Touring - Teach them early

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Neil_B
08-26-08, 06:17 AM
During my recent tour, I shared a campsite with some Boy Scout bike tourists. Points for creativity for the kid who duct taped two different sized backpacks together:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3060/2795716951_dbdb4f2835_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2795705575_45c9242a3a_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3166/2796561052_23935c0f30_b.jpg

rhm
08-26-08, 08:51 AM
Hey, that's cool.
I did a 2-day tour with my daughter last week, and posted about it elsewhere:

I finally got a good excuse to take my old Norman --it's from about 1950-3-- on a long ride; the excuse being my daughter wanted to go for a long-ish bike ride involving camping out one night. She's 9 and rides a typical kid's bike, rescued from a dumpster and modified into a 3-speed; so it only seemed fair that I ride a 3-speed as well!

Here are the two bikes on Long Beach, near Sag Harbor:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3286/2786161857_84ccd8b49c.jpg?v=0

Starting from our 'beach house' in the Antihamptons, We took a train to South Hampton, rode our bikes up to Sag Harbor, took a ferry to Shelter Island, another ferry to Greenport, camped out near a friend's house next to a sod farm, and headed home the next day.... about 35 miles of cycling each day. A fair amount of riding for a little kid!

Mechanical issues... you know, it's surprisingly difficult to find the right gearing for a little kid to get the most use out of an AW hub! She used to use just the highest gear, and it took her a while to learn to use the lower ones; and now she only uses the lowest gear. Progress indeed, but I have to lower the gearing before we do another long ride.

Also, the leatherette mattress saddle on the Norman is showing its age...not very comfortable, and it left a bicycle-seat shaped imprint on my shorts... perhaps it's ready to be retired... I wish I could get a weather-proof saddle that looks like a leather Brooks!

Can anyone point me to other links about touring with kids? I'm planning to do a lot more of it now that the kids are big enough.
zoltani
08-26-08, 10:32 AM
HAhaha, that is low-budget, but completely awesome. He should get a merit badge for that one.
It is good to see kids getting interested in touring at such a young age, and being so resourceful at it too.

wahoonc
08-26-08, 10:50 AM
Hey, that's cool.
I did a 2-day tour with my daughter last week, and posted about it elsewhere:


Can anyone point me to other links about touring with kids? I'm planning to do a lot more of it now that the kids are big enough.


Try running a search on Crazy Guy on a Bike (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/). There are quite a few travelogues including kids on there.

Aaron:)