trail-a-bike, how young to start

autonut843 said:

I am starting a new topic on this so the other one can stay on topic.
This is in response to a previous post in the thread on trainers.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I use a Trail A Bike with my children (3 and 5)

Is three old enough for a trail a bike? My kid's amost three and it'd
be great if he could ride a trial-a-bike next year. I figured he'd have
to be at least 4, although I'm not sure where I got that idea.

Rich

My 5 year old is a great stoker, my 3 year old can just barely reach
the pedals. She tucks her feet up and rests them on a piece of the
frame. A month ago she started pedaling on the single trail-a-bike and
we are working on it at an encouraging pace.

I started my daughter at 4 1/2. We rode together for 5 years. I don't
think I would have been comfortable starting much earlier, but I suppose
to some extent that's a function of both the child and the riding
environment.

We graduated pretty early to urban and fairly technical off-road riding.
Some of my friends expressed misgivings about the kinds of terrain and
speeds we rode, but we never suffered a mishap in thousands of miles. My
daughter (now 12) is an excellent rider, with extremely sharp balance
and bike handling skills -- despite being "towed" for so many years.

Got our Halfwheeler for Christmas last year when my daughter was
4-10/12 years old. I'd been pulling her in a trailer since she was old
enough to wear a helmet so it was a logical extension. I wouldn't have
wanted to start much younger than that but she's a little on the short
side so younger bigger kid might be OK. She picked up the handling and
toe-clip skills pretty quickly and is NOT afraid of speed. I'd guess
most kids under 4-1/2 wouldn't make good stokers. They have to pay
attention, not squirm too much, and follow your directions about when
and how to coast, stop, get off, etc.

BTW, I use this on my roadified MTB with handlebar extensions and I
find the extra leverage from the wide hand position is really helpful -
I see people riding them with road bikes but maybe their stokers have
more suplesse than mine does.

Here's our photo: http://tinyurl.com/8pk9b The parrot horn gets a lot
of compliments.

--
My bike blog:
http://diabloscott.blogspot.com/

Got our Halfwheeler for Christmas last year when my daughter was
4-10/12 years old. I'd been pulling her in a trailer since she was old
enough to wear a helmet so it was a logical extension. I wouldn't have
wanted to start much younger than that but she's a little on the short
side so younger bigger kid might be OK. She picked up the handling and
toe-clip skills pretty quickly and is NOT afraid of speed. I'd guess
most kids under 4-1/2 wouldn't make good stokers. They have to pay
attention, not squirm too much, and follow your directions about when
and how to coast, stop, get off, etc.

BTW, I use this on my roadified MTB with handlebar extensions and I
find the extra leverage from the wide hand position is really helpful -
I see people riding them with road bikes but maybe their stokers have
more suplesse than mine does.

Here's our photo: http://tinyurl.com/8pk9b The parrot horn gets a lot
of compliments.

--
My bike blog:
http://diabloscott.blogspot.com/

autonut843 said:

I am starting a new topic on this so the other one can stay on topic.
This is in response to a previous post in the thread on trainers.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I use a Trail A Bike with my children (3 and 5)

Is three old enough for a trail a bike? My kid's amost three and it'd
be great if he could ride a trial-a-bike next year. I figured he'd have
to be at least 4, although I'm not sure where I got that idea.

Rich

My 5 year old is a great stoker, my 3 year old can just barely reach
the pedals. She tucks her feet up and rests them on a piece of the
frame. A month ago she started pedaling on the single trail-a-bike and
we are working on it at an encouraging pace. I think I'll wait a bit
before I have her pedal with her older brother on the tandem
trail-a-bike but that is just because they sometimes squabble.
overall, they are great stokers and we follow the adage, "the stoker is
never wrong". We have more than 150 miles together. Regarding when is
old enough, When they wanted to try it and I was sure they could hold
on, we started trying it. We started nice and easy on a paved bike
path. Now we can ride a bit more agressively. My 5 year old son
starts voicing concern at about 20 MPH, I listen carefully to my
stokers to make sure I don't wreck the experience for them.
Let me know if you have any other questions

My main concern would be how they react to emergency situations, or
stress. The child must be old enough to understand consequences and be
able to keep a cool enough head not to just let go and fall of if
something bad starts to happen. Probably lots of adults wouldn't
qualify by that standard though...

Joseph

Diablo ...

Quoted message said:

Here's our photo: http://tinyurl.com/8pk9b The parrot horn gets a lot
of compliments.

