Let Your Kids Bike in Place While They Zoom

Let Your Kids Bike in Place While They Zoom
Photo: Waridsara_HappyChildren (Shutterstock)

At Lifehacker, we already encouraged you to create your own $120 DIY version of a Peloton-style exercise bike (and our health editor tried out the set-up long enough to give it her stamp of approval). But if your little kid already has a bike with training wheels, you can create a similar version for them without spending a dime—and you can use it as a way to get the wiggles out while they Zoom with their kindergarten class.

Parent Julie Bredemeier Fulks figured out how to make an in-home exercise bike for her energetic kindergartener, Charleston, and was kind enough to share her brilliance with the rest of us on Facebook:

The set-up is quite literally just a bike with training wheels and a pair of what appear to be adult sneakers. It looks like little Char is using a fairly nice pair of Nikes—perhaps because of the shoe’s shape and sturdiness—to stabilize her bike’s training wheels. (I would first try an older, end-of-life pair instead, and see if those hold up.)

I suspect this is set up strategically at the end of that rug for the sake of friction. If you’re working with a hard floor, try placing a yoga mat or a sturdy kitchen floor mat underneath the sneakers to stabilize the bike. The goal, of course, is to stay in place and not come crashing into their desk. Test it out first, slow and steady, before you let them pedal their way through math class.

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Fulks says in her post that her older daughter, Ella, is now requesting a bike with training wheels to use for the same purpose. If your kids have already graduated from training wheels but you hung onto them for reasons you didn’t quite understand at the time, you might consider re-converting their bike from an outdoor, summer-fun tool to an indoor, virtual-learning one.

You might also be able to score a used option locally right now from people who think their children no longer need training wheels because they haven’t yet seen Fulks’ video.

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