Recreational & Family - Oh &^%$ Now what?

Tag-along bike woes.

After a couple of months of fussing and worrying and trying to talk myself into spending the money, I finally did it. It was more a case of 'if I don't spend the money I'll never know how much it'll get used' than anything else.

Here in Australia, we don't get the fancy brands and models that you lot talk about, which is nice because I don't have to spend so much but bad because all we get is rubbish - steel, very very heavy, single speed, heavy, poorly made, heavy, with dicky looking hitches. Did I mention heavy? Well, I found one for $250 that's alloy and quite well made with a far better hitch. Not as heavy as the steel ones - the Holstar 'Trail Runner'.

So I bought the thing.

I've got my daughter half time and got it all set up while she was away. Upon seeing her bright blue beastie, she was ecstatic and excited. Couldn't wait to get out and try it. Talked all the way in the car to a nice, straight, flat bike path near home. Bounced up and down as I hooked it onto my bike, climbed on and away we went.

Silence.

Then the wails. "Daddy, I'm scared."
And the wails built up - the lass was really really scared.

So I stopped. She was off in a flash with her helmet off a little slower and no amount of coaxing or encouragement would dry the tears or get her back on that bike. She lasted just over 100m (that's right, not even 100 yards). So we went back to the car. She cheered up once I started packing things up. Shook her head firmly when I asked her if she wanted to have another go and was her normal chatty self once the bike was safely locked away in the car.

So now what?

Yes, I'm sure that once she gets some miles under her, she'll settle in and enjoy it. She's not sporty at all, which explains why she hasn't learnt to ride her scooter or her little bike although she loves mucking about with them, but she also loves getting out with me and going places. The tag-along bike seems ideal ... if I can get her riding it. I can't easily get my Dad or my son to ride the bike while I walk with her because I'm taller than they are and rejigging the tow bike to suit them would be an exercise in itself and we're talking with about a little girl with a very strong stubborn streak - she'll be 6 in a month.

Any thoughts?

Richard

Is she your first child? If so, patience is key Dad. The trick with trailerbikes is the right speed. Too slow it will wobble too much from the play in the joint and scare the child. Too fast will generally scare the child too. Location helps, as I live in a quiet neighborhood where I could start with short rides up and down the street, gradually increasing distance. Another thing to help is to have Mom ride her bike behind her.

Just be patient with her. If she is at all interested in bike riding (and you need to realize that she may not be), the day will come when she will overcome her initial fear.

agree with Woodlark. Just be patient. She'll likely let you try again soon, but, if she's as stubborn as you say, maybe not.

She may just turn out to be one of those people who doesn't like bikes. :(

by the way, did you really expect, once you posted, that the first 3 responses would all come from little bitty South Carolina??? LOL!

Good luck!

She's my second, though I raised a step son in between (from baby to school). Her big brother (14) was racing around on his OCR2 while all this was happening. Mum? I'm currently fighting a family court battle to keep contact with my daughter at all so the chances of positive reinforcement from her are zero.

I'm usually fairly good at working out ways of conning kids into trying things that frighten them, and I'm quite happy to accept that sometimes it just doesn't work, but this one's got me stumped ... and I'd kinda like to see her go a little further than 100m before giving up.

At the moment, I'm thinking - in the driveway, me walking with the bike. I'm sure it's the movement that's worrying her, the wobble from the play in the linkage. Ah well, maybe I'll wind up trying the old parental standby - bribery and corruption :D
At the moment, I've got both bikes in the lounge room - my bike with hers hooked onto the back so that she's got a visual reminder of what might be. It seems to be a positive at this stage, though she's also shown a tendancy to love the image while avoiding the reality. But hey, she's only 5, I've got to watch that I don't ask too much, too quickly and, what's more, avoid pushing her mad father's desire to be riding with his little princess on the wee princess herself.

Dammit, if parenting was supposed to be easy, we'd all be doing it ... hang on, most of us are.

As for the South Carolina bit - you lot are so cool and experienced I expected only the best advice from you :D

Richard

I find that explaining what the sensations will be from the start, before the first ride, is the key. at least with the children I've worked with.

Along the lines of, "here, I'll ride by without you on, and you can see how it follows me everywhere I go and won't tip over." Then it's "now when we start out, it might feel a little tippy, but that's OK. You will not fall. You are safely attached to daddy's bike."

Those kind of reassurances are worth lots.

Good luck and keep trying, but gently.

At this point, I would try to get one of her willing friends to hop on and make it look fun to your daughter. Then the natural "if my friend can, I can" instinct might take over!

Tag-along bike woes.


She lasted just over 100m (that's right, not even 100 yards).

So now what?

Any thoughts?

Richard


Sorry Mate - I hope she learns Math better than you. ;) SAID IN JEST - the engineer inside me caught this.

In all seriousness, I Hope it all works out with your daughter

Yeah, I worked that out soon after I posted it but thought I'd leave it just for the hell of it. Cripes, if the spelling nazis can play, why not the maths nazis :eek: (notice I left the 's' on 'maths' - that's how it's said here. Been ages since a spelling nazi has picked on my aussie spelling, not realising that with some words we do it correctly ... er ... differently)

Next attempt on the bike will be in about 5 hours - she's got a party to go to this arvo.

Richard

Crikey!:)

Precisely

Okay, latest attempt. We might even have made progress :eek:

Just in the driveway. Had the lass sitting on her bike with me pushing my bike. She was happy until it started moving then you could see the fear well up in her eyes. So I stopped at the end of the driveway ... about 10 metres and she leapt off.

Bit of a cuddle.

Turn the assembly around (amazing manoeuvreable despite looking like a semi-trailer).

Suggest she get back on the bike - big eyes.
"It's okay. Just sit on it. We won't go anywhere"

So she climbs back on again and, of course, it flops from side to side, but after a bit, she's settled, so I suggest she rides it back to the house.

The lass starts to climb off.

Bit of encouragement and she settles on the seat. She wasn't pedalling last time so this time, as I'm walking, I encourage her to pedal. As soon as those pedals are turning, the whole business comes together and a smile lights up her face. Mind you, once we got to the door (a whole 10m away remember), she's off the bike and into the house screaming to her brother that she's riding her bike. Very excited but not excited enough to have another go.:rolleyes:

However, she did rush out the back, jump on her tiny trike and had a ride on that, then insisted that SHE pump up the tyres on her 16" bike with the training wheels. Okay, so Dad had to do it but we then spent half an hour pedalling that back and forth. This is a move forward as she's never been too keen on pedalling it but suddenly she's doing it. I was also able to point out that the way that bike wobbles on its training wheels is just like her new bike. That worked ... I think. And guess which mean Daddy is going to raise those training wheels just a tad tonight after she goes to bed (not much). The interesting thing was that she very quickly reached the point where the training wheels weren't doing much at all. It wouldn't surprise me if she's balancing fairly quickly - you know how they go from unable to balance to able to in about a millisecond, the trick being to wait for that millisecond to happen.

So, it's looking better. I'll try again tomorrow, walking again and encouraging her to pedal. We'll be at Grandpa's tomorrow so that might help (or intimidate. We'll see).

Any suggestions on how to handle things when I climb on my bike next? (as opposed to me pushing the assembly).

The other thing that comes out of this exercise is her size. I knew she was on the shorter end of her class group, but the messing about today showed that her old 16" bike with the seat right down is actually a good fit for her (and I don't mean super bent legs - we're talking bent toes with her feet on the ground). This makes the 20" tag-along a big bike for her and that might be part of the intimidation, that and looking up at Dad's back towering over her (my stupid old hybrid has a very high centrebracket, pushing me up even further). On a positive, it suggests that I'll get a few more years use out of it before she outgrows it.

Richard

And thus the saga moves forward.
I suggested she go for a ride on her new 'bike' (the tag-along) this evening. She looked shocked. I said I'd walk with my bike, not ride it, and she was suddenly interested. So out in the driveway again. Same look of fear as it got going but once she started pedalling, that disappeared. Down to the street, u turn, back up the driveway, u turn, back to the street - we did about three of these laps. Then she wanted me to ride the bike ... without her - she wanted to walk next to me 'holding me up'. So I climbed on and rode as slowly as I could up the street with her trotting next to me. Then I asked if she wanted to get on her bike. She did and off we went.

Yup, she had a real ride on her tag-along :D

Only about 300m as it turned out and she was quick to tell me when she thought I was going too fast, but methinks we've cracked it. It's just time in the saddle now ... in controlled doses of course. :D

Thank goodness for that, and in a time frame that seems so short now when you consider how determined she was not to have anything to do with the brute yesterday. Just goes to show you can't predict kids.

Richard

All Right!!! Looks like progress.

Being a G'pa I've learned that old age has its advantage in patience.

I've been teaching my G'kids much, but learning must be at THEIR pace, not my expectations of same. I didn't always understand that when my children were ahh...children.

Good Luck!

In general, how quickly do little bottoms get sore and little legs get tired? I realise this depends on the kid but it'd be nice to have some idea of what to start with ... okay, that's easy, around grandpa's retirement village tomorrow (I hope) but for the next few days, just up to the playground ... which we normally walk to. But down the track a little - any thoughts on the boredom/discomfort/tired factor? She's almost 6. Having a playground or an icecream at the turn around point sounds like a good option, but does that actually extend the length of the ride?

