Academy School District 20 in Colorado Springs to receive new bicycles for kindergarten students Friday

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Endeavour Elementary School received 25 new bicycles Friday as part of a nationwide All Kids Bike program that will teach kindergarten students how to ride, and ride safely.

School officials said that around 100 students will use the bikes during the next five years, and the program will include first-graders, as well.

The school received Strider Learn-to-Ride balance bikes, each valued at $200 and paid for by donations.

Each bike will include a helmet and a pedal conversion kit; students will learn from an eight-lesson curriculum led by a teacher instructor on a larger Strider bike.

The bikes are low-maintenance, with airless tires.

The first five lessons involve first teaching kids how to balance themselves on a bike, and they begin learning riding techniques with lesson six.

Officials presented the bikes during an afternoon assembly in the gym.

"I didn't know it would be bikes," said student Lila Gonzalez. "I think about riding them around the whole gym."

Another student, Luke Maxson, demonstrated that he already knows how to ride but is eager to teach his inexperienced classmates.

"I can help them by saying 'Watch me,' and they can, like, kind of follow," he said. "When I learned to ride, I fell only five times."

Luke raised his fall total to six during a trial run with one of the bikes, but that's part of learning to ride -- pick your self up and get back on.

Around 40 schools in Colorado are members of the program, with a dozen members in the Colorado Springs area and 650 nationwide.

Officials of the South Dakota-based program said that the experience is important because only one out of four kids learns to ride a bike.

"Strider talked about how kids are not getting out and biking any more and fewer kids are biking to school," said instructor Tim Brubaker. "Learning that safety, and reaching that really important milestone in physical development, is what we're helping more kids to do."

For more information, visit: https://allkidsbike.org/.