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Introducing Kids to the Sport???

6K views 59 replies 24 participants last post by  smittyway 
#1 ·
I have 2 Sons (7 and 12).

They are athletic.

They have been raised with a cyclist.

Our garage has a dozen "nice" bikes - including a "nice" BMX and MTB for each boy.

Everything seems in place.

However, getting the kids more involved about cycling is not quite so easy.

My oldest wanted to do the P2A with me this year. Then the HCC visited his class and tested their prowess on stationary bikes. He claims his was too small and his times weren't up to his classmates. Now he says he won't be prepared.

Also, he has a "nice" bike, however, mine is really farkin' nice! SHould I feel bad my bike is 7x as expensive as his? I will jettison his stock wheels and tires for lighter stuff I have, but he still won't have a weight weenie.

I raised hockey players. Together the 2 of them could fight Chuck Norris. But I don't know what to pick for a "first step" for competitive cycling? Cycling is my sanctuary from stress, but part of me says I should give it up to get them more into it?

Anyone have a game plan for developing youth mtbers? is the P2A too big of a first step?

Advice appreciated...
 
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#5 ·
40k is daunting for a 12yr old. On our youth rides it’s tough to cover 25k unless they are very experienced.
Consider an OCup race for that age is only 6km.

Unglued offers great advice. Start them out with a local series and in the local club. And hit up Joyride. No armor (except helmet) and any bike you have.

As far as riding less yourself, I assume as a parent you have to make sacrifices. But something tells me being out with the kids and enjoying themselves will be an equal stress reliever.
 
#2 ·
Your kids are probably worried that Ovechkin will beat them at the P2A...

Seriously, take 'em to Joyride - they will see other kids bombing around and will want to do likewise. That's a good start. Then maybe make their first race a low-key weekly race series - Kelso is likely the closest to The Hammer. An O-Cup kids race is also a good way to go. IMHO the P2A (even the 40k distance) is likely a bit intimidating, especially for the 7 year old, for a first race ever.
 
#11 ·
All good points. Oggie brings up a huge point. Exposé your kids to many sports don't focus on just one. Keep in mind we parents want our kids to do sports we like. In some cases live vicariously through them to make up for us coming up short in our own attempts. Worked wonderfully for my dad who tried that with golf. All it did was make me hate it.

Don't worry about racing. Give them them the love of riding. There is plenty of time after they are 18 to go try racing. When I started at 12 rides where more about skill development. See how high up the hill you got, try to get over that log, and so on.
 
#12 ·
Kids will follow the lead their parents offer, sounds like the OP has his heart,in the right place. I'd let them come to you about the idea of racing. If you push that idea too hard, and those kids might feel like they're letting you down and feel "pressured".

I'm just glad my kids enjoy heir bikes, it's the first real feeling of freedom that you have as a child, you're in control of everything for the first time....
 
#19 ·
Check out this most excellent Syncros BCBR saddle hack (big improvement over the stock saddle and it doubles as a fender)! :D
The Norco Air is a sweet run bike, but it's not low enough for real little ones. I started my daughter on a Strider (POS, but lowest saddle height I could find) and got her the Air as soon as her legs were long enough.

I've got a 12" CCM on the trainer right now. My daughter will spin on it for a couple minutes now and then when I'm downstairs working on something :)
 
#34 · (Edited)
First off Biggie, why would a 12 year old kid want to ride 40k, with all due respect, why would you expect him to be interested in that, i cant get my head around it..

Kids like to have FUN, Myself and my mates would have rather been just mucking around on the BMX, just razzing around, a 40k ride would have turned me off biking for life at that age.

Yes im sure theres a handful of kids that might like it at that age but ive never ran into or known one.

And your kids might never get into biking, they will find their own hobbies, the more you try and get them to appreciate it theres a chance they will like it even less, you know how kids are.

All i can say is that if you are any chance to get into biking you have to make it FUN, and more fun than alternative things they could be doing and if it never happens it never happens, more time for you to enjoy YOUR passion and ride at your own pace.

There is one thing i see as a dirty word, and thats 'competition' ..
Because it can have the habit or turning fun and enjoyment into competing against other kids which can be a very unhappy time for them if they are not interested.
i think thats a negative in itself, unless the kids are the ones that make the call and show the interest that they want to do it.
Im not saying its a bad thing, it comes down to the nature of the child, but what is a bad thing is parents that try and get their kids to compete when they have no desire..

cheers mate
 
#36 ·
First off Biggie, why would a 12 year old kid want to ride 40k, with all due respect, why would you expect him to be interested in that, i cant get my head around it..

