Inspiring your children to become cyclists
mattsurf
Posts: 4
I have recently done a 57 mile cycle ride with my 2 children, age 10 and 13. We completed the ride in 4h 59m at an average speed of 11.4 mph. We completed some of the most server climbs in the South of England and didn't get off an push - we were on road bikes, not hyper low geared mountain bikes. Most of the time we were "cruising" between 12 and 16mph
The reason for this post is because of the number of people who chatted with us about how inspirational it was to see young children cycling really well at speeds that most of the adults were unable to match. I think that it can be best summed up by a comment from an Italian, cycling on a very serious bike: "bellissima famiglia".
My children are not sporty, they are not athletes, they are not exceptionally fit and certainly not tall.... they are just ordinary children who love cycling.
As we were cycling, one mother, with slightly younger children, told me that she had been inspired to get her kids out more, and what tips did I have. This is how I got my children into cycling:
Start your children as early as you can, but don't push them to fast: My daughter, now 10, started on a balance bike at 3, she loved her Like-a-Bike jumper (the aluminum one, not wooden) In the summer, before her 5th birthday, she started riding her first bike. We did lots of rides in the park - no more than a couple of miles at a slow pace and always involved a visit to the swings and slides. At the age of 6 she got an Islabike Beinn 20 small for her birthday, we could now go for longer rides, going to cycle tracks in the Forest of Dean or New forest, or railway lines turned into cycle routes in Derbyshire, Hampshire and Dorset; soon we were doing 10 mile rides. Rides became more ambitious and when she was 7 we were regularly doing 10 to 15 miles on quiet country roads normally with a pub lunch (pubs were selected for the standard of play area). When she was 8 we started to use a Tandem that my parents had; longer rides of more 20 miles were on the Tandem, less than 20 miles were on her own bike. Now that she had outgrown her Isla Bike, it was replaced by a Kona Stuff 24' Mountain bike, this is great off road and on trails, but pretty useless on road. We had so much fun on the tandem that this was also upgraded to a lovely George Longstaff tandem frame I found on ebay. As I work from home, we also started to use the Tandem to cycle 1.5 miles to school, whatever the weather we would try to cycle. Now she is cycling her own bike to school, and each day we try to go a little faster.
My children love charity rides my son and daughter did their first 50 mile charity ride on the tandem (around age 8 ), but then wanted to cycle solo (age 11 Son and Age 10 daughter), initially 50 miles would take around 8 hours, limited by the speed of the Solo rider. This year we completed a 57 mile ride in under 5 hours even though it was my daughters first 50 mile+ solo ride.
Set challenging ride: Whatever their age, try to set challenging rides, or ride at a challenging pace; don't over do it, and make sure that your children know that it is a bit of a challenge. You may be really surprised that your 5 year old can cycle 5 miles or that your 9 year old can cycle 25 miles or climb a steep hill without pushing. Your children will enjoy the feeling of beating a challenge, and they will know that when it gets tough that they can do it and not give up. But an important aspect is also the "pub lunch"; if the bike ride incorporates something like this it will be far more attractive to the children (and lets not forget the adults, but don't drink very much or you will struggle to keep up with the kids after lunch)
Get equipment that is appropriate; Too many children's bikes are sold at the lowest possible price, they are heavy, often with fat chunky tyres and poor gears. From their very first bike weight should be your primary consideration, get a heavy unwieldy bike and you will put your child off for life. Buy a Like-A-Bike or Isla Bike new and they will have great second hand value.
This year, now 10 and 1.46m tall, my daughter inherited/grown into her brother's racing bike, Speed has increased massively over her mountain bike, and she is able to cycle much further. Our old 20 mile all day route is suddenly less than a 2 hour ride, we are now cycling 20 miles to a pub for lunch and cycling 20 miles home.
