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12-02-15 | 01:28 PM

#4

mstateglfr

Sunshine

Joined: Aug 2014

Posts: 18,731

Likes: 10,285

From: Des Moines, IA

Bikes: '18 class built steel roadbike, '19 Fairlight Secan, '88 Schwinn Premis , Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross V4, '89 Novara Trionfo

We began riding in streets with our kids this past summer.Our 8yo on her bike and our 4yo attached to a bike with a weehoo.
I have no idea if what we did was good or bad, safe or smart, but it seemed good to us.

Ride in street on side streets only. Sidewalk for any busy roads or main roads. This allowed for plenty of notice for cars and let our oldest practice how to properly ride around parked cars(don’t wait til the last minute, don’t weave in and out of road when there are a lot of parked cars, etc).
Our oldest led. That way, she got to be the leader(something she likes), she was forced to be aware of what was coming up and around her, and we could be the buffer for any cars that were moving in the same direction as us.
Along the lines of the first point, we stuck to 1 lane 2 way roads only. No 2 lane 2 way streets, even if they werent busy. I cant see her riding in the road on this size of a road for a handful of years. There is just no need and it is simply not safe at her age now and in the relatively near future.

As a suggestion, are there any roads around you with dedicated bike lanes?Riding those for a bit could help with confidence as a way to ease into road riding since the lane is there and not used by cars, yet cars are next to the child.

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