3 October 2010 Evolution of a Cyclist

Today Sam tried out her first pedal bike. After several cautious starts, and a few rests, then some more cautious starts, AC let go of the bike. And she stayed up!

Then they did it all over again. And again. Each time Sam rode by herself for a little longer before braking. I wish I could have captured on camera the little jiggy dance AC did when he let go and Sam rode for what seemed like a super long time. But I was laughing too hard.

AC has been waiting for this day for a long time. He practically grew up on a bicycle and has been longing to share cycling with Sam even before she existed.

She started in a sidecar trailer that attached to AC’s bike. Can you tell how much she loved it?

But after that first teary ride at 16 months, she did grow to enjoy tagging along with her Dad. She especially liked his theory of downhill riding, which is: brakes? What brakes?

When she was 2 it was onto a tricycle:

And then a balance bike at 3:

Last year, shortly after Sam’s 4th birthday we realized that she was too big for the trailer:

So she graduated to the Trail-a-bike:

The trail-a-bike is great for long family rides. (Don’t I wish my bike hooked onto the back of AC’s. I need to start dropping hints about a tandem.) But today was the start of real independent riding.

We’re very excited.

Doesn’t mean we’re not going to be tagging along close behind for a while, though.