# Tips for encouraging our kids



## Doseone (28 Feb 2012)

Seeing the picture of Maggot's 9 and 11 year old in the "Show us your kid's bikes" thread has just made me feel a bit jealous. I would love to do be able to do that with our kids.

My 11 year old daughter is quite good, she had a new bike for christmas (Trek 3500 in a 13" frame). She will come for a ride with me, on or off road, but stamina is a problem and she suffers on hills.

My 9 year old son is really sporty, I thought he'd love cycling, but he just does not want to know. He can ride, although isn't confident, which is a bit of a vicious circle - because he's not confident he doesn't want to ride, but he won't get more confident unless he rides.

Any ideas for tips, tricks or bribery gratefully received. Mrs Doseone is a good cyclist and we'd love to go for family days out on the bikes.


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## ColinJ (28 Feb 2012)

How about _"Ride your bikes, kids, or I'll get my good friend Mark Zuckerberg to shut down Facebook!"  _


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## atbman (29 Feb 2012)

they may be a bit out of your way, but try http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/clubfinder and check Wales as home country and region and go-Ride club as club. This should bring up about 6 clubs including Newport Youth Velo cycling club. As Go-Ride clubs they are dedicated to providing good quality coaching and riding experiences for youngster.

Alternatively, you could pop up to us in Bradford, Yorks., every Saturday


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## qwiksilver (29 Feb 2012)

find a good adventure playground or somthing similar and ride to it but dont tell them where they are going pack a picnic etc or eat out while your there, thats how we got our kids into it now they ride for 20+ miles to get to somewhere we tell them theres something good at the end then ride the 20+ bk usually its me n Mrs Q who need the rest when we get bk as the ride is easy but keeping up with them running round places when we are there takes it out of ya


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## lukesdad (29 Feb 2012)

Not very flat round Brecon, what sort of places are you taking them to ride ?


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## Doseone (29 Feb 2012)

Thanks all for the suggestions.



atbman said:


> they may be a bit out of your way, but try http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/clubfinder and check Wales as home country and region and go-Ride club as club. This should bring up about 6 clubs including Newport Youth Velo cycling club. As Go-Ride clubs they are dedicated to providing good quality coaching and riding experiences for youngster.
> 
> Alternatively, you could pop up to us in Bradford, Yorks., every Saturday


 
I liked the sound of that and ran the search, but unfortunately nothing within an hour of here




lukesdad said:


> Not very flat round Brecon, what sort of places are you taking them to ride ?


 
No it isn't, but we try and pick places that are as flat as possible for the kids. The Mynydd Illtydd is a favourite (where the Mountain Centre is) - it's actually surprisingly flat around there.


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## Luv Handles (3 Mar 2012)

We do cycle training and the kiddies love it. It can be harder to learn from parents, but when they do it with other kids, they naturally want to show their skills and participate. Confidence with cycling comes with time and if they are shown the right skills - its easy as pie.


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## Shaun (3 Mar 2012)

[QUOTE 1749903, member: 45"]With respect, this is a forum, not a place to spam with free advertising for your business. That's naughty.[/quote]

I've explained that in a PM to Luv Handles so hopefully they are now clear on our policy.


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## Luv Handles (3 Mar 2012)

Oh sorry, we have changed our emails and did not receive that, so I do apologize. I will pull all correspondence if that's the case. I thought the transparency of my notes was not cheeky but rather clear and informative. In the end of the day, it's tried and tested. SPAM ?? Hardly, its information that was though out and carefully answered, based on the question at hand.

Its amazing that there are so many people disguising themselves, and here we are being honest...and get called naughty ?


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## Shaun (3 Mar 2012)

Luv Handles - all of your posts this evening have included links back to your business. Read the PM I sent you (*Inbox* at the top right) or read the site Terms (bottom right) and you'll see we don't allow advertising.

You are more than welcome to participate in the site and may even include a link to your business in your signature but your intent so far seems to be seeding our site with links back to your cycling business. You're not the first and won't be the last to do this but now you're aware of how we operate you can hopefully participate in an informed way and within the guidelines that others follow.

Cheers,
Shaun


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## Doseone (4 Mar 2012)

[QUOTE 1744189, member: 45"]Have they got any friends who cycle? I took ours out with 4 of their friends a few weeks ago and had none of the complaints that are common with hills, tiredness etc. It's like when I'm riding, I go much further without noticing when I've got someone with me.[/quote]

Thank you, this has worked - daughter and her friend just gone off on their bikes

Just got to work on the boy now.


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## MontyVeda (4 Mar 2012)

stop his pocket money until the cost of the bike he's not interested in has been fully repaid.


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (4 Mar 2012)

Sell the car and move miles away from bus routes/school.

Tough love


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## jonathanw (5 Mar 2012)

definitely can be difficult

Our 8yr old twins have been cycling the 2.5 miles to school, and then back the same way (uphill), for 2 years, so we get few complaints these days.

