Recreational & Family - Daddy, when can I ride on the road with you?

My daughter is 8 and she and I spend a lot of time on bike paths and the sidewalks at our local school.

More and more often when I head out for long rides on the road bike she wants to go with me. (We live in rural central Indiana and I ride mostly on little-travelled country roads.) She's getting more and more stable on her (girly) kids bmx bike and I'm starting to think she might be OK on country roads where there's not much traffic--riding with me, of course, not alone.

So, two questions:

1. When did your kid start riding on the road with you?
2. What type of bike? (Guy at the bike shop recommended the Extra Small Giant OCR3)

Any advice/opinions would be appreciated.
Dewbert

I have very little experience, but I'll share what I have. My son is also 8 and has gotten to be pretty good on his 20" BMX style bike. He and I had ridden a few errands around the area on local roads (Washington DC suburbs) and it was a little nerve wracking since he did not always ride in the safest way.

This summer the family has done some rides together and with mom in front and me behind, the trips have been much easier. That has eliminated many of his less safe actions. We have now ridden on local roads and also some rural roads with little traffic. A few useful tips have emerged:
1) Always run through the rules of the road before you start your ride. Chances are she'll remember them, you just want to put them right up front in her mind.
2) Talk through your route -- or at least the first bit of it with her before you start so she will know about any obstacles or difficult areas where she should watch and listen to you more closely.
3) At any intersection where you have stopped tell her which way you are turning and how to handle the turn correctly. Again she will probably know it, but the verbal run through has helped prevent my son from winding up in the middle of the road and into traffic.
4) Go no further than she is comfortable with. Better to do more shorter rides that keep her interested, than one long one. Also if you can ride to or through interesting places that will make the trip worthwhile to her. Any little thing or place will work.

Good luck and enjoy your riding.

i don't have kids, so i don't know. since i don't have kids i take my friends kids and my friends nieces and nephews to bike events. and yes two of them want to try the velodrome. i am so happy they want too.
that is cool they want to go biking with you. fun fun.

My son is now ten but has been riding on busy city streets and rural county lanes with me since age eight.

Be aware that perception for an 8-year-old is very different from us -- she has little experience with vehicle speed, stopping ability and so forth. We have an almost instinctual knowledge of what drivers will do at intersections, but a child who doesn't drive has no concept of motorist behavior. These things are learned through instruction and experience.

Whenever any of my son's friends join us on short rides they scare me -- weaving all over, blowing right through stop signs, zero concept of right-of-way or road rules. Experience counts for a lot, I think.

So, two questions:

1. When did your kid start riding on the road with you?
2. What type of bike? (Guy at the bike shop recommended the Extra Small Giant OCR3)

I'm not sure what you mean by.........."On the road." My son will be 7 in a week. He has ridden on residential streets with me since he learned to ride over 1 yr ago. With that said, I would NEVER take him on the highway with me. Not at this age.

Keep your child between yourself and the curb at ALL times unless it simply isn't possible. I hang out in the lane of traffic and "guard" my kid as he rides to the inside of me. They are going to have to hit me first before they can get to him. That is my mentality. I am also very clear with instructions about which way we will be turning, etc.

I will say, "okay at this next corner we are turning right. Do you know which way right is?" Then i make him gesture si i am clear he understands. After time he gets more adept and more trustworthy. But i always keep in mind that he is young and still makes poor decisiions some times. I still catch him not looking both ways while entering a roadway. He gets tired of me saying it, but i tell him that it only takes once to screw up and it can all be over.

Then i go to school every morning and drop him off and watch kids flying in from all over the place on their bikes. Many of them are younger than him and some even cross a busy divided street to get to school. I won't let my kid cross that street till he is much older.

Somehow all of these kids make it to school every day and make it home without getting run over. VEry few of them are following any sort of safety rules yet thankfully most of them wear helmets.

My kids are younger than yours but I have a plan for answering this question. The League of American Bicyclists, Bike Ed program has some exercises that my kids must master before I will let them on the road. They must be able to ride a steady, straight line. They must be able to look over their shoulder to evaluate traffic behind while maintaining a steady, straight line.
Until these skills are attained, they will not be able to safely navigate traffic.
These are the bike handling skills I plan to require. Other knowledge about traffic law and right of way and predicting driver behavior will be required also.

We ride now. Jessie is six. She loves to get out and mix it up on the road!

My son started riding when he was 4 and started racing mtb when he was 5. He won his age group 2 years in a row (5-6, 7-8) and finished 4th this year (9-10). I mentioned this because he's been riding for some years now and I feel comfortable taking him to the trails and to the road.

We started to road ride when he was 7, not frequently but did it. I'll always be behind me trying to protect him and be vissible as much as possible. I can also say that close calls do happen, specially when he's tired. He tends to do dumb mistakes when tired but hech, we all do.

He got a roadie for his birthday and we usually ride a 3 mile long paved bike path because is safer and he can go as hard as he wants without dealing with traffic. We ride it on Saturdays for ~1hr (12 miles), that's enough for a kid. On occassion we take the road and I do the same as when we took the mtbs out, he'll be on the front and I'll tag behind protecting him as mush as possible and so far no mishaps. I'm always watching out for traffic, pedestrians, etc and also trying to teach him the rules of the road.

Take her out for a ride and see how it goes, if the roads aren't busy you guys will be fine.

i let my son ride on the highway @ 6yrs old.

My son is nine and we ride to and from school all the time on the streets. You would laugh to hear us going down the road as I am giving him constant instruction but he's picking up 'the skills' quickly. I watch him and watch the road and I'm happy to see him scanning for danger; just as I taught him to.

Only you know your daughter well enough to know if she's ready. If you think she is, then teach her right and be on your way.

My son has regularly been riding on the roads with me since he was 9. He started with a mountain bike, then we put slicks on it for road rides. Last year, I got him his first road bike (it is a borrowed frame, an old Ciocc, 49 cm). We both took a local cycling safety course and had a road test before I started taking him out on the road extensively. He follows all the rules and rides a very straight line now, has even started doing some junior level road races.

He has also been doing track riding at T-town since he was 9 yrs old. Their programs stress safety and made my job of teaching him the rules much, much easier. If you live near a track, I recommend getting your young ones into any of the kids programs you can find.

My first was my daughter at age 7. We did a "clean air challenge" ride and she did her first 15 mile ride without a problem. My second daughter did it at six yo and finished. now she is 11 yo and we are doing a 35 mile tour on coast. I started them out early at 4yo about learning safty first and rules of the road. The more practice the better. Mostly on less traffic congested days and on secondary roads or weekends at local college campuses is a good start. Starting my son out at age 5 yo with the same pattern of ease. It's a scary process, but practice makes perfect.