Her current bike is a Giant TCR XS with a 43cm frame and 700c wheel and semi slick 28mm tyres. It weighs just over 9kg and was upgraded, by me, with a high spec shimano XT mountain bike cassette and rear derailleur, a compact 105 Chainset, crosstop brakes and decent woman's touring saddle. It is important to change the gear ratios as most road bikes have ratios set for adults (typically lowest gear 38:26 which makes climbing very tough), children need a decent low gear; on my daughters bike, the bottom gear is now 34:34 and top gear is 50:11 which is perfect. The bike was bought second hand and has been passed down from 2 older brothers, in total, with upgrades, the bike cost me around £350.
Mountain bikes are great, my children all have a road bike and a mountain bike (my wife keeps asking why we need so many bikes). All of our bikes were bought second hand which keeps the costs down. It may seem like a luxury having 2 bikes, however if you are serious about cycling long distances on roads, then a road bike is a must.
Going from a mountain bike (equipped with Slicks for the road) to a road bike has been an transformation - speed is up by 20%+, and ability to cycle long distances is now substantially better. Small frame adult bikes seem to be a real second hand bargain. My son has a Cannondale T2000 touring bike with 47cm frame. It is in "as new" condition, this model, was originally £1600 in 2004, I recently bought it for £250. It is light, responsive, more than capable on bridleways and tracks and a pleasure to cycle, as a touring bike, it also has great gear ratios.
Finally, get involved with local rides and charity rides, especially ones that are targeted at families.
Unfortunately the tandem is not getting much use at the moment - but we are planning a cycle trip to From Caen to Santander (650 miles) in 2017 on the Tandem (By then I think that it will be me that needs the help)
The reason for this post is because of the number of people who chatted with us about how inspirational it was to see young children cycling really well at speeds that most of the adults were unable to match. I think that it can be best summed up by a comment from an Italian, cycling on a very serious bike: "bellissima famiglia".
My children are not sporty, they are not athletes, they are not exceptionally fit and certainly not tall.... they are just ordinary children who love cycling.
As we were cycling, one mother, with slightly younger children, told me that she had been inspired to get her kids out more, and what tips did I have. This is how I got my children into cycling:
Start your children as early as you can, but don't push them to fast: My daughter, now 10, started on a balance bike at 3, she loved her Like-a-Bike jumper (the aluminum one, not wooden) In the summer, before her 5th birthday, she started riding her first bike. We did lots of rides in the park - no more than a couple of miles at a slow pace and always involved a visit to the swings and slides. At the age of 6 she got an Islabike Beinn 20 small for her birthday, we could now go for longer rides, going to cycle tracks in the Forest of Dean or New forest, or railway lines turned into cycle routes in Derbyshire, Hampshire and Dorset; soon we were doing 10 mile rides. Rides became more ambitious and when she was 7 we were regularly doing 10 to 15 miles on quiet country roads normally with a pub lunch (pubs were selected for the standard of play area). When she was 8 we started to use a Tandem that my parents had; longer rides of more 20 miles were on the Tandem, less than 20 miles were on her own bike. Now that she had outgrown her Isla Bike, it was replaced by a Kona Stuff 24' Mountain bike, this is great off road and on trails, but pretty useless on road. We had so much fun on the tandem that this was also upgraded to a lovely George Longstaff tandem frame I found on ebay. As I work from home, we also started to use the Tandem to cycle 1.5 miles to school, whatever the weather we would try to cycle. Now she is cycling her own bike to school, and each day we try to go a little faster.
My children love charity rides my son and daughter did their first 50 mile charity ride on the tandem (around age 8 ), but then wanted to cycle solo (age 11 Son and Age 10 daughter), initially 50 miles would take around 8 hours, limited by the speed of the Solo rider. This year we completed a 57 mile ride in under 5 hours even though it was my daughters first 50 mile+ solo ride.
Set challenging ride: Whatever their age, try to set challenging rides, or ride at a challenging pace; don't over do it, and make sure that your children know that it is a bit of a challenge. You may be really surprised that your 5 year old can cycle 5 miles or that your 9 year old can cycle 25 miles or climb a steep hill without pushing. Your children will enjoy the feeling of beating a challenge, and they will know that when it gets tough that they can do it and not give up. But an important aspect is also the "pub lunch"; if the bike ride incorporates something like this it will be far more attractive to the children (and lets not forget the adults, but don't drink very much or you will struggle to keep up with the kids after lunch)
Get equipment that is appropriate; Too many children's bikes are sold at the lowest possible price, they are heavy, often with fat chunky tyres and poor gears. From their very first bike weight should be your primary consideration, get a heavy unwieldy bike and you will put your child off for life. Buy a Like-A-Bike or Isla Bike new and they will have great second hand value.
