Bikes Are Big on Planet Klynia

Book Synopsis: Kids everywhere want to ride bikes… even kids on Planet Klynia!

When twins Hazel and Henry move to Planet Klynia, they find a very different world. As they explore on their bicycles, they see that the local people, called Zonns, never smile. And the twins are the only ones on the whole planet who have bikes!

After befriending a Zonn boy named Durst, the twins realize that people everywhere are not so different after all. Durst wants to ride a bike too, but is having trouble learning. With the help of the twins and their step-by-step tips, Durst discovers the joy of riding. Soon all of Klynia is riding bikes and smiling!

A fun story for kids ages 6-12… and up. And a great book for any child who wants to ride a bike or has had trouble learning to ride in the past. Seeing that virtually anyone (if ambulatory and sighted) can ride a bike—even aliens—will inspire your child to hop on, feel the wind in the face, and become a smiling bike rider!

Includes a How-To Guide to help you coach and teach your child!

If your child wants to learn to ride a bike, these tips will help them get past training wheels.

Your child will:

• Overcome their fear of riding
• Feel confident in learning to ride
• Learn to ride independently

Professor Klein has been instrumental in developing a national program for teaching children with disabilities to master bike riding, and has applied his techniques to this step-by-step guide. This program has helped tens of thousands of children, making it the largest and most successful program of its kind. Professor Klein’s bike riding tips can help your child too!

Interview with the Author

Some people call you The Bike Whisperer. Would you say that’s true? I consider that a great compliment. It’s a joy to help and see children overcome their fear of riding. Understanding the child/bicycle connection is the key, just as understanding the horses was crucial in The Horse Whisperer. I help each child learn to listen to what the bike is telling them. My goal is to inspire confidence—I always tell the learning child that it’s easy and they start to believe it.

Will this book really help ANYONE learn to ride a bike? Bike riding isn’t something we teach a person to do, but rather it’s a discovered skill. Each child has the potential to discover how to ride a bike so long as the environment is conducive for that discovery. Through experimentation, children adapt to and master the bicycle and refine their balancing skills.

What makes your techniques so different? There is little oral instruction. I provide an appropriate training bike (or modify their own bike if possible), a safe environment, correct spotting techniques, and then launch them to find their balance. For children with disabilities, I provide a series of trainer bikes with gradually more challenging characteristics until the children are able to master a conventional bike.

How long have you been interested in bicycles? My academic background focused on understanding movement and control of movement. In 1983, during my tenure as a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Illinois, my research led to the study of how children learn to ride bicycles, how to design better learning bicycles, and then the innovation of a world-recognized adaptive bike program for children with varied disabilities. The program has now spread throughout much of North America.

Where can I get more information about the adaptive bike program? In The Bike Whisperer: Changing the World One Bike Rider at a Time, I tell the story of my experiences in developing the program. You can also visit RainbowTrainers.com to get more information about our mission or icanshine.org/programs to learn about instructional camps.