Then there's the other other kid to worry about - at 14 and hyper fit, he's going to have to get used to racing on ahead and then racing back to us. Do him good (in a character building way) :D

Richard

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Sounds like you're going to have lots of happy times on the bike together now. As for the boredom/tired thing, my 6 year old is more than willing to keep going as long as I'll let him, we've done up to 15 miles, me on my bike, he on his, not a trail-a-bike. And, that's with some pretty good hills thrown in. He did poop out on me some around mile 12, but we persevered and got back home. AND, 30 minutes later, he was ready for more. But, he sure slept good that night. :)

Again, congrats, sounds like she's starting to get it. As you said, the 14 yr old will just have to ride circles around you as she continues to get up to speed.

Remember, sore bottoms and tired legs aside, that 6 year olds have a short attention span. Don't try to press her to do too much too soon or you will lose what progress you have already made. Sounds like things are going well though.

First pic is my 2 boys aboard our Greenspeed GTT (from Australia, BTW)
Second pic is 3 years later and the youngest is ready to pilot the Greenspeed GTX!
Upon seeing this, his 2 little sisters climbed into the trailer.
And now the youngest boy has graduated to Captaing the GTT. I sit in back and have a rope around the handle grips and brakes. (just in case:p )
He's now 6!!:eek:

I've seen a couple of Greenspeeds. They look nicely made.

We did 5km today (half an hour, she tells me when I'm going 'too fast') - she chatted all the way but to be honest, really needed the thought of the playground at the end of the ride to get her there.

Richard

Now challenge her to see how fast you can go with just her pedalling.

Then take the trainer wheels off her 16" bike. Lower the seat and take off the pedals so she can push along with her feet on the ground, and learn to balance by countersteering.

We did 12 km yesterday, with a group. Very slow. Stops at every playground. She's still excited and loves calling out to people. I think we've cracked it. :D

Dad

Now let her ride behind her big brother.

What? Slow him down? :eek:

Richard

I don't remember ever having a sore bottom from riding a bike as a kid.

I sure get them now!

Well my daughters experience on the trail a bike is much different than yours. Of course she allready loved getting on her bike and scooter, although se could not balance very well.

I got my trail a bike when she was 4. She loved it and never had a problem with me going fast. She would chant faster! faster! faster! and when we went down a hill and went very fast she would laugh. The park at the turn around allways helps. I bring snacks that she likes. Sometimes she gets boared after about 5 miles but other times she will go 10 miles without any problems. We have even done a number of rides at over 20 miles including 1 "race" right when she was turning 5. Ok it was a charity ride that some people raced and we sort of did to. She had seen me race and kept telling me that if she was out there helping me that we would have won so I had to find a race for us to do and since there weren't any other kids her age (other than in the 1 block race) we won our age group :P

I have found that kids buts are like ours. If you do long rides without building up to it their but will get soar. I would guess that at about 5 miles will be the extent untill you get a bunch of rides in and then you can probably work it up to 10 miles. My daughter likes to stand while we are riding or stoped at a light so that she can stretch out her legs and get her but off the seat. Another way to get longer rides are in are to ride to one of her friends houses so that she can show them.

I had my daughter in a kiddie seat at the age of 10 months. At age 2 we moved to a trailer. At age 4 we tried the trail a bike, she was a tad nervous for 20 feet, then she fell in love with it. She is now 8, going on 9 still loves her trail a bike. I can't get her on her own bike with training wheels, I have been trying for 3 years. I have to bribe her to ride it 100 yards. Mention 40 miles on trailabike and she is grabbing her cammelback and some snack foods.

Ain't no way I'm draggin' my wee miss for 40 miles. :eek:

We were riding around a local national park yesterday, my first experience with some decent hills. One climb, nearly a kilometre's worth, had me in second to bottom gear, keeping a very close eye on my cadence and wishing the flamin' heart rate monitor would just shut up and pronounce me dead (which it does periodically :eek: ). Even big brother had to think about that climb (he's so fit he normally doesn't acknowledge anything that doesn't have 'alp' after it's name :rolleyes: ). Got to the top though, missy complaining about sore legs (poor thing, what about MINE?). Going back down, I was very gratified to see a fit looking young woman struggling up the hill on her mtb. Hah, she was struggling and I rode it on a semi-trailer :D

The miss loves her tag-along, but she's also decided she wants a new bike. I told her she can't have one until she can ride her old one without training wheels. So she ordered me to take the training wheels off and we're in intensive pushbike training now. Sadly, she has almost no idea about balance so it'll be a while yet, but with her two wheeler and her scooter (having the scooter is why I'm not doing the 'take the pedals off' trick), she'll get there. In the meantime, all three of us get to go riding and that HAS to be worth the purchase price.

Richard

I agree, I think 40 miles might be a bit nuts. Maybee when she consistantly helps out with strong pedalling. I look at riding with her a a double or tripple win for me. I get great Daddy Daughter time together, I still get a good training ride in because I allways want to push it hard, I am building great memorries, and it makes my wife happy. Ok so that is a quadruple win but hey everyone is winning.