Interest in organized Kids ride?

[SaddleSore]

Hey All,

My six year old is an aspiring trail rider. Problem is, when i tell him to stand up off the saddle he tells me to piss off (or something to that effect). I think riding with a couple other kids would make it more fun and help with developing skills.

The problem is, have you ever tried to arrange a "mountain biking" play date? Unless your at a race event, the interest of the general public seems pretty limited.

We live in Boston, so if anyone nearby thinks you'd like to give it a go let me know. For others, maybe this is a chance to set up a ride board for kids.

Let me know what you think?

Thanks,

Mike

[ragertim]

i've had similar experiences in the past, but my boys are 11 and 13 now and can pretty much keep up on an adult beginner or mellow ride.

several people on this and other forums/lists have discussed starting a regularly scheduled ride supported by a msg board or listserve and it never came to fruition. i think the issue is that most kids (well mine, at least) have other school and extracurricular activities that preclude a regularly scheduled ride. i found that i just had to take them out whenever we found a couple hours of free time. sometimes we would bring along a friend or two to try to introduce them to mountain biking. but i had to drill it into them that they had to stand up (etc.) over and over until they were sick of hearing it from me and just did it to shut me up. ;D

i am the guy that organized the last 2 kids day events for gbnemba at great brook and i'm always happy to lead kids rides - beginner or advanced. at the events we taught basic skills, responsible riding practices, and even volunteerism and leadership (to the older kids).

in fact, i'm thinking that at this years MBAS events it might be a good idea to have scheduled/organized kids rides. i did this informally at the lynn woods mbas last year. the 6 or so kids that went with us got a serious 2 hour mtb ride in - we even had an adult rider bail. all came back exhausted (to the delight of their parents) and happy.

maybe if parents want to bring their kids along and either ride with them or drop and go (perhaps more problematic from a liability or emergency standpoint) - we may be able to experiment at one of the earlier MBAS events in may or june. if it's successful - it could be a good model for the rest of the events.

so, if the PVNEMBA MBAS organizers are game, i'd be happy to share my last 7 years worth of thoughts and experiences on raising riders. i'd probably be willing to lead an organized kids ride at nembafest or lynn woods events also...

-tim

[fisherking]

I would be interested in some kids events, especially held with other events. I have 2 sons (6,7) who I am trying to get a little more interested, they are mildly interested so far and I think if they do see other kids doing it that it would help some. We unfortunately had to miss the kids day at GB, I really wanted to go to that with them.
I was hoping for something similar this year.
I agree with the other activities taking precedent, especially since several I coach at anyway but hopefully something will work out for next year. I plan to bring them to do some hiking around Great Brook come spring and point out how much more we can see on bikes. Also at LDT town forest there is a lot of beaver activity so I was going to use that as well for some more interest...

Mike

[ride in maine]

In the spring time which is right around the first of May when the trails dry out myself and a couple of friends run a spring organized mtnbike afterschool get together. we go tuesday nights which are from 430 until 600 and then on saturdays we go out at 900 until 1230. the first year we had 7 kids and last year we had upwards of 15 kids. the ages were from 8 years til 13 years old. we run it until school is out and are finding that the hardest thing is competing with soccer and baseball. this past season we turned up a notch and or the grand finale we took a bus load up to kingdom trails. We were able to use the towns liability insurance and got each parent to pay 20.00 a piece for the trip to the kingdom and the day pass up there. We are getting ready to start planning this next years program already and hope to get up to 30 kids this year.
any ways thats how my spring starts along with everything elase it makes it interesting . hopefully this was helpful and i there are any questions feel free to email me .
ltr Calvin Weeks

[ragertim]

We unfortunately had to miss the kids day at GB, I really wanted to go to that with them.
I was hoping for something similar this year.


gbnemba will be holding another kids day event this year on October 7th - venue TBD:
http://www.gbnemba.org/calendar.php

[ragertim]

do you do this as a part of your town's community education program? how did you convince the town to share their liability insurance? where do you ride on tuesday nights?

-t


In the spring time which is right around the first of May when the trails dry out myself and a couple of friends run a spring organized mtnbike afterschool get together. we go tuesday nights which are from 430 until 600 and then on saturdays we go out at 900 until 1230. the first year we had 7 kids and last year we had upwards of 15 kids. the ages were from 8 years til 13 years old. we run it until school is out and are finding that the hardest thing is competing with soccer and baseball. this past season we turned up a notch and or the grand finale we took a bus load up to kingdom trails. We were able to use the towns liability insurance and got each parent to pay 20.00 a piece for the trip to the kingdom and the day pass up there. We are getting ready to start planning this next years program already and hope to get up to 30 kids this year.
any ways thats how my spring starts along with everything elase it makes it interesting . hopefully this was helpful and i there are any questions feel free to email me .
ltr Calvin Weeks