Recreational & Family - Normal for a 9yo girl to do 26 miles before noon?

Just wondering what kind of miles your kids are racking up. Got up at 7:00am today and rode with my buddy and his daughter to a restaurant way out in the country to get breakfast. 13 miles there, stay an hour, then 13 miles back. Took us about an hour and a half each way. I thought that was pretty good for a 9 year old girl. Didn't complain or wander all over the road. She was on a full suspension NEXT bike too, so she was probably working twice as hard as us. She wants to do it again next week! We are starting to put the feelers out in search of a better bike for her, since she seems like she would be committed to it. She's on a swim team too, so if we can just get her to start running she's a shoe-in for triathalon.

Probably not normal, but totally cool!

P.S. My 9-year-old daughter is now on an xs adult bike. The bike shop dialed in the brake levers for us and she loves it.

Did she do it while talking on a cell phone the entire ride? Then it would be more normal.....

Define normal. For the US, probably not, for the rest of the world that ride bikes out of neccessity, yes.

Your concern besides safety should be the nutrition part. Other than that, let her ride for as long as she wants.

Not normal, but definitely nothing wrong. I'm sure it helps that she's a swimmer already, so she has a decent level of cardio fitness already.

Who wants to be normal anyways? It's frickin' cool that a 9 yr old is riding like that. Keep encouraging her and make sure she's having fun! :)

I remember my son learning to ride without training wheels when he was six, on his little 16" wheeled bike. That was on a Tuesday, and he rode every day up and down the block the rest of that week.

The following Sunday he begged me to take him on a bike ride on the MUP. We started out and I decided to let him go until he decided he wanted to turn around and ride home. We rode 16 miles that day.

Great memories.

Our 7 and a half old daughter on normal weekend rides 20 - 22 miles with average speed 15 mph. we usually go with one stop for 15-20 minutes.

It is not kids bike she is riding - I converted 13" MTB into the hybrid - 24 speed, 1.25 Panaracer Pasela tires, 48T cranks, rigid fork.

222636

Back in the 70s saw a 4 year old girl ride and finish a century on the back of a tandem in Ohio . . . yes she was pedaliing!

Since this seems to be the bragging thread ;) my 4 year old rode 15 miles earlier this summer (on his own bike, completely independently). And he was still going pretty strong at that point. We had to convince him to get off his bike and onto one of ours (where he promptly fell asleep).

Dang, Those are my normal week day rides and I'm 16(and I'm a guy)! My average speed is a lot higher, but at that age I can't imagine riding that much!

Not normal, but certainly healthy and worth encouraging. My sister biked over 30 miles at 7 years old for a special ride. She was extremely tired afterwards, but she loved it. I say encourage her in ride every mile she possible can while she is young.

Awesome. Not typical, but not beyond the capabilities of a fit kid.

It's not "normal", but it isn't surprising. "Normal" is simply a local social norm, local being very local, regional or national.

My honorary 6-year old nenephew did the full Tarka Trail (Cornwall, UK) and back, tho' he did need pushing for the last 10 miles. Two of our 8-year olds have done the 70-mile Wetherby to Filey Great Yorkshire charity bike ride, and 7-year old George did Alpe d'Huez this summer, along with his slightly older brother and sister. The latter two have ben doing it every summer for the last 2 (or is it 3) years.

I'm writing this, not to downplay anyone's kids' achievements, but simply to show that it is terribly easy in both US and UK societies, to underestimate what kids are capable of. And, for the record, 26 miles for a first ride out on a full susser (which probably weighs nearly as much as she does), is pretty good going Tell her we're all impressed and that, in a year or several, her old man will be struggling to keep up ;). Especially if he flashes the plastic on a good road bike :innocent: