Want a balance bike? Let me save you $89.

Last fall we took Lydia's training wheels off her bike and tried to teach her how to ride it without them. A lot of "I'm scared! OK, I'm going to do it. No! Wait! I'm scared!" ensued. There was a lot of me promising I absolutely was not going to let go. And then letting go. We made some progress, but she didn't get the hang of it, and so far this spring, she hasn't either.

I have several friends who swear by balance bikes and I decided I for sure wanted to try it for Audrey and Charlie. For those who don't know -- a balance bike is just like a regular bike but it has no pedals or chain. Kids just scoot around using their feet to propel them and eventually they're able to go faster and start picking up their feet and before you know it, they can balance and are ready for a big bike with pedals. I looked on Craigslist and found nothing.

Today we went to the Wheel and Sprocket Bike Expo at State Fair Park and I was pretty set on buying one there even though I knew it would probably be a bit more than I really wanted to spend. When we got there at about noon today, the girls had to go to the bathroom immediately, and I was excited when I spotted a pink balance bike on our way back to the restrooms. When we got out, we went to go look at it, and somebody had already taken it. It was the last one. I love Wheel and Sprocket. Their customer service has always been great. Jayson and I both bought our road bikes from them. They told me to just go to their store next week and tell them I wanted to buy a balance bike at the expo price of $89, and they would set me up.

I'm not patient. I wanted the balance bike TODAY. So, when I got home, I decided I was going to just take the pedals off of Lydia's old bike and turn it into a balance bike. After some research on the internet, I found some good tutorials and got to work. It took a matter of minutes. So, now I'm going to explain to YOU how to do it!

The one thing that you might need to buy is a chain tool. It pushes the pin out of a link of the bike chain so you can completely remove it from the bike. We bought one for $15. However, I would be willing to bet that your friend neighborhood bike shop would do it for you for free. However, I'm not patient and I thought the tool might come in handy in the future, so we bought one.

I also think you might want to go a size down. You have to remember their feet need to not only touch the ground, but touch the ground with room to bend and run. The bike we used was Lydia's old one that she's too big for now, but as a balance bike, it was just the right size. Audrey is just barely big enough to fit on it and there's no way it would work for Charlie. I'm planning on finding a smaller bike for Audrey and/or Charlie to transform. Then I can rationalize the chain tool purchase even better.

So, here it goes.

These are the tools you'll need. That's a 15 mm wrench in the middle. Also, you don't need a hammer. I don't know why I put that in there. The tool next to the hammer is the chain too.

First, you want to take the pedal off of the side that does not have the chain. I accidentally did this later on in the process, so the picture shows the other part taken apart too.  You'll want to use the 15 mm wrench because the adjustable one is too bulky. Also, for everything you unscrew, it's opposite what you would think. So, left tighty righty loosey. That black nut where the pedal attaches to the crank thingy (it's technical) is what you want to loosen. If it's an old bike, it's going to take some muscle.

Next, you want to remove that bolt you see further down the crank thingy. Behind that is a washer and behind that is another thing you need to loosen, but a wrench won't fit around it. It has slats on it, so you kind of use the screw driver to push it around. Both those things are clockwise again, not your usual counter-clockwise.

Now the crank is loose and the pedal is off, so you kind of wiggle it through the other way. (Oh, you might have had a plastic piece that went over the chain that you would have had to unscrew too). Now the only thing left is the chain, which is still connected through the frame of the bike. Use the chain tool to get it off.

Finally, clean the bike up. Especially the little gear where the chain used to be and the hole where the crank used to be. Get all that grease out of there. And.... voila!

Here are the leftover parts. You can always put them back on again later when they're ready for pedals. The big pink plastic thing is that chain protector I was talking about.

Lydia loved it and was able to coast immediately.

Audrey needs a couple more inches until it's more comfortable for her, but she did like trying it out and kept yelling, "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!"

Charlie stuck with her little bike.

Seriously you guys, this was so easy and so cheap. If you have questions, let me know. Or, just bring your bike to my house and I'll do it for you. Then I can really rationalize that chain tool purchase.

The Fabulous Biking Werras

Jayson and I took up biking when I was pregnant with Lydia. Or, I should say, he took up biking and I watched because let's just say that no part of me that makes contact with the actual bike and is not my hands or feet was ready to get on a bike. Once I had Lydia, I joined him. We had biked before, but not seriously, and we now do some pretty major road biking, including the Leukemia Lymphoma Society Scenic Shore 150 bike ride that is a 150-mile bike ride that occurs over the course of two days. Leading up to that ride, we go on some nice training rides.

We have always been eager to get our girls interested in biking too, so we started with a Burley when Lydia was one. A Burley is basically a cage that you attach to your bike so you can pull around your screaming, crying toddler as she Houdinis her way out of her helmet. The first summer did not go so well, but the next summer she was two and handled the helmet much better. Unfortunately, I was also recovering from the birth of Audrey, and not touching the bike. The next summer Lydia was ready to go, but Audrey was only a year old and going through the screaming-crying-ripping-of-the-helmet stage. The next summer (are you sensing a pattern here?), I was recovering from Charlie's birth, and also, we had three kids, which do not fit into a Burley without some strategic stacking.

Which brings us to this summer. We got a Trail-a-Bike for Lydia. It is a contraption that attaches to my bike and has one wheel and some pedals. Don't be fooled - her little legs may be moving, but it's all cosmetic - I could strap a bowling ball to the seat and get the same results. This of course, doesn't stop me from telling her she needs to pedal super hard for the next hill or we're not going to make it up! The inaugural Trail-a-Bike ride in our driveway involved a lot of tears and clutching the handlebars with white knuckles asking one of us to hold her on the bike while the other one rode in front of her. After running up and down the driveway next to her, I had enough. Bribery goes a long way though, and we told her that as soon as she could ride the bike, we could go anywhere she wanted and she picked the ice cream store. That prompted her to quickly pick up the necessary skills to keep her butt on the seat while I did all the work.

However, Charlie is one. Which means she's in the screaming-crying-pulling-of-the-helmet stage. We went on our first big ride today and Charlie was pretty miserable. Finally, on the way home, we let her sit up a bit. The Burley is designed in such a way that the harness kind of pulls the girls back into more of a reclining position, and having their head back kind of pushes the helmet forward. We let Charlie sit with the straps under her arms instead of over them, and she loved it. I guess if we had to choose between the harness or the helmet, the helmet wins.

So, the trip was fairly successful. We still need to work on a more stable ride with the Trail-a-Bike. It kind of feels like Lydia is doing the Y-M-C-A back there while I try to balance. I'm scared that she'll make a sudden movement and we'll hit the pavement. I refuse to clip my bike shoes into the pedals so I can act quickly in the case of an emergency. But, we're getting there.