Lance Armstrong | North Carolina | Ed Mondello

Learning to ride a bike usually is a rite of childhood, complete with scrapes, bruises and training wheels.

But if you put your little daredevil on a Glide Bike, it doesn't have to be that way anymore.

Glide Bikes are the creation of a North Carolina dad named Ed Mondello, who saw the need for a safer way to teach children how to ride. Glide Bikes are built with mountain bike geometry in mind, allowing the bikes to have the slowest balancing speed possible so kids don’t have to reach high speeds in order to glide. Children begin by walking their gliders until they feel comfortable enough to glide, giving them the courage to take both feet off the ground and balance. Then they're ready to pedal away on a traditional bike.

Lance Armstrong didn't start this way -- but he probably wishes he had!