Dad and son journey

[Theunissa]

9 hours ago, The Ouzo said:

nah, permatubes are where its at. Makes the kids tougher too.  

 

11 hours ago, NotSoBigBen said:

Back when I was involved with a bike shop the suggestion for children and in fact anyone that didn't ride on a very regular basis was tyre liners and slime rather than tjoopless .... 

Problem is they say at the solomons cycles that I shouldn't use them with the new aluminum rims. It apparently damaged two bikes they sold. So I'm avoiding that. His first bike 12" had them it was bliss. But then tubes l

And the headache of fixing punctures will teach him to chose his lines better. I think the perm tubes made him lazy in that regard 

[Theunissa]

12 hours ago, DJR said:

"Serious" cyclists look down at tyre liners, but they WORK! And they probably work better than a dodgy tubeless setup at avoiding flats. 

I've beaten some of those in races with my safety boots and normal shorts in races. No garmin 

[Theunissa]

On 11/14/2022 at 7:20 AM, Trashy said:

My 5 year old readily rides 5-6km.

These rides include: multiple "picnic" stops, a playground stop, playing in the river, looking for treasure among lots of other general exploring.

Fun factor is important.

 

Its amazing the energy they have. Mine drive us up the wall at home. But them it's in the genes

[Trashy]

I took my 5 year old to Banhoek yesterday and he rode about 6km.

Even rode down Cobra and handled it like an absolute champ.

He commented on the way down, "when I grow up I want to be a mountain biker".

Success!

[Theunissa]

Finally got our first ride sorted today.  

 

[Theunissa]

[Theunissa]

34 minutes ago, Trashy said:

I took my 5 year old to Banhoek yesterday and he rode about 6km.

Even rode down Cobra and handled it like an absolute champ.

He commented on the way down, "when I grow up I want to be a mountain biker".

Success!

Nice. Mine feels that what seeing me firefighting. We did almost 8 today. It's difficult though going so slow

[Pieter1]

Nice to read some of the "riding" stories. I was planning on taking my son (2 and a bit years old) to the local pump track for the first time. I have never been there but when we arrived and saw the state of it I decided it is best to just "ride" on the footpaths in the park that surrounds it. He cruised along for about 10min until we spotted the 1st lizard. From there on out I was carrying his bike and checking for snakes, Lizards and all sorts of other critters. Was a fun day out.

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

11 hours ago, Pieter1 said:

Nice to read some of the "riding" stories. I was planning on taking my son (2 and a bit years old) to the local pump track for the first time. I have never been there but when we arrived and saw the state of it I decided it is best to just "ride" on the footpaths in the park that surrounds it. He cruised along for about 10min until we spotted the 1st lizard. From there on out I was carrying his bike and checking for snakes, Lizards and all sorts of other critters. Was a fun day out.

Our son used his Chillafish balance bike at the Wolvespruit pumptrack when he was that age.
Amazed the people around us as he dropped in a ramped the first hump, then turned around and did it again and again.
Wipe out, dust himself off and carry on while the other parents went crazy. Got to raise them tough.
He is now 6yrs old on a Titan 20inch and loving cycling. Never push and do it at their pace, as others have said. He is a proper boy though, tough as they come and fearless.
Which kills the parents nerves but is also amazing to see.

[Pieter1]

2 hours ago, Steven Knoetze (sk27) said:

Our son used his Chillafish balance bike at the Wolvespruit pumptrack when he was that age.
Amazed the people around us as he dropped in a ramped the first hump, then turned around and did it again and again.
Wipe out, dust himself off and carry on while the other parents went crazy. Got to raise them tough.
He is now 6yrs old on a Titan 20inch and loving cycling. Never push and do it at their pace, as others have said. He is a proper boy though, tough as they come and fearless.
Which kills the parents nerves but is also amazing to see.

Hahaha! Thats awesome! Ours is also adventurous by nature and likes to “do” the tricks he sees on the youtube videos. I’ll take him to the skatepark this weekend as the pumptrack is so poorly maintained it is not ridable. 

[Theunissa]

It's good to see dads spending family time. If you got pictures and stories about Dads and kids. I'm not gonna complain. It's maybe a good thing. We need to make mor etime for family 

[Theunissa]

So sussie het saam gery. But got tired after 3km so we dropped her amd went for 7

[blondeonabike]

This thread is so lekker......had a jol with my son when he was smaller. I need somebody to point me to the next thread we should graduate to after this......the " my son is now kicking my ass on a bike" support thread 😞

[Theunissa]

🤣

[DJR]

3 hours ago, blondeonabike said:

This thread is so lekker......had a jol with my son when he was smaller. I need somebody to point me to the next thread we should graduate to after this......the " my son is now kicking my ass on a bike" support thread 😞

Just you wait until they are varsity students.....have late nights, party too much, want to sleep late with a hangover......and you can chase them and beat them again. True story........but they learn quickly and become more difficult to catch with those wiley coyote tricks!

[ACE Cycles]

This is such an awesome thread, you are so privileged to ride with your son. 

My boy and I started riding together in 2017, he was 8, looking at his strava, we never went further than 13km

The year after that he competed in a couple of 20km Trailseekers, got his first win too. We never went further than 35km that year

Now he is 13, we did our first 947 together 3h15, he fell in love with the race. We also did our first stage race this past weekend at Sondela, we came 2nd in the parent and child category. He was fine on stage 2, except for the last 20km, but he cruised through stages 1 and 3.

Now we enter events together, and he joins me on training rides. My only advice is to make sure to keep it as fun as possible and dont push them too hard