Originally Posted by
one_beatnik
I was reading a post in the recreation & family forum about a guy riding with his 11 year old son. It occured to me that I didn't start really riding until I was nearly 40. This year I did 2100 miles. My son has been lost to me since he got his driver's license and I stated that he hasn't matured enough to ride bicycle yet. Anyone else with similar experiences?
I tried to get my son to ride with me prior to the driving age. When he was around 14 we did an approximately 10 mile ride that included Heartbreak Hill on the Boston Marathon route and he kvetched the whole way. A couple of years later it was no problem to do that ride to see his girlfriend ;-)
For his freshman year in college we bought him a bike for some low-mileage commuting, and much to my surprise he did some work at a bike co-op. This summer, at age 18, we did a ride again including Heartbreak Hill and I could barely keep up. My excuse was that he didn't give me enough time to warm up; his excuse was that his gears weren't working right.