Riding with kids

"Horace" spake thusly on or about Wed,
3 Sep 2003 11:24:17 UTC

- Anyone have experience in this area? If so, was there a particular age when
- you encouraged your kid to ride along? Any tips would be greatly
- appreciated.
-

We have cycled everywhere winter and summer for the past two years. I
considered our son able as soon as he could hold his line, shoulder check
and hold a reasonable speed; he was 9 when he met those requirements and
now at 11 he is riding side streets and feeders on his own and is a better
"driver" than most of the motorized ones.

tips? follow the laws yourself and expect the young to do the same. While
children may not alway do as we say they often follow our example.

--
I hurt before the ride so fibro gives me a head
start on the rest of the pack. silver lining?

Horace wrote:
I'm getting back into recreational cycling after a long hiatus, and my
oldest son (12) wants to ride with me almost all the time. I enjoy his
company when we ride in our immediate neighborhood, but he's bugging me
about riding on some heavily trafficked streets outside the neighborhood.

He has fairly good bike handling skills for his experience level, though he
often has trouble keeping up. I'm most concerned about him riding safely in
traffic. A tandem would solve the problem, but the cost is prohibitive at
present. I've considered buying a beater MTB (like his) and taking him to
some area trails, but I suspect he's attracted to the "adventure" of really
going somewhere on his bike.

Anyone have experience in this area? If so, was there a particular age when
you encouraged your kid to ride along? Any tips would be greatly
appreciated.


Horace:

If possible, sign yourself and your son up for an effective cycling
course. They go over bike handling skills in the classroom and on the
road, and they spend a fair amount of time discussing how to handle a
bike in traffic.

The best thing you can do is ride! I started my son out early (8 or 9)
and we took short trips in traffic. Most of the early times were spent
just riding with traffic and not having to negotiate turns (left). We
slowly got to that point eventually, as he became comfortable riding
with traffic.

Whatever you do, ride at his speed, or it is no fun for him.

Kerry

"Horace" wrote in message thlink.net...
....
My oldest son (12) wants to ride with me almost all the time. I enjoy his
company when we ride in our immediate neighborhood, but he's bugging me
about riding on some heavily trafficked streets outside the neighborhood.

He has fairly good bike handling skills for his experience level, though he
often has trouble keeping up. I'm most concerned about him riding safely in
traffic. A tandem would solve the problem, but the cost is prohibitive at
present. I've considered buying a beater MTB (like his) and taking him to
some area trails, but I suspect he's attracted to the "adventure" of really
going somewhere on his bike.



If you have nice trails in your area, it could be a nice *alternate*
place to ride. However, on-street riding has quite a few advantages,
including the fact one actually goes somewhere and one is able to use
the bike for useful transportation like going to school, work,
shopping, etc.

I have a 7-year-old daughter who has been riding both on the
trailercycle and by herself (more and more) for the last 2 years. She
knows the rules of the road and has known them from riding the
trailercycle, walking or even sitting in the car, so I don't think she
would zoom through a red light or stop sign on purpose.

As others said, when she rides her own bike, I prefer that she rides
in front of me so I can give her pointers and correct her if
necessary. Right now, I trust fairly much her traffic sense with the
following limitations:
- Traffic level per se doesn't seem to be a problem, especially if
there is a wide outside lane or if the side of the street (or
shoulder) is fairly even. The more critical factor is how long it
lasts: i.e. no problem for say, 1-2 km in a busy environment followed
by longer distance in more quiet roads.
- Hills are a problem. She doesn't feel confident in riding down
hills, so I choose either short ones or long ones with shallow grades.
- Some intersections are problematic, due to her confidence level, her
speed, etc. With her, I do 2-step left-turns and avoid if possible
places where one or two right lanes turn in a high-speed turn.
- Expanding a bit on the "intersection" issue, I avoid small streets
or bike path with problematic intersections. There is nothing worst
for a small hid than having to cross a high-volume street when there
is no traffic light to cross it. This is true both on foot and by
bike, so the typical pseudo-"safety" instruction of "walking your
bike" doesn't make any sense.

Regards,

Michel Gagnon

"Alexander Gilchrist" wrote in message
...
snip
Choose fairly quiet backroads at first, working up gradually to more
heavily traveled roads. Match your speed to his, and gradually work
up. A tandem will only postpone his learning to ride with and cope with
traffic.


Thanks for the tips. I want to make sure he's serious about the longer
rides, so we'll be working on single-file riding, signals, traffic
call-outs, etc. I just need to scout out some backroads for us, probably
hauling the bikes to a starting point, since we live in the urban part of
town. I think having a "destination" would help with the motivation. He kept
up with me pretty well on a ride of about four miles last week.

As far as speed goes, another poster suggested I follow in trail behind my
son, matching his speed. This will be easier when he can manage higher
gears. Right now I'm encouraging him to spin in the lower gears. (I'm
probably a little neurotic about gearing since I have arthritic knees). I
don't want him to mash big gears and hurt his knees.

Where in SC do you live? We moved from the Greenville area to NC last year.
We had a lot more nearby backroads in SC.

wrote:
[i- Hills are a problem. She doesn't feel confident in riding down
hills, so I choose either short ones or long ones with shallow grades.



