted to your liking, it’s time to practice mounting and dismounting the bike. Start by leaning the bike towards you while applying the brakes. To mount the bike, lean it toward you (to the side) while applying the brakes so it doesn’t roll or wobble. Apply the brakes again when getting off the bike. Stand on one side of the bike and lean it toward you to make it easier to straddle. Do it several times until you're comfortable.

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The Glide Method

A great way to develop these skills is by starting with a balance bike or removing the pedals from a regular bike. This allows you to focus on balancing and steering without the added distraction of pedaling. “Scooting along helps you to learn the feeling of balancing on two wheels,” Northcotte explains. “The aim is to push off and get both feet off the ground for as long as you can. If you need to put one foot down to correct the balance, then put both down and start again. Once you can glide along without touching your feet down to correct yourself, then you’re ready to begin pedaling.” Practice your glide until you can keep your feet up for three seconds.

To practice balance and steering, begin by pushing off with your feet and maintaining balance as you glide along the ground. This will help you get comfortable with the feel of the bike and how it responds to your movements. Balance bikes, ideal for beginners, help children learn balancing and steering quickly without the distraction of pedaling.

As you practice gliding and steering, focus on maintaining your balance through momentum and being mindful not to over-correct with steering inputs.

Braking Techniques

For beginner cyclists, practicing braking off the bike is a great way to get comfortable with the braking system. Before practicing while you ride, push your bike down the street while you walk next to it. Keep both hands on both brakes and apply pressure evenly, as well as gradually. It will make you feel more secure while you ride and keep you safe in case you need to stop suddenly or slow down.

For smooth and controlled stops, it’s important to learn how to apply even pressure on both brakes. Practicing different braking techniques can help you build confidence in your ability to control the bike. To slow down, gradually stop pedaling and press down firmly on the brakes. Practice stopping every 15 to 20 feet until you become comfortable doing it. As you become more proficient in braking, strive for a smooth, controlled stop that’s not too abrupt or jerky.

Coasting

Now it's time to get on the bike and learn to coast without using pedals. While seated, take small steps so you're moving forward on your bike. Then take longer "running" strides where you reach one foot forward as if you're running. Practice this several times. As you get more comfortable with these "running" steps, try to get more speed and then pick up your feet if you can-even if it's for a second or two. Get a feel for how to balance. Keep practicing this, trying for longer stretches where you're able to pick up your feet and balance on the bike. It will be much easier to balance if you get a little bit of speed going.

Steering

As you learn to coast for longer periods of time, practice turning to the right and left. Eventually try doing large figure eights, making wide turns in both directions. Look up and forward toward where you want to go. Try to keep your body upright. Place your feet on the ground if needed. (It's important that your bike isn't too big and that you can place your feet flat on the ground.)

Pedaling and Riding

After mastering balance, steering, and braking, the next step is to learn pedaling and riding. As you become more comfortable with pedaling, work on gaining momentum and maintaining balance while riding.

Pedaling from a Stopped Position

With the pedals back on the bike, it's time to learn how to move from a stopped position. There are several strategies to do this. (If your bike has gears, make sure it's in a low gear.)

Sit on the seat with one foot flat on the ground and the other on a pedal raised at the 1- to 2-o'clock position. (You won't have enough momentum if the pedal is too level.) Press down hard on the pedal in the high position. This pressure will give the bike its forward momentum.
Another option is to start with one foot on a pedal in the down position and use the other foot to scoot, as you would on a scooter. Take a scooter step to get some speed and then find the second pedal.
A third way is to use both feet at the same time and try scooting forward before finding the pedals and putting both feet on them at the same time.

Tips for Pedaling

Try not to look down at your feet because that tends to throw your balance off. If you're looking up and don't find the pedals with your feet right away, you can always step down. Don't panic!

Steering and Turning While Pedaling

Once you're able to pedal a bike for longer stretches of time, practice turning and steering. Try doing figure eights. Turn wide first and then make smaller turns. Generally, most people find turning to one side is much easier than the other.

As you're learning, try not to pedal through the entire turn or you'll go too fast to make a controlled turn. Anticipate the turn, ease off the pedal and coast, make the turn and then pedal when you come out of that turn.

Essential Adjustments for Road Bikes

Even though the bike is “your size,” we need to do some tweaking before we ride. The saddle should be level to the ground. Ignore anyone or anything that says different. Lay a carpenter’s level along the top to check. To make sure it worked, go for a ride and try sliding forward and aft on the saddle-it shouldn’t feel like you’re going downhill or uphill more in one direction than the other. This is a big deal.

