How to help someone get over road cycling fears

harry.

Hello everyone
I've just joined the forum and was wondering if you guys had any tips about how I can help my son to get more confident with riding on roads? I remember being nervous when I first started, but he is very anxious.

meursault

Keep off busy roads. They are not pleasant for cyclists in any way.

Find some lanes with low traffic, if you live anywhere near the countryside, cycle paths if not?
Join a group, larger number of riders can help.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

As above, find the lowest traffic volume routes to get out of suburbia. They might add a bit of extra mileage, but it's so worth it for the reduced stress levels.

Longshot

How old is your son?

I've taken both of mine out on the roads and my youngest, who is 10, is now quite confident. I always cycle behind him (and slightly outside of him) and talk to him almost constantly but calmly telling him what to look at and what to do.

I'm not yet comfortable to let him out on his own on the roads but, when I am, I know he'll have a decent idea.

The eldest one (13) isn't really interested at all.

imposter2.0

Depends on his age. His confidence will grow with his ability, his handling skills and his awareness of his surroundings. Assuming he is 16 or under, take him to some proper coached sessions at wherever your nearest BC go-ride accredited cycling club is.

apreading

Has he done Bikeability? Very good courses.

After that, as others say, find quiet roads to get used to them.

Also, I used to ride behind my kids, just slightly further out into the road - to dissuade vehicles performing close passes on the kids. It also meant that if my kid suddenly braked, I wouldnt crash into the back of them...!

navrig2

The key things is to get his bike handling skills as high as possible so that he doesn't have to think about that when in traffic. Perhaps spend more time with a trail bike and getting him used to throwing a bike around, improving balance etc.

sam_anon

Most councils fund cycling confidence classes, often run by local shops.

crescent

Do they still run cycling proficiency courses at schools? When I was at primary school, in the 70s, we had the police come in and teach us how to ride a bike on the road - hand signals, observation, road sign recognition, basic lane discipline etc. At the end we were awarded a certificate and a badge. Part of it was that you had to ride your bike to school and back for a week and the training was on each afternoon of that week with simulated roads, junctions and roundabouts laid out in the playground. It was a brilliant idea. Neither of my (now adult) children were really into cycling enough to want to go out on the roads very often but I don't think I would have wanted them to without some kind of formal training in the rules of the road. Even now, as an experienced cyclist and driver, I try not to cycle on busier roads where possible - not my idea of fun.
Not aimed at the OP by any means, and slightly deviating from topic perhaps, but I still find it quite alarming that, in theory, someone could walk into a bike shop, buy a bike and ride it home on public roads without any formal requirement to know the rules of the road.

shiznit76

old Cycle Profficiency course ended years ago in schools unfortunaetly.

As others have said, find quiet country rooads or low traffic volume roads and try stay on them as much as possible. Even these days these can be hard to find.

Confidence comes with miles spent on the road, that is only way to build it up

webboo

I have been riding with my 5 year old grandson this summer. We started off riding some of the flat trails in Dalby Forrest him on his Frog bike and myself on my winter road bike. After he got pretty confident we did an 8 mile road ride on fairly quite roads I rode behind slightly out as Longshot describes above. He coped with it quite well just the odd reminder to keep in to the edge of the road.
He asked if he could ride home from our house to his later the same day. However given it was about 12 miles plus and would mean riding through the middle of Malton, I thought that might be one for next year.

apreading

shiznit76 wrote:

old Cycle Profficiency course ended years ago in schools unfortunaetly.

Not true: https://www.theschoolrun.com/bikeability-explained

Bikeability is the current equivalent and is in around half of all schools in England, some councils run it as do some scout groups etc.

imposter2.0

OP hasn't been back since Friday..

Matthewfalle

that went well then.

Matthewfalle

viewtopic.php?f=40021&p=20588691#p20588691

harry.

A quick update. It is up to the school if they offer bikeability training, I got the impression that most school don't offer it because it isn't part of their curriculum. So I have signed him up to some out of school lessons which were free as long as there was a group of them. I'm hoping that cycling in a group might give him more confidence too.

simon_e

harry. said:

A quick update. It is up to the school if they offer bikeability training, I got the impression that most school don't offer it because it isn't part of their curriculum. So I have signed him up to some out of school lessons which were free as long as there was a group of them. I'm hoping that cycling in a group might give him more confidence too.

No, schools aren't really interested, and to be fair most of them have got far too much to do already.

Ideally get him through Bikeability 3 to get road skills but even then it should be backed up with advice and support from adults. My kids did level 3 but still have had many years of encouragement and advice from me to get them to be sufficiently confident riding unaccompanied into town (they still use quieter streets, shared paths where possible).

You could try looking for a local Cycling UK group, a BC Go-Ride accredited club or other supportive social riding group who can provide sound advice and hopefully people to ride with.

oldspoke

Buy him an Xbox.

harry.

@simon_e he is doing the Bikeability 3, they wouldn't offer the lower levels because of his age. Thank you for the links to those cycling groups. I'll check them out.

rick_chasey

I did something similar as a kid - i'm not sure it improved my confidence all that much but that was 20 odd years ago so i imagine a lot has changed.

What did with my wife who was a bit scared FWIW was ride behind but quite far out in the road; a good 1-1.5m away from the curb. I did that for the first 10 or so time we went riding and just through hours on the road she got a lot more confident, and she didn't really have many close passes (as the cars really had to go around me).

Might be useful, might not be.

harry.

@rick_chasey thank for your comment. I've tried creating more space between him and the cars by riding next to him. It didn't make much difference for him. We have organised another group ride on quieter roads. I'm hoping that if there is a large group of us, it will give him more confidence. The instructor said that it will take time to build up confidence and suggested ear plugs, but he won't wear them.

rick_chasey

I'm with your kid on that one.

Also just keep an eye on simple things like how tense his body is; white knuckles etc. Gently remind him to keep his body quite loose.

simon_e

harry. said:

We have organised another group ride on quieter roads. I'm hoping that if there is a large group of us, it will give him more confidence. The instructor said that it will take time to build up confidence and suggested ear plugs, but he won't wear them.

I am surprised the instructor suggested ear plugs.

Confidence is definitely something that will come with time. It's a good idea to learn on quiet roads and hopefully your son will have enough positive experiences that the tension and fear does not dominate his time on the bike.

Cycling is statistically a very safe activity; according to CUK "cycling's health benefits outweigh the life-years lost through injuries by around 20:1. Mile for mile, the slim chances of being killed whilst cycling are about the same as those for walking, and on average, one cyclist is killed on Britain's roads for every 29 million miles travelled by cycle."

harry.

I am surprised the instructor suggested ear plugs.
Yeah, it was just to comfort him, you can still hear the traffic, but just not as loud.