Parents and even adults have many options available to them. We also note that a reasonable number of children and adults could indeed learn to ride a bike on their own provided the issues aren't too severe, provided that they have what we call an acceptable bike, and provided they have access to some good advice.

In many cases, the inability to ride a bike can be tied to failings in any one of these three critical areas, or a combination. Yet another problem is that the persons coaching the learning child (or person trying to learn) are possibly being too critical or demanding, causing the learner to shut down. As far as the suitability of the bicycle itself, many bikes are hostile to the beginner as the emphasis is usually on too much racing design and too much complexity. In most cases this problem can be easily overcome so long as you know what you should be looking for.

This section is admittedly long, and we have much to do to improve it, but let's start with a case study of actual events as pertains to a young man in Long Island NY who wrote to us. We suggest that you browse the tab sections to the left. The first section provides a number of e-mail exchanges from 2005 with a young man, Brad, in Long Island NY. Based on the e-mail exchanges, Brad was successful in working through the obstacles.