One thing we did learn this summer is that coaster brakes are **not** a
good idea for kids. We were out doing some road work with rolling hills
for the experience. Oneida got going a little fast on the downhill
grade, lost her footing on her pedals and with coaster brakes, had
nothing left to slow her speed except gravity. Fortuntely, it was
nothing more serious than road rash but a big lesson for mom and dad.
She's getting a new bike next summer that's more suited to touring and
it will have proper brakes on it. In the meantime, we're off the hills
for a while.



--
Insanity has its price -- Please have exact change.

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Hi Horace, I grew up in Sweden and my school (which is common for many
schools) had a rule that you were not allowed to ride your bike to
school until you were 12. Apparently there had been several traffic
safety studies (and Sweden is a safety concious country if any) made in
the area of children and traffic. Before the age of 11 a normal child
CANNOT properly judge speed/distance in regards to oncoming traffic.
Also, coordination skills are not fully developed. Another problem is
focussing skills. A very small child can only focus on one task, and
quickly forget about anything else. We are all familiar with the
situation where a child suddenly runs after a ball that went in the
street. In the midst of the action it's impossible for a child to
remember to look for cars. The focus is only on the ball and the game.

At the age of 11 these problems have been mostly outgrown and
coordination and focus skills are basically fully developed. A normal
11 year old can also manage several tasks simultaneously, as in riding
your bike and looking out for traffic. Regardless of all this in many
cases a good knowledge of how it all works can work well in lieu of
actual skills. If you teach your child to err on the safe side and
always stop at crossings to walk the bike across, you should not need
to worry at all.

There is one other important fact that many parents forget. Many
children "live" on their bikes and have fantastic handling skills due to
constant practice. This works in their favor. Many parents ride their
bike once a week or much less. They are far more incompetent riders in
many cases.

You should not worry about your son. He's already got the psycho-motor
skills required and if you teach him the rules of the road he'll be as
safe as any adult.

1. Sit down and go through the traffic regulations related to cycling
and some to cars. That way he'll know what to expect. Use local
streets and crossings as examples.

2. Get out and drive a car lenght behind him when he rides. That way you
block him completely from other traffic with yours, and you can
supervise his riding.

3. Go and ride a bike with him. Again, stay behind so that you can see
what he does. Both in the case of #2 and #3 you force him to make his
own good/bad decisions without the benefit of looking following you
like a duckling.

You can skip step two if you don't think it's needed. I did it with my
kids because they were a bit younger and I wanted the safety of the car
shield on my first outing on a bigger road. I choose some roads with
enough traffic to pose a threat, but not too much so that I wouldn't
block traffic by driving slowly.

Good luck!



--
"I could never be a woman. I would stay home all day and play with my breasts." --Steve Martin, L.A. Story

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"MisNomer" wrote in message
...
lol....

While reading your post I was struck by the thought that perhaps had I
encouraged my son a bit more to ride his bike he might be a better car
driver
now that he is grown.

I've used this idea as a "selling point", that is pointing out that many
traffic handling skills are common between cycling and driving, so that
cycling is sort of a "pre-driver's ed".

I agree that 11-12 is the right age to introduce kids to riding in traffic. I
alternated between riding behind ("nag mode"), where I could watch & comment,
and riding ahead, where I could show by example.

I got my son an excellent pamphlet "Street Smarts", written by our local
(Boston) cycling safety guru John Allen, after studying it, he lent it to his
friends. Most of it's content is available in on-line form
http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Internet/.../frmBikeManual .

Perhaps the obvious thing to point out is that before you can teach, you
should be sure your own traffic skills are good.

Off-road cycling is an excellent way for children to learn bike handling
skills, often in conditions that are more challenging than road cycling.

I worked my son up through ever more difficult traffic situations, culminating
with rush hour urban routes. Now that he's just turned 15, he rides
everywhere. I think the biggest danger now is that he'd do something stupid
"following the leader" with friends who don't have a good grasp of cycling
safety.

"Pete" wrote in message
...

How old is she? Sometimes little kids have problems with enough finger
strength to squeeze adequately.

It's important to get brakes with levers that accommodate children's limited
hand reach. Many better lever have a reach adjustment, many kid's bike levers
are dysfunctional.

Horace wrote:

Thanks for the tips. I want to make sure he's serious about the longer
rides, so we'll be working on single-file riding, signals, traffic
call-outs, etc. I just need to scout out some backroads for us, probably
hauling the bikes to a starting point, since we live in the urban part of
town. I think having a "destination" would help with the motivation. He kept
up with me pretty well on a ride of about four miles last week.

[snip]

Where in SC do you live? We moved from the Greenville area to NC last year.
We had a lot more nearby backroads in SC.

Irmo, SC, probably the most bicycle hostile place in SC, if not the
nation, filled with frantic soccer moms (and Little League dads) on the
cell phone in their SUV's and resenting anyone else on the road. That's
slightly NW of Columbia, a city and area that has no alternatives for
commuting other than getting on busy arterials and going a roundabout
way to get anywhere. There are, however, plenty of outlying roads
nearby for recreational riding.

Very nice thread.......our 8 year old has been riding with us on 2-4 mile
jaunts this summer. He stays in front and is doing fine on the back streets.
Today I was riding with him to school when out of know where a SUV with a cell
phone mom about clipped him. This is one time I kept my cool on this matter as
the driver stopped and broke down in tears after she realized what could have
happened.