Yes im sure theres a handful of kids that might like it at that age but ive never ran into or known one.

And your kids might never get into biking, they will find their own hobbies, the more you try and get them to appreciate it theres a chance they will like it even less, you know how kids are.

All i can say is that if you are any chance to get into biking you have to make it FUN, and more fun than alternative things they could be doing and if it never happens it never happens, more time for you to enjoy YOUR passion and ride at your own pace.

There is one thing i see as a dirty word, and thats 'competition' ..
Because it can have the habit or turning fun and enjoyment into competing against other kids which can be a very unhappy time for them if they are not interested.
i think thats a negative in itself, unless the kids are the ones that make the call and show the interest that they want to do it.

Im not saying its a bad thing, it comes down to the nature of the child, but what is a bad thing is parents that try and get their kids to compete when they have no desire..

cheers mate
I certainly understand where you are coming from. I'm not sure you are an East Coaster here, but minor hockey really brings out the uglier side of adults (myself included). That said, my kids have to do an outdoor activity summer and winter, in addition to the water stuff they do at our summer place all summer long. They also have to do an hour of piano a week and put in decent efforts with their homework. I don't feel exposure to competition is bad at all. Just forced exposure. And pressure.

We almost lost our oldest son last summer when my Wife sent him white water kayaking on the Ottawa river under prepared. She had to watch him while he rolled in a wave for 2 minutes, screaming, "Help!" the odd rotation when he got his head up. But his athleticism saved him. The water kep him from being able to sit forward to pull his ripcord so he put his hands on the side of the cockpit and ejected himself and the skirt from the boat. Not sure I've forgiven the wife on that one. Not many 11 yearolds who have stared death straight in the eye and gave him the old , "Screw You".

The decision to do the 63km Paris 2 Ancaster was his. When he bailed I was dissappointed but know it was a good decision. You don't know me - I'm a fat bloated 3 cheeseburger/20 timbit eating anti-athelete. The hardest part of 40km for him would be towing his FatDad and listening to me snivel. He could do it. I think he could do the 40, fairly easy in 2 1/2 hours. I wouldn't be difficult to keep up with. My biggest concern with new cyclists is taint chafe, pink puffy crack and general undercarriage malaise.

Slainte.
 
#4 ·
Captain, you are correct, I remember seeing the trailer in their parking lot.

Unglued, that was my newest plan, the 40k. I think that may be the route I'll take, especially since the distances have been upped. The 7 year-old has a Giant 20" ride, but I'm not planning races for him...he's still a work in progress. I had my worst expereience ever on a bike at Kelso and am not sure I can go back there, let alone bring my kids to that carnage!

Joyride questions, will they need armour? What bikes, BMX or MTB?
 
#6 ·
I had my worst expereience ever on a bike at Kelso and am not sure I can go back there, let alone bring my kids to that carnage!
Kelso has many trails, several of which are perfect for kids. I took my two daughters, aged 5 and 3 at the time, on a bunch of the trails on the eastern end of Kelso, and we had a blast. Originally, we had intended to try out the open house at the Milton BMX track. Upon arrival, for various reasons, we decided that BMX racing was not for us. So we regrouped and headed off to Kelso - the 5 year old on her Intense micro BMX, the 3 year old on her (princess) run bike, and me on my BMX cruiser. We had a blast - both girls loved riding the trails. And, as long as we stayed on the trails on the eastern side, there was nothing to confound them. (We did try riding Xtreme trail, which just resulted in me carrying an Intense micro BMX, a princess run bike, and a BMX cruiser over all the logs - bad idea.)

My long-winded point is this: just go ride with them. Leave the 40k races for later. If they like riding and racing, those will come naturally.

And Joyride is a brilliant place for kids to learn riding. As was stated, you only need a helmet and whatever bike. I've seen kids on department store bikes having just as much fun there as kids on the lastest bling-bling.
 
