Recreational & Family - Advice after a child's fall

My wife and I are pretty much beginners. I have had my bike (Specialized Allez) for about 6 months. I have been averaging about 120 miles a week. When she saw the health benefits (weight loss and kept it off), she decided that she wanted one too. We bought her a Specialized Ruby (lesson learned cheaper is not better when it comes to cycling). She has been riding for about 6 weeks. We rode our farthest distance, 33 miles, this morning. Anyway my son expressed interest in riding so I bought him a used Allez Sport. We had him fitted at our LBS, bought him shoes, cleats (bike had spd pedals), gloves, clothes etc. We got the bike home yesterday. Today I put him on my trainer and had him practice getting in and out of the clipless pedals, shifting gears and explaining cadence to him ( bike came with a cateye comp). So all was well, we got out on the streets in our neighbor hood. We practiced emergency stops, shifing gears, turn signals and other rules of the road. So, then we were riding along and he asked me what a sprint was. So I jumped off for a short sprint as I was slowing down, I heard his bike hit the ground. He scraped up his elbow among other things. He is OK and back to playing video games

He was really enjoying it until he wiped out. He is 5"10 170 lbs at 12 years old. I was really hoping this would be something healthy he would enjoy.

Does anyone have any advice for dealing with this? I really want him to get back on his bike, but I don't know how soon is too soon.

Thanks

Maybe he just needs some time to get over it. I broke my arm (not cycling) several years ago and remember not wanting to do anything that could hurt it for a couple weeks. I would just keep riding, that seems to be what got him interested in the first place. Maybe buy a new piece of gear for him or his bike, that always gets me psyched!
Kudos for teaching him how to ride properly in traffic, some people just don't seem to know how.

Don't have a definitive answer, but what caused the fall? The clipless pedals? Pulling the front wheel round when he started to sprint? Talk to him about it.

If he's lost confidence, particularly if it was the pedals, try replacing them with flats - those with pins in used by BMXers/mtbers - and get him to try riding with those in decent sneakers, until he gets his confidence back before switching back.

If the fall had some other cause, talk him through it and maybe find a more exprienced rider to discuss it with him, perhaps via the local bike shop where you bought the bikes. If there's a local qualified cycling coach, get him to ride with you both to take a look at your son's style and habits.

Good luck.

get back on as soon as you get off.......

Show him some photos of road-rashed pros, then tell him he's awesome.

Sweet battle wound! He has joined the fraternity of cyclist. Make sure he has a cool story about how the scene went down, so he can tell his friends. Boys are ruff and tumble, tell him to not be such a “Mad Man”. Then go watch some U-Tube videos about cycle crashing. You’ll have a hard time keeping him off the bike.

It's a sports injury. Every sport has them. The nice thing about cycling is that you do have a lot of control over the risks you take. Help him learn from the error and move on.

My 7 year old has fallen a few times. Last week he plowed into a parked sports car in a cul-de-sac and scratched it up. $439 for repainting the damage. I'll pay for that and any other issues that come up if it keeps him on the bike.

Take the SPDs off and let him ride with platform pedals until he is used to the bike. Then, when he is ready, put the SPDs (or perhaps an easier pedal - like Eggbeater/Candy pedals) on the bike.

12 years old and you are concerned with cadence and clipless? Riding a bike at twelve should be fun and not bio-mechanics lesson.

at one point in my life, right after a biking accident, I could literally see my kneecap. Once my legs healed, fixed the bike and got back on. a few years ago I got into a fight with the pavement and the pavement won. I had a softball right above my left eye for a month~. Fixed up the bike and got back on......however, I now tend to get a lil skittish on turns, especially if theres loose gravel, dirt, water, etc. I'm slowly getting over it, but I don't think it'll ever go away.

12 years old and you are concerned with cadence and clipless? Riding a bike at twelve should be fun and not bio-mechanics lesson.

I agree with this 110%! Biking (especially at that age) should be about the fun of it. Heck if biking was only exercise I would probably never get on one.

Drop the clips and get some nice BMX pedals, lose the computer and just hit the streets and trails with no goal.

First rule of horse and bike riding: get back on as soon as you fall off. (Also +1 for the BMX pedals. Clipless is hard enough for some adults to master, let alone kids.) Also, battle wounds are great. I remember getting bucked off my horse and walking around with a giant scrape up the side of my face for a couple of weeks. Other kids were impressed.

Thanks for all the advice. I appreciate all taking the time to post. He's pretty healed up. I think we'll give it a try again tomorrow.

About the pedals and computer. He really wants to keep them. I think he wants to be "grown up" We'll see what happens. About cadence. Part of the problem with mountain biking was that he always had it geared to be too hard to pedal. I thought if he kept his bike in a gear that allowed him to pedal at a decent cadence he would enjoy it more. It seemed to work before he fell.



Pulling the front wheel round when he started to sprint?


That's exactly what happened, he didn't expect the bike to react the way it did.

His battle wound did get him alot of attention at school.

