Diggie

Getting back into biking after many years away and want to make it a family activity. Our hope is to bike as often as we can and several day trips to state trails etc. We are a family of 5 (9, 4, and 2 year old daughters). We are looking at getting Specialized Crosstrail/Ariel for myself and my wife and looking at a step through Specialized Vita (xs frame) for my 9 year old. She (tall for her age) has tested this frame already and was quite comfortable on it, a 24" frame was just too small for her. Before we pull the trigger on these bikes over the winter we want to also try the Trek DS/Neko line. I do like the looks of the Neko step through a bit better, right now she isn't picky about the bike but if she does become so I would prefer a bike for her that she loves the look of as well as being a good ride.

We are looking at getting a Weehoo iGo Pro for my 2yo (will be 3 in the spring) daughter and a Burley Piccolo or Kazoo for my 4yo (will be 5 in Nov). Would consider getting the Adam's seat back for the ride behind if I feel she needs it for longer rides as she does get distracted easily. Our hopes with these purchases is that as the 5 year old out grows the Piccolo or Kazoo and that will be ready for the little one to move up into and we could sell the Weehoo. We thought about doing the double weehoo and I pull both kids but worried about the usefulness of it long term as the 5 year old I think would be bored with it fairly quick.

So with all that, just looking for some pointers on family biking, tips for keeping all the kids interested for longer rides as well as getting my 9 year old to ride for longer distances. Any concerns with any of the bikes or gear we are looking at or suggestions? With the above purchases it is a fair amount of money so hoping to not buy anything I will regret. The bike for my daughter is a bit pricier then we were hoping but want her to have gears to be able to bike with us for more then just around the neighborhood and hopefully it will be able to be passed on through her younger two sisters, which our experience with cheaper dept store bikes is that they aren't that great for passing on.

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

mel2012

I would skip the WeeHoo and just get a rear bike seat for your 2-year old (or even a front seat like the Bobike Mini or Yepp Mini if she's still pretty small). By the time she would outgrow a rear seat and is really ready to help pedal, your now-4-year old will probably be ready to start doing some rides on her own.

An alternative to the Kazoo/Piccolo would be to get a FollowMe tandem (Tandem | FollowMe), plus a 16" bike for your 4-year old (if you don't already have one). That would give you or your wife the flexibility to carry two kids at once on your bike (rear seat+FollowMe).

After buying a WeeHoo and a Kazoo over the last two years, that's where we've landed with our kids (now 4 and 6). I would have saved $$$ starting with that arrangement.

If you decide to go with a Kazoo/Piccolo, they are (oddly enough) carried by Kohl's and are eligible for the frequent 30% deals+free shipping+Kohl's cash, which will bring your cost down some.

cplager

I'll disagree with the above poster. If I had to do it again, I'd get the weehoo trailer. Nice low center of mass, can be used with very young kids, and they can pedal when they want to.

Both of my kids can ride bikes on their own, and both still also ride with trail a bikes. My kids can ride twenty miles or more on their own, but they can attached to my bike (we're going to attempt around 30 miles this weekend with the both of them on a tandem trail a bike).

delcrossv

I agree with cplager. A weehoo is a better pick than a (static) seat.

Diggie

Mel - thanks for the tip about Kohl's....just happened to have a 30% coupon so I got it ordered, too bad they don't carry the Weehoo.

I'm not a big fan of an attached seat, she is 3 next month and at 28lbs...by next spring she will be too big for the front mount seats so it would have to be behind my wife. Not sure if a seat would fit with the Burley since it mounts to the top a rack and either way not sure if I want to carry a 3 year old in a seat and a 5 year old on the burley kazoo at the same time.

Since I'll prolly have the Kazoo attached to my bike (since I want the rack anyway and the 5 year old is heavier), one concern is how difficult will the Weehoo be for my wife to pull my 3 year old and how stable will it be.

cplager - how old are your kids and how long have they been riding distances more then just around your neighborhood?

cplager

My son turns 5 today (he's getting a new 16" wheel bike) and my daughter is 7.5.

I've been riding with my kids 20+ miles since my son was 2 (he was in a trailer then). They grow up doing it, they like doing it (well, so far at least ).

croppera

Hello,

While my kids are still pretty young (almost 2, 3 1/2, and 5) I have worked with all ages and in some ways kids are just like adults - they want to have a say in what goes on. To get your kids to buy into longer rides I would suggest that you allow them to make some/many of the planning choices.

Get your older daughters to look at maps with you. Give them a few options to choose from and have them decide how far they want to go and where. You can let them decide on the snacks to bring and let them set goals on where to try to get to before snack stops. They can be aware of what the landmarks are that they will pass. You can even make a list of the landmarks and goals for the oldest kid to check off as you go. Also, creating a checklist of gear and stuff to collect for each trip would allow your kids to help with the prep. Through this planning they can feel like it was thier trip and they can have a stake in it feeling successful. I think that sometimes as parents we do better to let go and go along for the ride rather than to ask our kids to be passive group members all of the time.

There will likely be times that things don't go to plan and how we parents handle it is key to future interest from our kids. We usually learn more from the difficult times than the easy ones...so I try to think of the hard days as good learning opportunities. I suggest making a habit of a group meeting at the end of each ride that asks simple questions: 1. What was your favorite part? or What went well? 2. What could/should we work on next time to make our rides even better? 3. Does anyone need any repairs/ gear changes? If things get particularly hard on a a ride stopping mid-ride to have an impromptu meeting with snack can give a chance for re-assessment of plans and make everyone feel cared for. Also, the re-energizing power of silly songs, bike bells, and simple games should be remembered and kept ready in your back pocket.

