Talk me into riding my bike

[KBecks2]

Hi MMM Friends,

I will confess, I did not ride my bike at all this summer.  Well, I rode it once, and I was swearing while trying to figure out my timing for making a turn across a busy road and getting my balance.

I have three kiddos.  Two can ride.  The 8 year old is very reluctant and is demanding training wheels.  We have not forced him to bike, he has just not ridden.

Soon school will start. I usually drive all kids to/from school in a minivan.  We have one busy road to cross in the morning if we were to ride.  We should practice this.  Controlling 3 kids and managing my own bike feels like a large challenge.

I do not want to ride in the winter. Sorry.  We live in Wisconsin. 

Most of my travel is very close to home, I go to nearby grocery stores / Wal Mart, and most of my part time jobs are close to home.  I need a bike lock if I ride to these jobs.  (When I take the kids with me, I would want to drive them because they are slow / whiny). 

We will need to leave earlier and be more prepared to have the kids ride bikes to school.  My reluctant 8 year old is a foot dragger about even getting in the van to get to school.

I need encouragement and tips if we are to try this.  I need to get the 8 year old biking, and if we bike to school it needs to be very safe and a good experience.

I could ride my bike to my work on Wednesday mornings.  I could even possibly ride to my Thursday AM job and for some errands while the weather is good.  I do not know how to cart things on the bike and Im not sure if I want to.   We do not have much room to store a trailer, but maybe I could find a way to make it work.

Thank you,
Karen

[Dyk]

Hmmm ......

It sounds like on the comfort vs. savings balance you are leaning toward comfort.  I am not sure I can talk you into anything then ....... and I can't say it better than:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/04/18/get-rich-with-bikes/

I think you already know this, but it's possible, you can do it, and you will save a lot of $.  Especially if it let's you sell a car. 

We do it with 5 kids, 4 of them ages 5-10 ride on their own, and the baby rides in the trailer.  We have a trailer we bought for $~80 and a tag-a-long we got for free.  The kids do drag their feet and complain at times.  But we are the parents, they are not.  So once they learned that we simply ride our bikes, they have adjusted well!  We make it fun, and a family event!  We always cross busy streets at traffic lights, even if it adds a little distance, you are correct that managing young kids across a busy street is a lot.

Encouragement:  It is awesome!  After the initial resisting the kids have adjusted well.  It's more fun (for them too), you see more and you feel better than driving!  (We also sold a car and have saved a lot of money because of it)
Tip:  If you are going to ride somewhere, make it absolute, don't ask the kids if they want to.  Why would they want to bike over taking a car when they aren't involved in the financial aspect?  (And you can be absolute about something and not a jerk about it, some people don't have that figured out).  Explain to them why, they need to be part of your money saving team.

Go for it!  It looks like it's out of your comfort zone, just think how great it will feel once you have a few successful rides under your belt!  (Don't be discouraged if you have some rough rides at first, it will happen.)

I'd love to hear how it goes.

[Breaker]

Here are a few reasons to bike.

1.  Good for your wallet
2.  Good for you waist
3.  Good for the environment
4.  Good for your mind
     a) Studies show that exercise is good for your memory
     b) There was even 1 study that showed that kids who exercised before school did
          better in their classes.

[Left]

I don't care so much for the "good for" reasons; I can "afford" the car, the environment isn't a big problem to me

but while I'm not good at "riding" my bike, I "ride" the bike machines at gym to build up my endurance and weekends ride real bike. The important thing to me is that a real bike is much more fun than gym bike even though it is harder.

