Youth mountain bike programs

[waumbec]

Hi all, looking for some collective (collected?) wisdom:

I'm thinking of starting a youth mountain bike program here in the Lakes Region of NH.

Our town has had a very nice youth XC ski program for two winters now. The leaders get the kids playing on skis, (playing snow soccer or tag) and do some short loops, have a big snack and a lot of fun. the kids get very comfortable on skis and have a lot of fun. there's not a big emphasis on racing or traveling far. These are mostly pretty little kids: ages 5 or 6 through 10.
Some of us same parents would like to do something similar on bikes. Any advice? Questions for someone with any experience in this area:

any suggested games on bikes, or should we just ride somewhere? how do you handle insurance? What would happen if we just scheduled a weeknight "kids ride", just as we have a weeknight road ride and offroad ride?

Any suggestions would be appreciated :)

[pk]

I suggest you contact Doug Detwiller, the founder of the international Sprockids program. You can reach him at ddetwiller@dccnet.com.

good luck,

pk

[C.P.]

http://www.sprockids.com/frame.html

[radair]

I ran a mountain biking "after school enrichment program" a few times. From my experience, the first session was best spent checking out kids' bikes, adjusting brakes, etc. Even then, certain kids would show up with a flat tire every week. Expect the full gamut of bikes: everything from SS BMX to high end MTBs, with a bunch of Wal-Mart specials in between.

Mostly we would just ride trails in a conservation area that abuts school property. I did find that kids like to have little activities. One thing was a braking test - I would go down a hill and have them come to a quick stop right next to me (without skidding). Invariably, the first couple kids would lock 'em up, giving us an opportunity to explain why it's not cool to skid on trails.

Another thing they liked to do was try to ride over obstacles. Train tracks, rocks, logs, anything that was a challenge. The rule was that no one was allowed to ride over the (inactive) RR tracks without spotters. We would use spotters for everything that was really difficult or had bad fall potential. They LOVED this kind of stuff.

Wed. night kids' rides have been going on here in the Mt. Washington Valley for a few years. We usually hit a different area each week. It's amazing the difficulty of rides kids will do when spurred on by their peers. Great stuff, highly recommended.