#7 ·
tough call Biggie - kids will eventually pick what they like - but they have to do it themselves... imagine my anxiety when i realized that my son was not biting into MTB, and i got him a nice bike, riding gear etc... i did not force him into anything, did not set any expectations... just did my best to expose him to the sport of MTB, as well as basketball, volleyball, track and field, soccer, tennis, golf..... so far the only sport that is sticking is - golf. the only "sport" that i do not do. my wife does however, so they are doing it together... if planets align properly, maybe this is better investment than RRSP - we will see....

i guess my point is - expose them to everything and see what "sticks". if they do not accept the sport, any sport, there is not much we can do about it... some motivational conversations are helpful as well. your 12yo is a typical kid of his age... my son is 11 and his comments are eerily similar to your sons'.

just have fun with them, no matter which sport you participate together in, including biking... no sense in building weight weenie bike for him, until he really bites...
 
#8 ·
I don't have kids, but I have a buddy with a 13 year old daughter that is super athletic. She is an awesome hockey and soccer player and plays both competitively. She likes to ride around just fine, but could care less about ripping it up either on the road or trails. She has had to opportunity to ride some fine bikes too. Just not interested. He let just let it go. If your kid is not into biking that much, putting him into a competitive situation may just do more harm than good. If he is not into it, dropping a ton of dough on a bike is probably not the answer; unless of course it's something you could use too if things don't work out.
 
#13 ·
+1 for Joyride in the winter. :thumbsup:

Though we're not quite at the same stage as you are with your kids, we're starting early and taking it easy. We've been to Joyride about a half dozen times since the beginning of the year with only very modest goals. Foremost was getting the boy to stop trying to rip his helmet off the minute we got it on his head (Success! :D).

I'd say the boy's only on his bike for 20% of the time he's there but he's getting more comfortable, confident and skilled with every visit. There are always a ton of kids there on the weekend and exposing him to that example seems to be paying off nicely.

We don't plan to get him "into" racing but with time, we hope to return to racing ourselves and if he wants in, we'll be glad to get him started. Time will tell...

Tire Wheel Bicycle tire Shoe Bicycle helmet
 
#14 · (Edited)
I got into mountain biking pretty seriously when I was about 10 or 11 years old, but that was back when there was also the Giant 5 series and Bike NXS has kids enduro races as well bit of a different atmosphere from an o-cup. Those races were in the range of 8-14 km. I almost always remember getting a draw prize at each race and a t-shirt that was included in the entry fee from each race. I thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to wear a race shirt to school when I was in the 6th grade. I think a big factor at that age was I had friends that were also into the sport.
 
#17 ·
Take them to Joyride or take them to Blue and ride Downhill.

When I was a kid the last thing I wanted to do was put on spandex and race, although I do that now.

Take them where the fun / badass stuff is and they will eventually grow into road/xc.

Kids don't want to tell their friends they raced 40km and nearly died from exhaustion, they want to say they hit sweet jumps and had fun bombing downhill.
 
#18 ·
Kids don't want to tell their friends they raced 40km and nearly died from exhaustion, they want to say they hit sweet jumps and had fun bombing downhill.
No... I still do this.

Daughter has a run bike much like Monsters, minus the sweet saddle. She rides it when I'm on the trainer so she can be like daddy. On the otherhand, you put her in the bike trailer, and she loves every second of that too.

I hope that she takes to it in the future.
 
#24 ·
singlesprocket; i think the best thing you can do for your prodigy is to advocate for cycling (bmx said:
You mean progeny, right?

Biggie, there is a bike park in Burlington, in Shell Park just off the Lakeshore near the bottom of Burloak. That might be a good place to take your kids and a little closer than Joyride...
 
#25 ·
I did not know about the bike park in Burlington - much closer too!

I got rid of my minivan and replaced it with a VW. However, I haven't had a hitch installed yet for a bike rack. Cycling will probably be on hold until OMHA and Tri_County playoffs have concluded.

But I love the idea. I think ramping up the family's saddle hours this summer will be in order. Fortunately, several of my friends have bought decent bikes for their kids as well, so hopefully friends and family will enjoy cycling together. Joyride will be a destination for sure...
 
#30 ·
Chris: All the trails and infrastructure in the world won't help without some support and encouragement from family and friends.

Chris: Support and encouragement from family and friends for MTB only goes so far without trails and infrastructure to ride.

You're both right about that you're supporting is important, but you should realize that what Chris is supporting is important too.
 
#31 ·
My son is about to turn 12, and is stoked about starting his second year in the kelso weekly race series. He just started out riding with me starting on paths, then mild trails off the path, then kelso trail rides, then waterdown. After a couple years of riding trails, |I asked him if he wanted to try racing. I was careful to keep it fun and kept encouraging him. I learned the hard way pushing him too hard in soccer and baseball until he hated both. I also found that having him watch downhill/freeride videos (without crash scenes. haha) helped.
Best of luck
 
#41 ·
This is a good thread, let's try to keep it on topic. My son is just turning 6, and I'd sure like him to get into cycling so keep the ideas coming please! Got a few other sports and activities lined up of course variety is good.