This year, now 10 and 1.46m tall, my daughter inherited/grown into her brother's racing bike, Speed has increased massively over her mountain bike, and she is able to cycle much further. Our old 20 mile all day route is suddenly less than a 2 hour ride, we are now cycling 20 miles to a pub for lunch and cycling 20 miles home.
Her current bike is a Giant TCR XS with a 43cm frame and 700c wheel and semi slick 28mm tyres. It weighs just over 9kg and was upgraded, by me, with a high spec shimano XT mountain bike cassette and rear derailleur, a compact 105 Chainset, crosstop brakes and decent woman's touring saddle. It is important to change the gear ratios as most road bikes have ratios set for adults (typically lowest gear 38:26 which makes climbing very tough), children need a decent low gear; on my daughters bike, the bottom gear is now 34:34 and top gear is 50:11 which is perfect. The bike was bought second hand and has been passed down from 2 older brothers, in total, with upgrades, the bike cost me around £350.
Mountain bikes are great, my children all have a road bike and a mountain bike (my wife keeps asking why we need so many bikes). All of our bikes were bought second hand which keeps the costs down. It may seem like a luxury having 2 bikes, however if you are serious about cycling long distances on roads, then a road bike is a must.
Going from a mountain bike (equipped with Slicks for the road) to a road bike has been an transformation - speed is up by 20%+, and ability to cycle long distances is now substantially better. Small frame adult bikes seem to be a real second hand bargain. My son has a Cannondale T2000 touring bike with 47cm frame. It is in "as new" condition, this model, was originally £1600 in 2004, I recently bought it for £250. It is light, responsive, more than capable on bridleways and tracks and a pleasure to cycle, as a touring bike, it also has great gear ratios.
Finally, get involved with local rides and charity rides, especially ones that are targeted at families.
Unfortunately the tandem is not getting much use at the moment - but we are planning a cycle trip to From Caen to Santander (650 miles) in 2017 on the Tandem (By then I think that it will be me that needs the help)
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Comments
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Very good comments above.
From my viewpoint (only one 2.5 year old) I would say the best thing you can do for your child is to give them support and encouragement in something that they enjoy. However if you start early enough and in the right way you can influence them a lot. Both me and my partner were very active in various outdoors activities. Between us we have a lot of common experience but also different ones too. After getting together we shared a lot of activities and after she became pregnant we still carried on. This led to walking and cycling with very young child. We were cycling with a trailer from the age of about 9 months, walking in the hills from the age he was holding his head up by himself.
We are not at the OP;s stage but we already have a boy who wants to ride, wants to walk and is adventurous in spirit, but safe with it. I say this because he takes risks but within his ability (already seen him back down from climbing something he could not get safely manage.
As far as encouragement goes, we just get out there and do what to us is fun. We even give the lad the choice on what activity to do. His choice is usually cycling or walking but sometimes it is going into town. Yes shopping, but in my defence I spent a bit too long looking in bike shops for my new bike so he obviously finds shopping fun now. He loves going to bike shops so inadvertently we have created an interest in going to town which to him means a bike shop! I hope he grows out of that but not the bike shop interest.
One last thing, for me outdoors activities has played a very important part of my life. It is my exercise for my health but also it helps me unwind a lot. i can not imagine not being outdoors at the weekend and when on holidays. Not for me a city break or a beach or poolside holiday (and especially not a bar based one). This means our whole family has the same views on this (through their choice as much as dictatorship from me). We are all of a like mind, so far. With my son this has been solely due to him not knowing anything else. I am hoping it has stuck and when he does learn that this is not the norm he will still want it.0
