School holidays are a great opportunity to go cycling with friends and family. For beginners, it’s a chance to spend a little more time on the bike and develop their skills. For more experienced children, it’s a chance to take on bigger challenges and gain more confidence.
Our family has drawn up a list of goals we want to achieve by bike in the coming weeks – from going on a bikepacking trip to learning to ride hands-free to ticking off our longest family ride. And with UK charity Bikeability Trust developing a ton of different activities and challenges aimed at getting families cycling this summer, we can add even more to the list.
Here are some of the adventures we have planned, plus a few more ideas to round it all out…
Explore!
(Photo credit: Rachel Sokal)
It’s simple but effective!
Even the most dedicated cyclists sometimes have a hard time motivating themselves to go on a ride without a specific destination. Make your life more interesting by heading to a park to participate in a scavenger hunt or ride to a landmark. We’ve found that stopping by a coffee shop or ice cream truck is a reliable motivator.
Like many little boys, our youngest is interested in everything to do with construction and infrastructure, so we planned our bikepacking tour around a reservoir and an old quarry to keep things exciting.
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Trip to a game meeting
(Photo credit: Rachel Sokal)
With a little planning, it’s often possible to combine a playdate with a round trip. I’m a huge fan of this approach as it nicely extends the time you all spend out of the house and helps tire the kids out for later in the day when you need a bit of peace and quiet to get all your other chores done.
Integrate games
Cycling games are great for many reasons: you can play on the street or in a small area in the park so not everyone has to be on the bike, they are great for developing skills, and you don’t have to constantly pedal, which takes the strain off little legs.
Grab some chalk or string, some skittles, rocks or jump rope, or just use lines painted on the asphalt. Here are a few ideas (and Frog has more):
Follow the leader – stand up, sit down, wave your arm, turn around (currently the family favorite)
Slow race – who can reach the finish line in the longest time
Shrinking circle – stay within the markings as the space gradually shrinks. Empty list
Bicycle cleaning and mechanical know-how
It doesn’t always have to be about riding the bike (especially in bad weather). Take the opportunity to show the kids how bikes work, do some of that overdue maintenance, or let them wash their bike. It doesn’t have to be difficult or oily either; Frog has some great worksheets including names of bike parts, drawings, and coloring pages. More than once I’ve gone to a bike shop (mostly for my own entertainment).
Practice your new commute
Cycling to school can be a great way to start the day, but if you’ve never done it before, it can be challenging to ride too far or end up on a busy weekday. Use the holiday period to practice and explore the route before tackling it in September.
Practice your driving skills
(Photo credit: Rachel Sokal)
Teaching children how to ride safely on our roads is key to making bike touring an easy option. Signaling and looking around before setting off and stopping are key skills for riding on the road. With fewer cars on the road, the holidays are a great time to practice on the road and in the park. For less experienced cyclists, simply lifting one hand from the handlebars is a good start.
Play on a cycling track
(Photo credit: Rachel Sokal)
Whether it’s a pump track or a mini road course, bike tracks are great fun and a great way to build the confidence of new riders (and scooter riders and runners too!). They’re often located in parks, so there’s the opportunity for more games on the playground too.
The best tips to make it fun for everyone
Wouldn’t it be nice if the whole family could have fun at the same time? Nice, but unless you’re all similarly gifted, that’s probably not very likely. It might be a somewhat negative way of looking at it, but if you simply aim to ensure that the kids don’t have a bad time, that’s a pretty good outcome. By avoiding negative experiences, they’ll probably keep going out.
Plan your journey and some eventualities. Think about some longer and shorter detours, make sure your route goes through towns or to places of interest to your children and, if possible, check that the route is passable (getting a trailer through a chicane can be a real challenge).
Your gym bag is crucial! Bring enough snacks to keep you motivated and energized. You’ll probably find that metaphorical sugar carrots are more effective than the real vegetable variety. Bring enough clothes to deal with all the too hot/too cold/rainy scenarios.
Take a tire repair kit with you and practice using it before you set off.
And take a lock. In the worst case scenario, if you cut a ride short, it’s much harder to get home on public transport or get a lift from a friend if you have several bikes. Lock them up, ride them home and pick them up later when things have calmed down.
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