A tandem (or tandem attachment) is a great idea for long distance hauls where the distances done by an adult are just beyond a child's stamina levels, particularly day after day touring. But for general riding, I think supervised soloing is the way to go for long term results.
Our 7 year old just learned to bike this summer. She's doing remarkably well for her age but she's not safe to roll unsupervised in traffic because she's unpredictable and doesn't have good traffic judgement skills. Most of our family riding is done with her riding between her two parents - usually Mamma in front, her and Poppa following.
Two things we're working on with her is to "be responsible" for her own street crossings. What I'm trying to discourage is having her play "follow the leader", seeing me cross a street and assuming because I went across without a problem, she can follow without looking. She did have an incident this summer because she saw her father cross a residential street. Just as he went across, a car turned onto the street and she scooted across. Fortunately, the driver was alert and braked with plenty of time and distance to spare. When I talked to her about it, it was very clear that she can't comprehend stopping distances for a vehicle or judge their speed. Your child, being older, probably has better judgement in this area.
The other thing we're doing is having her tell us what to do next. "We're going to stop at the stop sign and turn right after we check for cars".... etc. We also stop before starting off on a "tricky bit" to make sure she understands how we plan to cross the bridge, or navigate the upcoming intersection. It gives her a chance to see our otherwise invisible thought processes.
Other than that, it's been a lot of practice sessions. She'll go out with her dad to practise making left hand turns or work on some other skill set. The practice sessions seem to coincidentally end at a local ice-cream shop but I'm sure that's just happenstance <grin>
I did find information at http://www.johnforester.com/Articles/education.htm
that was very useful in helping us teach cycling safety to our daughter. It gave me a good insight into what she was capable of dealing with in terms of perception and reaction.
As far as keeping up, a couple of comments. One, we've both had to cut our speed when we're with her because she's not capable of travelling as fast as we do and we've had to experiment a lot with gears etc to keep our pace down to her level. Second, both of us now use a rear view mirror on our bikes, not to watch traffic but so the leading parent can keep an eye on the back of the pack. Finally, because she's growing so fast, we've had to raise her bike seat twice this summer so she's getting good extension on her legs. Everytime we've done this, her average speed has gone up about 1 kph, so she's getting closer to our normal speeds.
I know this sounds like a lot of effort but it isn't really. We enjoy biking as a family and I know I'll feel a lot calmer when she makes her first solo trip to friend's house because I have a very good idea of what her skills are.
We've also encouraged her to define her own goals to give her a sense of accomplishment. One was "biking to the downtown", another was "biking on a downtown street", the next one is "biking to school". We've done a bit of "stage management" like doing the "downtown street" on a Sunday morning but I think it's important for kids to attain their own goals to build their confidence.
Quoted post said:Originally posted by Horace
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.