At the weekend we use a combination of bribery and forewarning.

Bribery - 30mins exercise equals 1 star on the wall chart, 5 stars equals 1hour of time on the Wii (insert console of your choice, others are available). Stars get removed for bad behaviour too

Forewarning - often if we spring a bike ride on them, we get the whingeing and histrionics, but if they are warned on thursday and friday that there will be a family cycle on saturday and/or sunday, it happens smoothly more often than not.

Taking other wee pals on bike rides works too, as does cycling to the playpark etc etc

Just wear them down, you just need to have infinite patience


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## Speedywheelsjeans (5 Mar 2012)

Make cycling, fun, do some singletrack, encourage them to jump their bikes and go fast downhill. Taking your children 20 miles along a cycle track while you and the wife natter away together looking at the scenery is going to be slow and tedious for them, kids like adventure, ride to get somewhere interesting, follow unknown paths through woods to see where they go etc.

For me when I was a child I would be out on my BMX from sun up to sundown. We would build jumps from bricks and wooden planks off curbs onto landing ramps and try and jump it further and further each time. Or we would ride to the top of treacherous slopes and fly down them... the more excitement, danger and adventure you give them, the more interested they will be in it.


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## Crackle (5 Mar 2012)

Speedywheelsjeans said:


> Make cycling, fun, do some singletrack, encourage them to jump their bikes and go fast downhill. Taking your children 20 miles along a cycle track while you and the wife natter away together looking at the scenery is going to be slow and tedious for them, kids like adventure, ride to get somewhere interesting, follow unknown paths through woods to see where they go etc.
> 
> For me when I was a child I would be out on my BMX from sun up to sundown. We would build jumps from bricks and wooden planks off curbs onto landing ramps and try and jump it further and further each time. Or we would ride to the top of treacherous slopes and fly down them... the more excitement, danger and adventure you give them, the more interested they will be in it.


 
This has been my experience. Cycling has to have a purpose, be a means to an end, an adventure as SWJ says. Right from the beginning both mine were far more interested in tricks, stunts and messing about going to stunt parks and skills areas. Of course an interest in bikes came first and we've always used bike to do little things, all holidays invariably had some kind of bike involvement even if it was just buzzing around a campsite, riding to the beach or cycling out for dinner, so bikes went everywhere with us, which isn't always easy but once they become something that is just natural to get onto rather than a special effort, you've cracked it, the rest follows.

Right now, trail centres are the thing, I expect that will change in the future but what is so fantastic to see is just how natural it is to them.


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## ColinJ (5 Mar 2012)

Funny how quickly things change, isn't it ...?

I was talking to potsy on a forum ride on Sunday about how I pestered my parents to buy me a bike when I was 8 or 9 years old. They were what I would call very protective parents, but I'm talking 1960s-protective, not 2012-protective. All it took to persuade them was a promise to pass my cycling proficiency test, which I did, and after that I was free to cycle on A-roads and B-roads unaccompanied! (Yes, I know that there was probably only 1/3 of the traffic in those days, but getting hit by a bus would still have hurt ... )

They didn't have to _encourage_ me to cycle - I couldn't wait to get out of the house and go out to explore so I just got on my bike and my mates got on _their_ bikes and off we went! My family didn't own a car in those days, so having a bike meant that I didn't have to walk, run or catch buses, which to my way of thinking was pretty damn great.

One day, I heard rumours of sandstone cliffs at Corley - *sandstone cliffs! *- so obviously, we just _had_ to go and check 'em out. I was pretty impressed when I saw them the first time. Okay, they weren't hundreds of feet high, but they towered over me and that was what mattered. (I paid homage to that childhood ride a couple of years ago and rode my singlespeed bike to Corley to revisit the rocks. The memories came flooding back.)







I don't have children, but if I did I'm sure that they too would probably prefer to text their mates or mess about on Facebook than ride bikes. And I'd be too worried to allow them to ride in traffic without me, even if they _did_ want to cycle. I think it is a shame that free-wheeling childhoods are something of the past for most kids now ...


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## Speedywheelsjeans (6 Mar 2012)

Thats the worst thing, it was my generation who were the last of the outdoors kids, I was born in 1990 and was always out... my brother was born in 1996 and hes a playstation kid. Within 6 years games consoles advanced enough to keep kids indoors for hours on end. Admittedly I spend a fair bit of time on games consoles as a teenager, but much preferred being outdoors riding, playing sports or getting ASBO's 

My brother will spend most of his evening looking at a computer screen that has the same facebook page on it ... doing nothing!

When I have children of my own I hope they will follow my example and enjoy being muddy on singletrack, or climbing mountain roads on their nice expensive road bikes! ... Dad can we get an xbox for christmas, No but you can get a pinarello.