Thanks again all

He is a boy! Tell him to man up and get back on the bike! Boys are supposed to get scrapes and bruises and bleed frequently, it's just something about being a boy. My two year son is a constant bruise from head to toe.
Tell your son it is a battle wound, one of many he will receive throughout his life. Heck I remember when my five year old daughter(she is seven now) hit some dirt and wiped out on her bike, she looked worse than your boy. She rode home.
I agree, loose the computer, loose the pedals and most of all have FUN.

Like anything, if you do not fail, you do not learn. You learn to be a quitter by not trying again.

Get back on the bike and go. A quick story, I was dumped by a horse once and broke both wrists. I got back on as soon as I was allowed and rode horses for years. I did not let a small accident get me down. My son on his bike, down the first steep hill on his own, did not brake and tried to mow down the street sign, and the sign won. Still he got back on. He learned that braking is good from that. Learn from the falls and failures. If you do not learn that now, think about what your son will do on that first real job and fails to do it right. You want to teach him to quit or to learn?

Thanks for all the advice. I appreciate all taking the time to post. He's pretty healed up. I think we'll give it a try again tomorrow.

Did you get out again? How'd things go?

BTW, you bought him a nice bike. Good for you for providing such good equipment.

We got out yesterday. We did an easy 5 miles on a road with light traffic. He did fine. Gave him alot of praise for getting back on and trying it again. He has to do a 50 miler in 8 hours to complete his cycling merit badge for Boy Scouts. That is what we are going to work up to.

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He has to do a 50 miler in 8 hours to complete his cycling merit badge for Boy Scouts.

Wooot! Did one of those once. Church youth group, not scouts, but still was 50 miles. My wife and I didn't know any better, and we bought hybrid bikes that were probably all wrong for the ride, but we did survive it. We were young then. Bought the bikes, did two or three warm-up rides, and then went straight into the 50-miler. Yeesh! Good memories though.

Just one further tentative suggestion. In the UK youth racers (I know that's not on the immediate cards, but with a 50 coming up it's of some relevance), we restrict their top gears to prevent them risking damage to their knees - Osgood-Schlatters can be a problem.

Altho', given his size he could obviously push a high gear (he's a big 12 year old), but for an U14 the highest gear he would be allowed to push would be 6.45m/21'. We measure it by:

1. putting the bike in the highest gear possible
2. setting up the cranks so that they are vertical
3. marking the position of the crank on the ground with a chalk mark
4. wheeling the bike backwards until the crank has completed one revolution and measuring the distance covered.

If it is more than the 6.45m/21', the derailleur is screwed down to the next highest gear and the process is repeated, until the bike is in the highest gear below, or at, that distance.

Doing this teaches the youngster to spin rather than mash the highest possible gear - a good habit to get into - and it reduces the load on young knee joints. It does mean that on steeper downhills might be less than otherwise, but that's the only (minor) disadvantage.

Glad he got back on! I think sometimes just getting back on after a fall is one of the hardest mental blocks!

Wooot! Did one of those once. Church youth group, not scouts, but still was 50 miles. My wife and I didn't know any better, and we bought hybrid bikes that were probably all wrong for the ride, but we did survive it. We were young then. Bought the bikes, did two or three warm-up rides, and then went straight into the 50-miler. Yeesh! Good memories though.

I did my first 50miles for my badge in 6th grade. On a one speed Banana seat bike. I took a student on a 50 miler to get his badge a couple years ago.
I still use the repair knowledge I learned for that badge so many years ago.

Re: pedals: maybe put him on old-fashioned clips-and-straps. They offer most of the advantages of clipless, and they're easy to pull out of. They're real adult pedals, but less tricky for noobs. When he masters the other skills he needs, then you can give him back the clipless pedals.

Glad you got back up and going. You can tell him for a fact there is at least one adult out there that does not use special pedals. I just never liked the idea of it. We all crash once in a while. I've been lucky enough to avoid any serious injuries and falls have been my own fault. Best was when I came up behind my riding buddy on an incline with a old coaster brake bike I take out for fun rides. Big no no right there, and I knew it. Anyway he stopped. Now I have to stop on a steep incline and put my foot down to keep the bike from falling over while still applying the brake to keep it from rolling backwards. this is not possible on a coaster brake. Bike and I made all the way down the hill backwards before flopping. I decided that was bit of an accomplishment. Laughed about it with my audience, and moved on.

Abu Jack, Try a pair of flats adapters on the pedals to give your son an option. My kids all started off with good kit for their first 'serious' bike, but I left off the clipless pedals and didn't offer too much technical advice until the need arose, for example like during long pull up a hill and how to stay in their cadence 'sweet spot', which on the next hill produced a series of clicks (shifting).

Both of my daughters, now grown with their own infants are looking at baby trailers so I guess my primary goal of having them enjoy cycling has been met. My son moved on to motorcycles, which I also have, but one of his prized possesions is an old Olmo I period built for him.

atbman's post is quite sensible..As a kid I grew quicker than many of my friends and there should be some concern about your son's joints.

Brad