In Training

Schwarzbeere's kids have been with us often this summer.  His oldest is already proficient on a bike.  He also has a bike but it's not here with us so when he's here he's unable to ride it.  But Blaubeere took care of that for us.  Her kids had outgrown their bikes and they had already replaced them, a while ago.  Then their old bikes sat around taking up space at her house until it occurred to her that Schwarzbeere's kids might be interested in them.  So we brought them over here.  The biggest one was already in good working order and of a size that is well suited for him, so we suggested to Schwarzbeere's oldest that he might be able to ride it.  He liked that idea.   

And so we let him try it out.  He was sold.  Now he just needed someone to ride with him.  That brings us to the Schwarzbeere's other two kids.  Blaubeere had offered a total of three bikes, two of which had been sitting around longer.  They were smaller and needed a bit of work before they would be rideable. Plus, although Schwarzbeere's two youngest had already expressed interest in riding them, they also both felt they needed training wheels to be able to ride them. Alas, they did not have training wheels attached.  I looked at the local stores that carried bike supplies but nobody had them.  So I ended up ordering them online.

And, at last, they came.  It was a while before I had time to work on them but finally the day came.  First step, assemble the training wheels.

That was a relatively simple process, despite poor instructions.  Again, just pictures, no explanations.  What you going to do?  

But it didn't take long before I had the first set done and ready to go on the bike.  I picked the bike the youngest would use because that bike didn't have any flat tires.  

Once the training wheels were on I adjusted the seat to fit her and it was ready to go.

She had been monitoring the whole process pretty closely up to this point so she was only too happy to give it a try.

Riding a bike with training wheels is pretty basic but there are still some basics to learn. But she picked it up pretty quick and pretty soon she was riding around the driveway like an old pro.  She was pretty happy.

The last bike was a different matter.  It was also smaller so I had to adjust the seat as high as it would go.  But that was enough.  It also had a flat.  So that needed to be fixed.  Fortunately, fixing it only required pumping it up.  It held air over night so we were good to go.  But then the front tire. . .   

Try as I might, I couldn't even get air to go into it.  You could hear the air escaping as fast as you pumped. Very frustrating.  I finally stopped and took the tire off.

I took the tube out and inspected it closely.  I also had Schwarzbeere check real close.  He found a hole right by the stem.  Guess that explained it.  So we got a new tube.  I got the new tube in and pumped it up.  I thought I had been careful getting it back together but I must not have been careful enough.  I had it pumped and set it by the bike, ready to go back on, when the tube exploded.  This must be getting to be old stuff, Brombeere didn't come out to see what the noise was this time.  So I had to get another tube.  While I was waiting, I put the training wheels together and got them on.

With the new tube in, it pumped up much better.  With the training wheels on it was ready to go.

The young man sat upon it and was happy.  The bike was generally a bit small but, still, it worked. And it was what we had so I was happy.  

So, after trying it out in the driveway, he was all set, ready to go.  A happy kid. Now we just needed a time when they were all here and the weather was cooperating enough for all of us to go on a ride.  We also need to get helmets for the youngest two.

A few days later we finally had everything, helmets, good weather, and time to take everyone on a ride!

Everyone was out and ready! This was the first ride for the two littlest and, unfortunately, it didn't go as envisioned.  But it was good, very good for a first ride. Instead of a short ride around the block we ended up in a near by parking lot, where it went much better. They got in some good practice. And we hope they will get better and be able to have longer, more fun rides!