Saddle Height

By far the most common cycling problem I see in other riders is a seat that’s too low. There are many complex formulae for determining saddle height, and you can google them and use them if you want to. If you want to keep it simple, you want a saddle height that uses all the muscles in your legs. If the saddle is too low, you can’t extend your legs so you lose power, and you put unnecessary strain on your knees-drop your saddle to an absurdly low level and try to ride up a hill to feel this beyond dispute. If the saddle is too high, you’ll have to rock your hips or point your toes to reach the bottom of the pedal stroke, both power-robbing behaviors. You want to use the full stroke of the leg but never quite straighten it, because at that moment you lose power.

You can eyeball this (or better yet have a friend eyeball this): sit level on the bike cleated in with your pedal at 6 o’clock and your foot level to the ground and look at your knee-it should be slightly bent but no more. Most beginning riders want a saddle that’s too low because that’s what they’re used to from townies (it makes it easier to put a foot on the ground), so you can assume you’re one of them and just keep raising your saddle by small increments until something tells you that’s too far-either you want to rock your hips or point your toes, or you just feel a dead spot at the bottom of the pedal stroke. Don’t stop when it feels “high enough”-go to too high, then back off. In general I encourage you to not be fussy about bikes, but this one thing is worth obsessing over, because the cost of even a slight error is high.

Every time I rent a bike, I raise the saddle to what feels and looks right, ride for ten minutes, realize that on the climbs I’ve got no power and my knees are killing me, raise the seat a half inch, ride for ten minutes, realize that on the climbs I’ve still got no power and my knees are still killing me, and raise the seat another quarter inch. Maximum power comes when you’re driving straight down onto the pedals, which turns out to mean your knees are directly over the pedals at 3 o’clock. If your saddle is behind or ahead of this spot, you’re making riding harder than it has to be. It’s the difference between lifting twenty pounds that’s positioned directly under you and lifting it when it’s two feet in front of you.

This position can’t be eyeballed, so you need a plumb line (ask a friend to assist or lean against a wall). Sitting square on the bike with pedals at 3 and 6 o’clock, drop a plumb line from the little indentation immediately below your forward kneecap down through the pedal. Many racers obsess about this measurement. And there are personal preferences-many riders like their saddles a bit behind this “ideal” position. And of course you move around on the saddle, so the perfect position for sprinting isn’t the perfect position for climbing. I’ve talked to respected wrenches who said, “Put the seat post in the middle of the saddle rails and forget it.” So I think ballpark is OK on this issue.

Handlebar Height

You may well want to raise the height of your handlebars. Begin by measuring the distance from the top of the saddle to the ground, then the distance from the top of the handlebar to the ground, substract one from the other, and that’s your handlebar drop-the distance your bar sits below your saddle. If you’re old, inflexible, or new to cycling, you’ll want that distance to be small, with the bar about 1” below the saddle. Racers like it large, with the bar as much as a foot below the saddle, because they want to get as low as possible to minimize wind resistance. Everyone else is in between. Start out with your bar high and lower it as you gain confidence and become more aggressive in your riding.

There are three ways to effectively raise a handlebar.

Raise your stem by installing spacers (little rings) under it.
Swap your stem for one with more rise (upward angle), or, if your stem is installed pointing down (which is quite possible), turn it upside down.
If you have a standard handlebar, swap it for one with a shallow drop (AKA compact shape) where the C of the handlebar curve is shorter top to bottom.

These three things may not be enough to solve the problem if you need an extremely upright riding position. In that case, you have two options. One is, install a steering tube extender, which effectively makes your steering tube 4-6 inches longer. This is a radical move which will likely expose you to ridicule. A lot of new bikes are set up so the brake levers are so high on the bar they’re next to unreachable from the drops. If your bike is like that, move the levers down the bar curve until they’re handy. If your levers stand too far out from the bar for you to reach them comfortably, you need to reduce the reach. Some brakes have a simple adjustment screw that lets you do this. If yours don’t, you can sometimes get little hard rubber shims that wedge into the top of the bake levers and accomplish the same thing. If neither solution is available to you, you’ll have to buy brakes with reach adjustment-a pricy upgrade, but you really need to be able to reach your brakes. Cockpit size isn’t quantifiable. If the reach is wrong for you, the only adjustment available to you is stem length, and changing stem length alters handling-a shorter stem means snappier, quicker handling, so if the reach feels too big you can try shorter and shorter stems (a “normal” stem is 100-110 mm) until the handling becomes fidgety. In the other direction, if the cockpit is too small you can go to longer and longer stems until you feel like the bike begins to steer like a truck.

Cadence

Most new cyclists (myself included) pushed at low RPM's (cadence) unnecessarily. Too low a cadence may indicate too-long cranks. Too-long cranks will strain your effort on climbing and against headwinds; while Chicago is flat, it's also windy, isn't it?

Monitoring Performance

As you continue to pursue this interest, consider investing later in A) a heart rate monitor (strap or watch), B) a bike computer = lots of choices, and C) a power meter = pricey but worth it, to more precisely gauge and monitor your performance without putting your health at undue risk.

