I bought a Ridgeback Melody bike for my daughter off Ebay a few weeks ago. It was collection only, but was located almost where my brother lives, so he collected it for me. Last weekend my brother and family came up to visit and he brought the bike with him. The Melody comes in a bright pink, so it is the perfect colour for my daughter. The Ridgeback bikes for kids are great, they are well designed for little hands and little people.

She hasn’t really had the confidence that she could ride without stabilisers, so we told her that she could only have the pink bike when she was riding without stabilisers. This proved to be the added incentive necessary. This morning I took the stabilisers off her bike and she was out on our patio, scooting it back and forth to get her balance, then before we knew it she was trying to pedal; there is only really room for a couple of rotations, but she was trying.

This afternoon, we took the bikes out to Marston Vale again. Her bike went out without the stabilisers, they were in a bag in case we had to put them back on. I rode off ahead with my son, while Jo stayed with our daughter. Initially we waited for them to catch up, but then we just went off ahead and did a lap in about 30 minutes. When we caught up with them, they had stopped, but Jo said she was doing well. With that she rode of and instead of the couple of pedals that I expected before she stopped, she pedaled and pedaled and pedaled. She went about 100 yards before she decided to stop….. wow, brilliant. We went on to finish the circuit and waited at the car for them. To see her ride down the path and round the corner towards the car was great.

When we got home, I set the saddle and handlebar height on the Ridgeback and then she was out there on the patio, scooting and pedaling it back and forth.