KIDS
HB.130 Ambassador Pete Dodd talks us through riding bikes, kid and not loosing that sense of adventure.
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As an active person, the arrival of kids brought with it a tightrope to walk: Carefully trying to balance family life with satiating my appetite for adventure. And that isn’t to say that it’s trading off tedium of family life against the thrill of the outdoors and riding - it turns out I absolutely love spending time with my family - it’s just that I need both in my life to keep me happy and to maintain some of my own identity.
I’m sure that many parents will be able to relate to this, and the 7 days in the week just seem to evaporate before our eyes. With my wife and I both being keen riders, I was concerned about pushing bikes onto the kids, and we have done little to try to prevent this. For now at least they seem to love time spent on and around two wheels as much as we do, and we just cross our fingers that this will continue.
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The kids are big enough to have their own bikes now, and we tried them in seats on our bikes fairly early on. Starting out with the more popular rear mounted seats, I found these really bounced around and the child was left staring at your back. Whilst they seemed to enjoy the wind in their hair and being outside, these were only really any good for fairly short rides on tarmac or gravel. And then we were tipped off to the front-mounted WeeRide, which was a revelation. With the weight sitting within the wheel-base of the bike and quite close to the rider, it has very little effect on the centre of gravity of the bike whilst riding (pushing is another matter!). I found that I could use this seat on much more interesting terrain.
I started cautiously, with saddle fully dropped, flat pedals and tackling easy trails that I knew well, and at about walking pace. I really did not want to risk crashing and dropping the bike. It was an instant hit with our eldest! He loved “the bumpy ones” and as soon as we got to the bottom of a trail he was bullying me back up the other side (great training). Since then we have ridden most of our local bridleways, some great trails in the Forest of Dean and even used them whilst mountain biking on our summer holidays to France.
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For me, this is a real win-win; doing something that I love, with my family, getting exercise, being outdoors and not being reliant on anyone for childcare or to hire equipment. I’m cruising along that family life/adventure tightrope, and it feels great! Of course you have to adjust your ride: safety is the priority, they will still get bored and they are very exposed to the elements on the front of the bike, therefore susceptible to getting cold. When I hear “daddy, this is silly, what are we doing here?” from up front I know this means I’ve gone too far and the trail is too technical/ scary, but it’s a rare occurrence!
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The WeeRide was great, especially whilst the kids were small and likely to fall asleep, as it has a head rest and harness, but there are limitations in the bikes that it is compatible with, and it’s also quite a heavy lump. We’ve now moved onto using the MacRide and Shotgun seats. Both of these are lightweight, quick and easy to fit, and very robust. Our eldest (five and a half) is getting rather big for them, but I hope that I can keep taking him out with me for a while yet. It’s great to hear him giggling along the trail, to share the experiences with him and to see how much fun he’s having. I also find that he is always up for it, even when I have nobody else to ride with, so it’s nice just to have the company! I can thoroughly recommend that all parents that are confident on a bike give it a try.
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