What's the blue spherical thingie by her right elbow? Or is that stuck
in the ground?

--Karen D.

Veloise said:

Diablo ...

Quoted message said:

Here's our photo: http://tinyurl.com/8pk9b The parrot horn gets a lot
of compliments.

What's the blue spherical thingie by her right elbow? Or is that stuck
in the ground?

--Karen D.

It's a swing behind her, hanging from the tree - you're only seeing the end bit. Wife needs a lesson in framing a shot.

Diablo Scott said:

It's a swing behind her, hanging from the tree - you're only seeing the
end bit. Wife needs a lesson in framing a shot.

Or her husband needs to learn how to photoshop!

--Karen D.
the rest of the story...

autonut843 said:

I am starting a new topic on this so the other one can stay on topic.
This is in response to a previous post in the thread on trainers.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I use a Trail A Bike with my children (3 and 5)

Is three old enough for a trail a bike? My kid's amost three and it'd
be great if he could ride a trial-a-bike next year. I figured he'd have
to be at least 4, although I'm not sure where I got that idea.

Rich

My 5 year old is a great stoker, my 3 year old can just barely reach
the pedals. She tucks her feet up and rests them on a piece of the
frame. A month ago she started pedaling on the single trail-a-bike and
we are working on it at an encouraging pace. I think I'll wait a bit
before I have her pedal with her older brother on the tandem
trail-a-bike but that is just because they sometimes squabble.
overall, they are great stokers and we follow the adage, "the stoker is
never wrong". We have more than 150 miles together. Regarding when is
old enough, When they wanted to try it and I was sure they could hold
on, we started trying it. We started nice and easy on a paved bike
path. Now we can ride a bit more agressively. My 5 year old son
starts voicing concern at about 20 MPH, I listen carefully to my
stokers to make sure I don't wreck the experience for them.
Let me know if you have any other questions

This is so dependent on the child.

The son (now 9) started on the trailabike earlier than the
daughter (now 12) -- but he had also observed his sister on
it and knew therefore what to do/expect. He's also always
been big/tall for his age with good gross motor skills
(Fine motor skills are a bit dicier). I'm sure he started
before 4. As long as you know he/she will follow directions
you give as you ride, and if they're physically large
enough for the bike, things might work.

We also, for a while, used a tandem trail-a-bike, but that
was always a little alarming to use IMO, as it was very
top-heavy. I always felt like I was about to tip over.

Scott

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I use a Trail A Bike with my children (3 and 5)

Is three old enough for a trail a bike? My kid's amost three and it'd
be great if he could ride a trial-a-bike next year. I figured he'd have
to be at least 4, although I'm not sure where I got that idea.

Rich

In general I recommend about 4 1/2 years old or so. The problem has nothing
to do with skill or physical stuff, but rather the fact that the younger
kids don't have much understanding of what's going on, get bored, and may
not understand the dangers in trying to climb off while the bike is moving.
Or they may simply doze off. Either way it's too dangerous to risk a very
young kid, since there's nothing holding the kid in place other than their
legs & arms.

It's not what some people want to hear... just like we have people with
near-newborns who fail to understand that it's not a good idea to be hauling
the kid around in a bike seat or trailer. It's funny how protective we can
be about kids, but sometimes common sense goes out the window when it
involves something that *we* really like to do and somehow want to involve
the kid (or keep the kid from allowing us to do it).

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"autonut843" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am starting a new topic on this so the other one can stay on topic.
This is in response to a previous post in the thread on trainers.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I use a Trail A Bike with my children (3 and 5)

Is three old enough for a trail a bike? My kid's amost three and it'd
be great if he could ride a trial-a-bike next year. I figured he'd have
to be at least 4, although I'm not sure where I got that idea.

Rich

My 5 year old is a great stoker, my 3 year old can just barely reach
the pedals. She tucks her feet up and rests them on a piece of the
frame. A month ago she started pedaling on the single trail-a-bike and
we are working on it at an encouraging pace. I think I'll wait a bit
before I have her pedal with her older brother on the tandem
trail-a-bike but that is just because they sometimes squabble.
overall, they are great stokers and we follow the adage, "the stoker is
never wrong". We have more than 150 miles together. Regarding when is
old enough, When they wanted to try it and I was sure they could hold
on, we started trying it. We started nice and easy on a paved bike
path. Now we can ride a bit more agressively. My 5 year old son
starts voicing concern at about 20 MPH, I listen carefully to my
stokers to make sure I don't wreck the experience for them.
Let me know if you have any other questions