Biking With Kids: The right equipment makes all the difference

Biking fun using a tag-along

There are seasons to parenthood that seem to have more freedoms than others, especially when it comes to taking the hand of a child and heading off into the wild blue yonder. Some ages are better suited for certain adventures than others.

For instance, as much as I love to canoe, it seems that canoeing is safest with kids who are confident swimmers. I have personal experience in why I believe this, which involves two girls (who were not confident swimmers) screaming and crying in a canoe last spring as we negotiated the Sequatchie River in southeastern Tennessee.

Typically the Sequatchie truly offers ”gentle thrills.” However, on that day we were surprised by a swollen river with rapids that nearly tipped us over. I still have panic attacks when I think back to our Survivor canoeing experience, with my husband standing up to his waist in rapids trying to dislodge us from a rock so our children were not dumped into the river. Fortunately, we all had on life jackets and, ultimately, did not tip over – but our next canoeing experience will be on a lake!

While patience may be a virtue with some outdoor adventures, I think there are some activities that our family could have started much earlier, but we just didn’t think of it! One such activity is biking.

On a trip to the beach last summer we discovered how fun biking can be. Our girls, ages 5 and 6 years at the time, each had bikes with training wheels at home, but were not terribly eager (much to our frustration) to take the training wheels off. Prior to this trip, we had not thought much about biking as a family; we were just waiting for the magical bike bug to bite so we could be training-wheel free.

A tag-along bike

When we arrived in Watercolor, Fla., my brother suggested that we rent bikes. Within minutes of arriving, I noticed a parade of bikes passing by our beach house – individuals and families enjoying the cool breezes and freedom that two (or three) wheels can offer. Within minutes, I was pulling my husband to the bike rental shop, which was stocked beyond my wildest Chattanooga dreams with bikes of all shapes and sizes, as well as many creative ways to “attach” young children.

We rented two adult bikes, one tag-along bike for our 6-year-old and a bike trailer for our youngest, who had just turned 5. What we actually purchased was hours-worth of beach fun that made biking one of our favorite family activities – something I wish we had figured out earlier.

Watercolor, and many other beach communities and towns across the nation, were thoughtful in designing a community with miles of bike-only trails and bike-friendly roads, so we were able to explore every nook and cranny of Watercolor. We were also able to avoid taking the car to the pool, grocery store and a local state park.

Bike trailer for toddlers

The joys of watching my daughter build biking confidence on the tag-along behind her dad and chatting with my other daughter as she rode in the bike trailer behind me was enough to ignite in me a desire to recreate these opportunities at home. However, I was quickly discouraged by the lack of bike diversity in Chattanooga, as well as the high cost of kid-friendly bike attachments.

But I am not one to give up, and a few months later I was ecstatic to find a friend selling her daughters’ tag-along at a local consigment sale, the Little Piggies Children’s Consignment Sale. By then, my 6-year-old was riding her bike confidently and we put our 5-year-old on the tag-along.

On our first bike outing in Chattanooga, we loaded our bikes into the back of our truck, headed to the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Battlefield, and rode off into the sunset. I have since learned about trail systems throughout the country through the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy that I am investigating for the future.

We have also talked my step-daughter and her husband, who have five children, into biking, too – in fact, I think they go more often than we do now. I was excited to find a double bike trailer for $15 at a yard sale for their 3 and 4-year-olds, which makes it possible for all of us to go together.

Biking fun!

I write all of this to say that family biking is fun with the right equipment – even with little ones. I wish we had found a toddler bike trailer and tag-along years ago so we could have had this much fun from the start.

If you are looking for a deals on equipment, keep an eye out at yard sales, consignment sales and online. I have been amazed, now that I pay attention, to how much biking equipment (and other types of outdoor recreation equipment) can be found at affordable prices in these types of venues.

And I say a special thank you to those of you who sell your biking and outdoor recreation equipment for cheap at yard sales, allowing families from all economic sectors to share in the joy of the outdoors with their families. Isn’t it fun to share?