Distance riding for kids under 10

Ahem...

Well, since you asked, my oldest son began unicyclying about 6 months
ago, and now goes on Municycle rides with an informal group of "big
kids" here in San Diego (some of us are over 40 years old) on
Saturdays, and does very well on the bumps and hills. My two younger
sons started a few months later, and will soon be ready for the big
rides on Saturday (they are 14 and 12). Not to be left behind, even my
wife has started to learn!
Six unicycles (of which 4 are Municycles) in the garage and counting!
Its a blast riding the trails with all three of my kids! (Turns a few
heads as well)

--
LessIsMore

3 degrees of freedom
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That is awesome Bill. Tell that girl I think she's great!!!

Buying my uni-girl a KH seat was well worth it. She loves the new seat.
As you know, she is 8 years old. --chirokid--

--
chirokid - Wolfman 2004: Unicycle Catagory

"Other than that, the best maintenance is to keep riding it as this
helps to keep the eccentric nut on the saddle in optimal condition."
quote by Mikefule

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LessIsMore

I'd love it if my wife started to ride, but at present it doesn't look
like much of a possibility. Hopefully my daughter will grow into a MUni
rider. I'd love to ride with her in the woods. Time will tell.

Bill

--
billham

It's better to be thought a fool, than to say something and remove all
doubt.
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My son is 10 and has been riding just shy of two years. Our average for
muni rides in the local woods is about 3 miles per ride. He has done
some harder muni rides of up to 6 miles, although was one whooped cookie
at the end of that.

I may introduce him to some longer RR-grade riding this summer.

--
tomblackwood - Registered Nurtz

Tailgate at your own risk.....

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My 9 year old daughter started riding about 6 weeks ago on a 16" Torker
with the biggest knobby tire that will fit in the frame. She has ridden
about three miles several times.

Every time we ride I'm amazed at the progress she's making. It's so
much fun riding with her!

She was with me at the Moab MUnifest this year as a non-rider and talks
alot about riding at Moab next year.

SH

--
showard - ------
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Greetings,

I think it's really great when kids enjoy riding unis. My daughter rode
for a couple of years but has since lost interest. 🙁 My son, on he the
other hand, has been totally driven by Muni since he first learned to
ride when he was 5. He's actually the reason I learned to Muni! He's 7
years old now and we ride a few times week whether or not it's winter or
summer. Our rides are rarely under a mile and are usually around 2-3
miles.

I haven't posted for quite some time about King Muni-Man but he's doing
great on the Muni trails and he's become quite the little ripper. He's
now very competitive and often tries to run me into nice little objects,
like TREES, rather than loose the lead on the trail. It's all in fun
though. We did rub cranks the other day which sent him flying, but hey,
he's going to have to learn to take what he's so willing to dish out!
Right? (grin)

He's a level 2 on the standard USA skills test but hasn't shown any
interest in advancing his freestyle technique beyond that. He would
rather spend his time developing skills to help him on the Muni trails
(stalls, rolling hops and hopping in place). I'm real proud of the
little bugger and every ride with him is a real hoot!

Last winter was quite a bummer due to my surgery, and consiquently no
riding, but I still managed to get KMM out on the trails and upgrade his
16" united to very nice Kovachi/Mony 20" setup. He really loves it.
Here's before and after pic. In the first pic he was 5 and riding a 16"
united, in the second he's 7 and riding his new 20".

As for me, my surgery went very well. My knee hasn't felt this good in
15 years. I missed all the months I didn't ride a uni but that's all
water under the bridge now. I Muni as much as I can and have been
enjoying every minute of it!

Cheers,
Jason

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jason - Just some guy
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It's amazing.... I sit here and smile when I read these posts about
kids I don't even know. There's something about talking about kids that
makes me smile.

It's great to see and hear about unicycling being enjoyed by parents and
their kids. My personal philosphy is that families need to pursue
activities that can be done together. Too often families are stressed
out trying to keep up with individual activities (parents and kids) and
there isn't any time left for quality family time. Kudos to all of you
who are making family time happen.

Jason -- great pics of KMM.

I'm still trying to get my daughter to say yes to riding in a parade
with me this weekend. No luck yet. Bummer.

Bill

--
billham

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billham said:

*
I'm still trying to get my daughter to say yes to riding in a parade
with me this weekend. No luck yet. Bummer.

Bill *

My rule has always been not to force this sort of thing. It really seems
to turn our kids off when we do that. I hope she joins in though! Last
year King MUni-Man 'crashed' our 4th celebration and was quite the hit
on his little 16" uni. There were a couple of other adult riders who
seemed to be amused when he rode up uninvited to meet them during the
parade.

--
jason - Just some guy
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jason

I agree with your philosphy. I am not making her do anything she
doesn't want to do. I am strongly encouraging her, but as soon as she
starts to resist, I back off.

Sometimes it's hard though. I'm pushing for her to learn her freemount,
but I need to be careful, she resists pretty quickly. I guess it will
come with time.

Bill

--
billham

It's better to be thought a fool, than to say something and remove all
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why don't you force that little p***** daughter of yours like a real
man? ya little wimp!!!!!!

--
1wheelthrilla
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My son did his first real Muni ride at age 7 after learning to ride the
year before. At age 7, he was ok with rides up to 6 or 7 miles. At age
8, he did his first long hard ride, Mr Toad's Wild Ride at Tahoe which
is 12 miles and has over 1000' of climbing. Two days later he did the 14
mile Flume Trail (totalling over 30 miles of offroad in 3 days). These
rides are all off-road and I'd consider them "distance rides" since they
take 4-6 hours or so. He worked up to doing rides like this slowly.

He didn't start doing real distance rides until later - this year at age
12 he has ridden over 30 miles in a day three times (Coker of course)
and did 85 miles in two days once, as well as many 10-20 mile rides.

Definitely don't push it - kids don't get the same pleasure adults might
out of just doing distance for distance sake. We have a blast on these
rides though, goofing around and having fun as much as possible. Take
lots of breaks, eat lots, have snowball fights, etc etc.

---Nathan

--
nathan - BIG rides: Muni & Coker
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