Laufrad

Several years ago, when teaching my son to ride a bike, I waited until I thought he was ready, then took both the training wheels AND the pedals off his bike. Why the pedals? I didn't want him working hard to move himself, rather, I wanted him to get the feel of balancing the bike as he glided. Once he seemed to have that down, I reinstalled the pedals and had him try to ride. He was riding almost immediately.

We recently got some new neighbors, Americans who had been living in Germany. I was chatting with them one day when their son zipped by on what I first took to be a bike. Then, it was pointed out to me that there were no pedals on the "bike." It was essentially a kids version of the velocipedes of the early days of biking. I realized then that the Germans taught their kids to ride in the same way that I taught my son. A bit more conversation explained to me that the Germans call this vehicle a Laufrad, which would translate to "running (lauf) wheel(rad)." Here's a picture of my neighbors' son on his Laufrad.

(Note the lack of pedals)