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## Boris Bajic (22 Mar 2012)

I am no expert, but we have three children and they all love to ride bicycles.

There was no exhortation or encouragement; they just saw me riding and it seemed like a natural thing to do.

The children of musical parents tend to try playing music; the children of artists etc etc...

My impression is that children pick up far more by example than by any other means.

If you ride, they will ride. It helps if there is a bicycle for them to ride.

Similarly, if they see you fixing bikes they might ask if they can have a go.

This does not always extend to cooking, hoovering or washing up.

We didn't go in for all this scooting around on a balance-thingy from the age of three weeks (or similar). All of them sort of got into riding at around five or six. That seems fine to me. I'm not entirely comfortable with the way some parents seem terribly keen to say (boast?) how unbelievably young little Alfie was when he first rode a bike/swam with sharks/drove for McLaren.

It's just a childhood and they will get into some things as and when they want to.

I hope this comes across as helpful guidance rather than a hectoring rant. Good luck with the cycling thing.


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## rollinstok (23 Mar 2012)

If kids dont want to do something its very difficult to convince them otherwise
I agree with the promise of something good either at the half way point or when they get back
A bit of bribery here and there will teach them about the real world.. they may even end up as politicians


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## Doseone (23 Mar 2012)

Boris Bajic said:


> I am no expert, but we have three children and they all love to ride bicycles.
> 
> There was no exhortation or encouragement; they just saw me riding and it seemed like a natural thing to do.
> 
> ...


 
Yes, thank you, I do take your point. The frustrating thing is we do ride, both my wife and I ride and whilst our daughter really enjoys riding our son who is 9 has not been so keen. He does plenty of other sport though so I have no problems with his lifestyle.

Anyway I'm pleased to report progress - we went out last Sunday and took the bikes to a big common near us and for the first time there were no complaints from our son and I think he actually enjoyed himself. I'm convinced it's a confidence thing - as he gets better at riding so his enjoyment will improve. Equally, if he genuinely doesn't enjoy it I'm not going to force it on him.


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## Butterfly (27 Mar 2012)

Ice cream is my usual bribe. Not too long rides punctuated with ice cream vans (and whichever ice cream they want, even if it is the double cone 99 that I know they won't finish (I'll eat it up)

Another thing to try is borrowing a tandem - if they can rest a bit when they want, they don't mind going further - and the lack of confidence isn't a problem anymore. I got my first tandem because my asthmatic charge wasn't enjoying rides and the others were leaving us behind - it was a great solution. 

A normal rule along the lines of 'no screens before bath time unless someone is ill', means that they are more likely to go out as you aren't dragging them away from playstation/wii/tv/gameboy etc and they are going to be _bored_ in the house anyway. 

The track at Herne Hill was what gave our lad the confidence to ride more. It'll come.


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## Michael Halliday (27 Mar 2012)

Doe's your sons school run any Bikeability courses, this is when usually outside instructors come in and teach the up to date version of Cycling proficiency. Different providers do this in different ways but up in Northumberland we take children in small groups, cover level 1 on the playground which is basic skills and dead easy then we take then out onto real roads (carefully chosen) to teach level 2 which involves handling junctions. I've seen some kids start off very nervous but after just four sessions of around one and a half hours they're brimming with confidence and enthusiasm. If your son is in year 5 or older it's worth asking the school if they do this, most councils provide Bikeability and is fully funded by The department For Transport so won't cost the parents a penny.


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## Doseone (27 Mar 2012)

Butterfly said:


> Ice cream is my usual bribe. Not too long rides punctuated with ice cream vans (and whichever ice cream they want, even if it is the double cone 99 that I know they won't finish (I'll eat it up)
> 
> Another thing to try is borrowing a tandem - if they can rest a bit when they want, they don't mind going further - and the lack of confidence isn't a problem anymore. I got my first tandem because my asthmatic charge wasn't enjoying rides and the others were leaving us behind - it was a great solution.
> 
> ...


 
I like the idea of a bit of bribery , but along the lines of "lets ride to (wherever) and get an ice cream". I can see that working.



Michael Halliday said:


> Doe's your sons school run any Bikeability courses, this is when usually outside instructors come in and teach the up to date version of Cycling proficiency. Different providers do this in different ways but up in Northumberland we take children in small groups, cover level 1 on the playground which is basic skills and dead easy then we take then out onto real roads (carefully chosen) to teach level 2 which involves handling junctions. I've seen some kids start off very nervous but after just four sessions of around one and a half hours they're brimming with confidence and enthusiasm. If your son is in year 5 or older it's worth asking the school if they do this, most councils provide Bikeability and is fully funded by The department For Transport so won't cost the parents a penny.


 
Thanks, I think the school does - I seem to remember taking my daughter's bike to school when she was at primary, he's in yr4 but they haven't done it yet.


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