Overcoming Challenges

Beginner cyclists may face common challenges like dealing with road hazards and interacting with other cyclists and traffic. Developing the skills to handle various cycling scenarios is key to overcoming these challenges.

Road Hazards

Road hazards, such as potholes and debris, can pose a threat to cyclists, especially beginners. Stay alert and look far ahead for any road debris or hazards to stay safe on the road. By maintaining a safe distance from vehicles and other obstacles, you can ensure a secure ride and avoid potential accidents.

Interacting with Others

For cyclists of all levels, it’s important to know how to interact with other cyclists and traffic. As a beginner, it’s crucial to follow the same rules of the road as other vehicles, such as stopping at stop signs and red lights, yielding to pedestrians, and riding in the same direction as traffic.

Important Things to Remember

Before you get started learning to ride, here are some things to keep in mind:

Be patient: Don't try to force the process. If you find yourself getting tired or frustrated, take a break and come back to it later. Shorter, more focused practice sessions may be a better approach than trying to do too much all at once.
Don't give up: You may not learn to pedal right away, but with continued practice, you'll get it. Remember that each time it's going to get a little bit easier.
Biking should be FUN

Celebrating Success

Learning to ride is a big deal, so celebrate success with a reward! Celebrate their “I did it!” moments with high fives and happy dancing. You can print out an official SmartStart ‘I Can Ride’ Certificate!

Additional Tips

Originally, you could join Strava for free without a trial period.
Learn to bring and use a repair kit

Start a Ride Log

You want to start keeping track of your rides from Day One, because when you start it two years later, like most people do, you will wish you could recover all those unrecorded miles. If you have a Garmin or other electronic ride recorder, your software will keep the log for you. If you don’t, write it down in a little spiral notebook or some such. Recording the details of the ride afterwards is one of the sweet rituals in the sport. I record date, time spent riding, distance, max heart rate, elevation gain, average speed, max speed, number of bikes seen, and number of cars seen if I’m riding a backcountry road, but many riders record much more and you can please yourself, as long as you record the mileage.

Make a Pre-Ride Checklist

Put in it everything you want to take on a ride or do to prepare for a ride. Consult it before all rides other than neighborhood leg-looseners, and every time you forget something add it to the list until there’s nothing more to add. Include everything, however obvious-I’ve been on bike trips where people forgot shoes, water, gloves, helmets, and skewers. Probably the most-forgotten item on a bike trip is the front wheel, so put that on the list. By the way, the Handi-Wipe you keep in your seat pack for six months before you use it will be bone dry when you finally do. All the cleaner is still there-only the water has gone.

Start a Bike Maintenance Log

You are setting out on a long relationship with your bike, a relationship that will be punctuated by frequent tune-ups, repairs, mechanical modifications, breakages, part replacements, and upgrades. Every time one of these things happens, record the event, the date, and all parts details (dimensions, model numbers, serial numbers, weight) in your log. Include accessories like helmets, shoes, and mini-pumps. Everybody thinks they’ll just remember, but they won’t. Even if you don’t want the information, others will. When my cycling shoes fell apart unexpectedly, the first questions the manufacturer asked were, When did you buy them?, and what’s the model number and size? Christen your maintenance log by entering everything you know about your current bike: make, model number, size, serial number, weight, date of purchase, and all similar information on all components. Why record the weight of everything? Because, even if you aren’t a weight weenie, you’re going to have to replace things when they wear out, and it’s nice to know if you’re adding or losing weight when you do. If the new handlebar your Local Bike Shop is suggesting as a replacement for your cracked OEM bar is 80 g.

Inflate Your Tires

Air up your tires before every ride (or, if you ride every day, every other ride) to full riding pressure. Make it a habit. Bike tires aren’t like car tires-they leak air, up to 10 psi a day. Riding on underinflated tires invites pinch flats, hastens tire wear, and adds to rolling resistance (makes you work harder). Riding on overinflated tires gives you an unforgiving, jarring ride and also adds to rolling resistance. So what’s the right tire pressure? The answer to that question used to be simple: 110 to 120 psi. Back in the old days it seemed intuitively obvious that harder was faster. My current tires say they should be inflated to a minimum of 110 psi. But it turns out we were wrong. But tire pressure has become complicated in recent years, and every issue of a bicycle magazine now seems to have its article on how to determine ideal tire pressure. If you don’t like fussing with technical issues, inflate your tires to 90 psi and go ride.

There are two ways to think about tire pressure. One says: Speed is determined by rolling resistance-the inherent friction holding back the bike as it tries to roll down the road-and RR actually goes up when the tire gets too hard. So too hard is bad. But there’s a downward limit to tire pressure. If the tire gets too soft, RR goes back up and you get pinch flats-you ride over a pothole, the impact smashes…

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