Our daughter, Risa, got her first set of wheels when she was only a year and a half old, my own tricycle that I had when I was 2 or 3. This tricycle had made its way through several of my much younger cousins and somehow ended up back with me. Anyway, it wasn't until she was just past her 2nd birthday that Risa was able to pedal a full revolution and launch herself into a new world.
When she was 4 and a half, I took the training wheels off of her tiny pink princess bike and "taught" her how to ride. Really, I just let her wobble her way to finding her own balance. A year later, our girl is now on her 3rd set of wheels, a Norco 16" (still pink) bike that matches her helmet.
I entered into bike commuting only in the last 8 years of my life, when I took a permanent job just 6 km from my home. Before then, the bike was strictly a recreational thing, for sunny Sundays in the park. I realize I'm now able to introduce biking to my child in a way that my parents never did. Risa loves the freedom and mobility her bike gives her and is eager to incorporate it into our daily routine as much as possible. Given Vancouver's push to create more and more bikeways in the city, I thought I'd use Risa's motivation to explore some of these bikeways, and the new experience of urban biking with a child in tow. I'm still drawing the line at rain, though. She doesn't have fenders.
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