Recreational & Family - Know any good bike "games"?

I'm writing a little magazine article about kids' biking games. For example, when we were kids we invented a game where you hide a dandelion somewhere on your bike and then take it through "customs," which was some other kids who had to find it. We pretended the dandelions were drugs or something. :p

We also used to rake out clear paths all over the lawn in the autumn to make roadways. (I chose my "handle" because the rest of the time we spent taking our bikes over jumps.)

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Chicken

A slow race.

The LAST accross the finish line wins.

The setup:
- a start line and finish line about 100 feet apart (can be more or less depending on age and skill level)

The Rules:
- cannot put feet down
- cannot go backwards
- cannot go in a differant direction, must head towards finish (of course weaving is allowed but only to maintain balance).

If you fall over yer out, if you put your feet down yer out, if you break anyone of the rules above yer out.

Try it. Aint easy.

Digger

Have a bike rodeo!! We had them in school, very fun

We used to make wooden models of hydroplanes and tie them to our bikes and race

TdF

:D

The real ElJefe posted this about his childhood.
I suggested a few rattlers to keep it interesting..

"We used to jump our bikes over pits full of broken bottles and cactus plants, while firing bottle-rockets at each other. We lit a few fields on fire in West Texas, but we sure had fun."

I have played capture the flag with my cousins before. It actually gets kinda dangerous when someone is trying to tag you while you go after the flag.

but it is plenty fun!

Mountain Bike Polo (http://www.bikepolo.com/)

Mountain Bike Polo (http://www.bikepolo.com/)
:D that would be funny to watch! :D

Well now perhaps you can use real drugs with real customs officers. It's always fun to see how far you can get on a bike with 12 kilo stuffed inside the frame while the helicopter with the laser targeting machine gun's after you.

Bonus points on a mtb since dense forest makes for a good getaway and larger frame tubes carry more bling bling ;)

my kids invented this game. they are on their bikes and they tied large pieces of chaulk to a long stick and 'drew' as they rode. 4 kids colored a huge picture, each with different colors.

i was floored by the preparation and thought process.

If you've enough kids:

Relay races straight out and back (30/40/50 yds)

ditto with cones/obstacles/bottles (filled with sand, not water) at about 8ft apart - reducing gap as they get better

Cut top off large soft drinks bottle to point where it straghtens out, turn upside down and stick 6 inches of 15mm overflow pipe in the opening, place plastic practice golf ball in it. Kids hold it by the pipe and do relay race without dropping it

Vary above by including the obstacles

Get large no. of bottles (with sand in - water runs out) and make long zigzag course with bottles in pairs with 3 to 4 paces from one pair to the next and a gap of 2-3 ft between each pair and get them to time each other (add penalty second for each bottle knocked over)

Get hold of industrial pallets and sweet-talk local builder into donating some planks/used plywood concrete forms, plastic pipes and improvise off-road obstacle course from them (useful to drill holes in end of planks and pallets to take bolts to hold them together - make bolts long enough to just drop through the holes - they don't need to have nuts screwed on.)

Get hold of old high jump kit and get them to limbo underneath poles, setting the crossbar lober and lower each time. A really good rider can get a (road) bike under a bar 2" lower than the bike)

Set some standardised technique courses using mixes of the above of 3 different levels of difficulty and award bronze, silver and gold certificates for each as the kids get better - and they will!

Stand back and be prepared to scratch your head having to think up harder things that you though possible for them to do!

Feel free to contact me direct - I assume you can do it thro' this site?

good luck

We used to play a lot of "Ride and Seek" as kids... I wouldn't recommend it however... at least not the way we played it. ;)

Demolition derby.

We used to play bike tag. You would surpriesed on the stunts you learn trying to not get tagged.

We also had a game galled "Logan's Run" (yeah, like the movie), where some of us were on bikes (trackers) and some on foot (runners) the object was to run over the runners before they could hop on to the trunks and hoods of the cars parked on the street. The runners were only allowed to stay on a "safe zone" for no more then 1 min. Just be sure all the kids playing can handle a little bit of injury :p

:beer:

We also had a game galled "Logan's Run" (yeah, like the movie), where some of us were on bikes (trackers) and some on foot (runners) the object was to run over the runners before they could hop on to the trunks and hoods of the cars parked on the street. The runners were only allowed to stay on a "safe zone" for no more then 1 min. Just be sure all the kids playing can handle a little bit of injury

It is my opinion that this same "game" is constantly "played"... or rather played out.. on a daily basis in the streets of Amsterdam. :p

One of my earliest memories is riding my tricycle and playing mailman. Does that count? The handrail going up the back steps of our house was wooden and there was a hole in the end of it and that was the mailbox. :o

Scott

Demolition derby.

We played something like demolition derby. We picked a piece of pavement roughly the size of a basketball court. Then, in essence, it was bike sumo. If you put your foot, or hand, on the ground, you were out.

Running into each other, track stands, pushing, kicking, were all fair game.

If you were about to lose your balance you could put a hand or foot on another rider's bike/body, whether they were upright or not.

You were also out if you left the "playing field."

I wish kids could still have fun like that. Apparently they're more fragile now.

Cops & Robbers - 'bike chases' Also with the annual community picnic, we would decorate our bikes with flags, crepe paper and such (cards slapping against spokes of course) and have a parade through the neighborhood.