Last thought, not every ride should be a long one or they might look at getting on the bike as a big commitment of time and effort. Are there short errands that you can do by bike with your kids? We do small grocery trips by bike, post office, pre-school runs and play grounds by bike. We as a family have committed to doing everything that is within 2 miles drive by bike assuming 1/2 way decent weather and no safety issues in route. This daily short rides make the bikes a normal thing for us and the kids look forward to the time together and outside. My daughter asked me the other day (2x on the same trip) why we didn't bike to costco.

Good luck.

Diggie

Thank you for the reply - this really helps and gives me some great tips to follow and things to think about!

mel2012

You'll have to figure out what works for your particular circumstances, but having done both, I would much rather pull my 6-year old on the Kazoo than my 4 year old on the WeeHoo. The Kazoo is about half the weight of the WeeHoo, which about covers the difference in weight between the kids and my 6 year old can actually help propel us vs. the limited assistance I get from my 4-year old. But the major difference is in the stability. Despite the lower center of gravity, the seatpost mounting of the WeeHoo plus its weight means that a shift or lean by the passenger has much more of an impact on the "captain." So generally, if we were doing a long ride, my husband would pull the WeeHoo and I would take the Kazoo. Now that we have the FollowMe, we're selling the Kazoo and hanging on the WeeHoo just for my husband to use for bike touring rides. I think the WeeHoo would be fantastic if they would modify the design to have an axle attachment (like the Hase Trets or the FollowMe attachment or the way a Bob Yak attaches; sadly they don't seem to be headed in that direction).

The weight of the WeeHoo also makes a difference in stopping and starting. Once you're going with a smaller passenger, you don't feel a lot of pull or drag. If you have a heavier passenger who isn't really interested in helping, it can feel like lugging bricks.

The trickiest part of the WeeHoo, in our experience, is the loading. Odds are that your 2-year old will not be able to do the clips and footstraps by herself. That means either two people have to be present for loading (one to hold the front bike and one to help the child) or you need a sturdy double-legged kickstand to hold up the front bike while you help the child.

mel2012

Also, I'm not sure if they've changed the rules, but we were able to apply one of the periodic 20% off REI coupons to buy our WeeHoo iGo Pro.

Diggie

Mel - thank you for the description between the two in use. I was really hoping my wife could use the weehoo as I was going to have a rack on my bike that I could connect the kazoo too. I guess we could always get an extra rack for her bike and an extra seat post mount for the weehoo for mine and have both on both bikes so we could move back and forth depending if everyone is going or not.

At 3 years old next spring I don't see a ride behind working for longer rides. I could look into a used trailer on craigslist but I think she would outgrow that quicker. I'm sure that would be more stable but I'm guessing the drag would also make it harder to pull..... Not yet sure what to do for her.

rumrunn6

bump to chip in later

kingston 

I have 4 kids aged 11-15. They all have bikes, but despite my best efforts, none of them are really into biking.

Over the years I have bought a ton of kids bikes and bike stuff, but the two best things I ever got were a burley d'lite trailer and a trek mt220. I got at least 10 years of continuous service out of both. For whatever reason (lazy maybe) my kids always preferred the trailer to the pull behind bikes when they were little, and I still use the trailer to haul stuff when we ride our bikes to the beach.

I would also seriously consider the trek mt220 for your 9 year old. You can adjust it to fit a pretty big kid, but you can also adjust it to fit a pretty small kid so the bike has a lot of versatility. It will definitely be good for your other two kids. I see them on craigslist all the time for around $100. I think new ones are around $250.

mel2012

​If your 30% off coupon is still good, you might take a look at the Belelli rabbit front seat. It is good up to 35lbs and a front seat would allow you to take both kids and have your panniers. It's a relatively small investment and once you develop some biking habits--see where you are going, how often, etc. you could reevalaute the Weehoo option. At 2.5 my son sat happily in his front seat for 30 mile rides on back to back days, content to chat with me as we rolled along. I agree that trailers are boring and create drag, but "static" seats are plenty fun if you engage the child.

rumrunn6

I guess I don't have as much to contribute as I thought. We incorporated biking into our annual camping trips, so camping also meant meant. We did also do regular rides on paved trails from home. Like any family day together we made it as interesting and fun as possible. What the kids learned over time was some core values about "family". I think if you emphasize the "family" aspect they will look at the activity as an integral part of their lives. I would suggest not pushing them, meaning, be sensitive to their limits. My limits are much higher and so my expectations for my ride were tempered by the fact that I was spending time with my family. When I want to really book, I ride alone. Also work in rewards if you can. Scenic area? Beach? Ice cream? Other goals worked for us too, such as biking to see grandparents. I also keep track of mileage and speed and the kids were always impressed and proud of the miles they racked up and interested in their speed. Be sure not to brag about your own stats when riding solo.

The other thing I did was bought only used bikes (w one exception) because kids grow and so do their bikes. Their must have been 5 bikes for each kid (total 10 for 2 kids) over the years before we finally landed them on adult sized bikes. The most use we ever got out of any of the bikes was 2 years. Beyond that you're pushing it, meaning the fit.

Enjoy! :-)