When riding a bike is an important part of your life, it’s obvious that you’d want to pass that happiness onto your children. Family biking is not only a healthy, affordable, and sustainable way to get around with your kids, but an amazing opportunity for the little ones to get to know the area around them and to engage in family fun. While the way you ride will certainly undergo some changes once you become a parent, it doesn’t mean you need to bike less or drive more, it just means you’ll need to adapt. In the following post, we’ve outlined some tips, best practices, and gear ideas for biking with children of any age. Happy biking!

Start fresh: Get a good night’s sleep the night before and a good meal about an hour before heading out.

Safety tools: It’s important to remember different safety tools for a bike trip with children and also to remember a general first aid kit, as scraped knees and bruises are plentiful when working with first-time riders.

Choose beginner terrain: Especially if you have young children, its incredibly important to pick a biking area that can be easily accomplished. Namely, you want to stay away from mountainous, hilly, or rocky terrain for first time-bikers.

Clothing : You want to make sure you and your kids dress for comfort and utility, not for fashion, on a family bike ride. You will want to be wearing layers in case it gets too hot or too cold and it’s also never a bad idea to wear a rain jacket, especially if you live in an area that frequently experiences rain. Also, something you may not think about is wearing pants that aren’t too long to avoid any fabric getting into the bike gears. Also, there are some biking accessories you will need to remember, including water and snacks, as well as a bike helmet, which is completely necessary.

Helmet fit: Bike helmets are mandatory. Helmets can save your life, if you’re wearing them right. They should fit tightly on your heads and not allow any room for movement. They should sit level and low on the forehead, approximately a few finger widths above the eyebrow. A good rule of thumb is to do the yawn test with your children, the yawn test is when you ask your kids to yawn wide and the helmet should, if fit right, pull down on the head.

A-B-C check: Make sure tires have plenty of air, the brakes work and the chain has plenty of lube to work properly.

Saddle height: Kids like to have their seats low when starting out, but make sure their leg is almost fully extended in the 6 o’clock position (bottom of the pedal rotation) to get enough power when pedaling.

Though biking with your kids is certainly fun and doable, as showcased in the blog above, most of our tours are geared towards adults. With that said, if you and your significant other need a little time off parent-duty, book one of our fun, exciting bike tours or vacations today.

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