I ride for the fun aspect, and not for transportation since my work is too far away 45 minutes by car :(.  But you might be able to find biking fun regardless of other benefits and just ride it for that reason alone?

edit: saving for the sake of saving is not mustachian to me, I have to enjoy what I do, and if it saves me money, then it's mustachian to me

edit: maybe try other bike things to make it fun? Get him to be the bike mechanic for family? If he has a "responsibility" with the bikes, he might take pride in their upkeep and thus ride them too? I mean what kid doesn't like a reason to "boss" people around? :D

[Stockmom]

One thing that made bike riding more enjoyable for our family was outfitting the kids with good bikes.  My 10 year old daughter originally had a cruiser style bike. It was heavy and made it difficult for her to go on long rides without feeling so much more exhausted than the rest of us.  So, we got her a hybrid style bike, more road than cruiser, with really large (in diameter) tires and this made a night and day difference for her.  Now we're all too slow for her and she doesn't even need to stand up to go up hills because it has so many gears!  She still rides the cruiser around the neighborhood, but uses the hybrid when we're out on the bike trail.  This change made bike-riding so much more fun for her and for US.  I wonder if your 8 year old might benefit from a larger bike too?

[innkeeper77]

I have three kiddos.  Two can ride.  The 8 year old is very reluctant and is demanding training wheels.  We have not forced him to bike, he has just not ridden.

Try taking a bike that is sized ok for him, removing the pedals, and letting him learn on it as a balance bike. It might be better and cheaper than training wheels for a 8 year old sized bike..

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-kids-bike-into-a-balance-bike/

[Glenstache]

I feel like a little kid on my bike. On the ride in this morning I enjoyed feeling the wind on my face.

Take some rides with the kids in a safe space to make it fun. Then, as a "special treat" you get to ride the bikes to school.

+1 on the impact of bike quality on riding joy. This is much more pronounced for children because an extra 10lbs on a bike is a much larger percentage of their body weight. This is a good opportunity for craigslist. Getting kids into riding bikes at a young age will pay dividends their entire lives (and yes, I'm biased).

[KBecks2]

Hey, I took some action and took the 9 year old on a ride to/from school to test it out.  The other two stayed home.  It was ok w one and I think we can make it work.  They will need bike locks.  What is good for a kid, and how can they store it while riding?

Do you take a backpack or fanny pack or something on your rides?

We will not be able to give up a car at this stage of life.  The saving won't be great but I love the idea of the kids getting exercise.  I am a fitness instructor and appreciate a little extra physical work.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Yay for making progress!

My kids are still trailer-bound, so I just chuck the lock in the trailer. But if they are not with me, then I do carry a backpack. If I'm going somewhere, I usually have a few other items to schlep, too, and I don't have a cargo carrier.

You probably know your kids better than we do to decide whether they're better with a combination (which has to remembered) or a key (which can't get lost).

[KBecks2]

Spending warning-- I have decided that we are biking to school every day (and that I will pack lunches every day). I bought my reluctant rider a specialized 20 bike from a bike shop and they put training wheels on it for us.   He will outgrow it quickly but it should get him into independent riding, and I hope he will take sustained interest in riding.  We need bike locks and my oldest needs a helmet.

[Lian]

Bicycling is fun! And fall is my favorite time of year to ride the bike. You have plenty of time left to get in some good rides.

[Thegoblinchief]

Hey, I took some action and took the 9 year old on a ride to/from school to test it out.  The other two stayed home.  It was ok w one and I think we can make it work.  They will need bike locks.  What is good for a kid, and how can they store it while riding?

Do you take a backpack or fanny pack or something on your rides?

We will not be able to give up a car at this stage of life.  The saving won't be great but I love the idea of the kids getting exercise.  I am a fitness instructor and appreciate a little extra physical work.

For kids bikes, it really depends on how much they're worth. If they're inexpensive, a simple cable lock would be fine. If they're slightly nicer, might be worth getting a U-lock, but determined thieves can defeat ANY lock in minutes, so don't over think it.

I spent the early summer getting my very nervous 8 year old off the training wheels. Bribing her with a $ reward AND using the balance bike method is what it took, but we did it in only two days. Find a nice gentle hill. Lacking that, the aprons on the end of my alley worked just fine. The longer you take, the harder it gets for them to learn.

Alternatively, a trail-a-bike might help them get accustomed to the balance of a true bike.

Biking in the winter is great fun and I live in WI too. The kids even made it into December last year, but I'm not sure if we will be able to bike through as a family yet this year. I'm certainly going to try.