Some people here seem to have both, but if you had to choose a next bike for a 6-7 year old would you choose a (geared) mountain bike or a bmx?
 
#43 ·
Some people here seem to have both, but if you had to choose a next bike for a 6-7 year old would you choose a (geared) mountain bike or a bmx?
My Son riding at 4 and basically moved up a wheel size each year from 14" to 16" and now he rides an 18" BMX, all from Toys R US. His present ride is aluminum frame, I removed some pieces, made his brakes work, etc. Its actuallt pretty light. His MTB is a 20" Giant. He prefers the Giant on trails, obviously. As Tone alluded to, bombing around the block, riding stairs and ramps he BMXes.

I like having both. I think I'll get good return on Investment on them on kijiji when he's done with them.

The BMX from Toys R US the brakes didn't work at all when new. However, the bike looks great and when on sale is $100.
 
#42 ·
I got my son a geared mountain bike first. then he showed interest in bmx too, so now has both. Started with a mountain bike because he wanted to trail ride with me. It was sort of a dirt jump bike with gears, so worked for jumps too. hard to trail ride on a bmx.
 
#50 ·
Here is my experience, based on a family of four, currently ages 2 thru 9 yrs. We have a mix of 1 boy and 3 girls. They run the gambit in terms of athleticism from very athletic, to not athletic at all.

During the summer we have weekly outings to Kelso on a Sunday afternoon where we rip a few trails up together, and then go to the beach as a family for a swim. For the ride we have frequent stops and make sure to pack lots of snacks for when they get hungry. The highlight of the day is playing at the beach, not the ride:)

We also go to the family friendly Tuesday night race series at Kelso. My wife and I race, and there is a free kids course as well. We put no pressure on them to race and if they don't finish a race, it's no problem. The kids have been doing it for the last couple years, typically beginning at 4-5 years of age. The two oldest hope to graduate to the Beginner adult course this summer. Our criteria to race the adult course will be that they can complete the course without any help. They have become familiar with the trails and understand the race etiquette for letting others pass.

From an equipment perspective, we started them on bikes found on the side of the road, graduated them to a department store 6-speed with 20" wheels at ~5, and now the 7 and 9 year old are riding 18-speeds with 24" wheels. You can get great bikes for good value at MEC (Dash-20" wheels, and Ace-24" wheels.) Moral of the story, you don't need to spend a lot of $$ on bikes to get them started.

The kids interest in mountain biking is growing. Last summer I took my 6 year old to Hardwood Hills (Barrie) and he road 28k worth of trails-- and I was following him (he is the more athletic one of the kids though.) At this point they are starting to ask to get involved in things like O-Cup races which they have been exposed to from an early age.

From my experience the key is to get the kids started fairly early, keep it fun (e.g. short), and bring them along to things like Kelso races and O-cups. Don't be discouraged if you have a few meltdowns along the trail but try to understand why they are melting down and adjust accordingly (for us, lack of sleep and/or hungry are typically the root cause.) For us though the goal isn't to get our kids to race necessarily (that would be fun though I think), but to teach them a healthy and active lifestyle.

With respect to the original post on the P2A race, perhaps riding tandem, or with a trail-a-bike is an option? I have a friend who did this with his son at around the same age and it worked well. At the end of the day though, I wouldn't do it unless a) they really want to do it, and b) I'm confident they are capable of completing the race.
 
#51 ·
A year later, and I'm pretty stoked as we've done a fair bit of riding, both at joyride and now on trails. So, from re-reading this thread I realize it hasn't actually identified what might be a short introductory race event for a 7 year old. The weekly series at Albion and Kelso were certainly my first thought, but starting from downtown toronto I'm worried the driving in rush-hour gridlock will turn my son off faster than any racing 'pressure' (not that there'd be any). I haven't been to any weekend events since the mid 90's... but many of you have. Are there any 7 year-olds out there? What are the distances? Seeing as hockey was mentioned earlier in the thread, let me just say that this past winter I've seen my son's friends going through their first year of select hockey, and I know that mountain bike racing would not approach that level of focus and intensity (my son's friends can now skate backwards better than I can). So, I'm certainly interested in trying a short mtb event if there's a good match, any info appreciated.
 
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