We have attended two Kidical Mass rides so far, and we find it to be a great social event to meet other families interested in biking. It's also a fun way to see how other people move their kids on bikes -- kid's bikes, tag-a-longs, bike seats (front and back), bike trailers, and European-style cargo bikes.

The Pedouins have a goal to cycle 7,000 miles from Kentucky to Alaska.  They will accomplish this goal on a Quint bike ( bike built to seat five) and will be supported by the generosity of others.  Huband Bill, mom Amarins and their three children aged 6,4,3 left Kentucky in July of 2009 and they are now just crossing the Canadian border.  They have already peddled 5,600 miles and visited 15 states.

Follow them on the final leg of their trip by visiting their website  Pedouins on Quint Bicycle.

" The journey to Alaska will provide limitless opportunities for discovery
about nature, people and the United States.

Join us as we experience the abundance of this land and...

• See the diversity
  
• Hear the stories
  
• Smell the flavors
  
• Taste the foods
  
• Touch the textures
  

• Witness the generosity and kindness that has made this land the place to be for people all around the world." - The Pedouins
  

“Will it be winter when we get to Moominworld?” Hannah asks. I know where she’s going with this question, and am quick to reassure her to the contrary. In the Moominvalley winter is a silent, dark place where the world shuts down under a blanket of snow and ice. If we chose to visit in this season there would be no chance of getting a glimpse of Snorkmaiden or The Hemulen. We will be biking through the summertime of a host of European countries including Denmark, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania and Finland as part of our eight week family cycling tour that will take us far, far away from the routines of school, home and work.

This will be our ninth year of cycle touring with our three children, and due to their habit of growing up we are once again required to reconfigure riding positions and equipment to cater for their new size, needs and skills. This year Hannah will join us as a stoker (promoted from riding behind us in a buggy) and the family will ride on a tandem and a triplet. Our two Burley trailers that once held children will carry the mountain of food needed to refuel three small, hungry cyclists.

But it’s not just food that powers the kids on our annual adventures. Constant stimulus is needed to fuel their imaginations and keep them engaged. From experience we know it makes our life easier if our expedition has a theme that goes beyond cycling. Our priorities have always been to find something that appeals to every member of the family, to work towards and to get excited about. Moominworld will be the pinnacle of this year’s trip. In case you’re wondering, Moominworld is a Finnish theme park, dedicated to Tove Jansson’s children’s books which are this year celebrating their 65^th anniversary. In the books, which are coincidentally all about family life, the Moominvally is a mythical magical world; a land where winters are perpetually cold and black, where the arrival of spring has a significance we can only imagine, where the summer sun shines at midnight, and the brief passing of autumn signals the impending return of ice and darkness. It’s a place where nature asserts her authority, seasons are amplified and life takes on strange and unfamiliar forms. And that’s what our summer 2010 trip is about. If we’re honest, it’s what all of our trips are about; getting out of our depth in the outdoors, living temporarily in  the  wilderness, and doing it together, as a family.

We’re not a family for cruising. Lying on the beach bores the pants off us. We’re far more comfortable when navigating unfamiliar cities, getting tongue tied in different languages, trying to squeeze our tandems through unexpected gates, fields and hotel lifts, and blogging and tweeting our way out of a crisis.  Our previous tours have included the classic Land’s End to John O’ Groats cycle tour of Britain, (where we tracked down Britain’s unsung cycle heroes) the road to Santiago in Northern Spain, (where we followed the path of St James) a ‘canals and rivers’ cycle ride from Amsterdam to Venice, and a gap year tour of New Zealand by bike, (meeting adventurous families in the adventure capital of the world) We have also eco toured Samoa and Cumbria, railroaded across the States and canoed the Swedish Lakes pretending to be pirates.

You could say we like a challenge, and of course, part of the challenge comes from taking our three children with us; they’ve accompanied us on our grand adventures ever since they could hold their heads up. And now, at the ages of 4, 7 and 9, we’re pleased that they can now hold their own in terms of both pedalling, and putting up a tent in record time.

This year our Baltic tour by bike and boat will involve putting them up at tent in more than 7 countries.  From our start point in England, we’re heading over the North Sea to Denmark to start our biking in Esbjerg; From there it’s South across the border to Germany to catch a ferry from Kiel across the Baltic Sea to Latvia. We’re going to spend a month exploring the former Soviet block states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia making our way North to Tallinn. From there by boat once more to the mysterious archipelago around Åland where we’ll hop by bike and boat across to Western Finland to reach Moominworld. And then its back home through Denmark, via Helsinki.

Our schedule is tight and ambitious given the time we have, but our mission is simple; to power ourselves by bike and boat to the land of the Moomins. This fictional world world was a childhood favourite of Stuart’s, and we hope Matthew, Cameron and Hannah will remember this summer and their encounter with the Moomins when they too grow up and leave home.

If you’d like to join us on our summer of Moomin Madness, follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our blog or hook up with us on Facebook. It would be great to have you along for the ride. We’re hoping our family adventures will be as wonderful if not quite as weird as those of the Moomin Family, Stinky, Too Tinky and Snorkmaiden. And we’re also hoping that we arrive home before the end of the summer, otherwise we could be in for a long winter living in fear of The Groke.

Kirstie Pelling – Family on a Bike.

The 88Bikes Foundation has a very simple goal: to provide a sustainable, joyful, empowering form of transportation to young people in developing countries, in situations where these children have been challenged to be their own heroes due to war, conflict, poverty, disease, or other regional hardships. 88Bikes was started in 2006 by Dan Austin, Nicolas Arauz, and Jared Austin. In November 2006, 88Bikes started its first project in partnership with the Friends of Cambodian Children, to raise funds for 88 bikes. After exceeding its fundraising goal in just 2 weeks, the organization gave 88 bikes to 88 kids at the Palm Tree Orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in January 2007. In January of 2008, 88bikes completed its second project with the Global Youth Partnership for Africa in Patongo, Uganda, donating 200 bikes to children at a refugee camp in this war-torn region of Northern Uganda. 88Bikes has received press coverage by CNN International, Optimist World [www.optimistword.com], Lazy Enviromentalist (Sirius Radio), and was also a Typepad Featured Blog in 2007.

How it works

Each year, 88bikes chooses a destination. We’ve chosen sites with great advice from friends at National Geographic, Banff Mountain film festival and MountainFilm in Telluride, and networks of past partners such as the Global Youth Partnership for Africa and Andean Outreach. While it is difficult to find a perfect fit each year, our goal is to select places where 88bikes can have the most powerful impact, and likelihood for success; where the bikes can be reasonably accommodated, safely stored and kept in good repair; and where there is strong leadership in the school or orphanage receptive to the project.

Once a location is selected, 88bikes reaches out using e-mail, social networking sites, and the personal networks of the founders, and collects donations from sponsors through its web site. Each donation is $88 dollars, the approximate cost of a bike in most developing countries. Each sponsor also provides their name (or the name of a friend, if it is a gift), along with a photo of the donor. A list of all Sponsors is posted to the web site.

After the donations are raised, 88bikes travels to the project site in person. New bikes are purchased in-country from local merchants. Any required labor for transportation, assembly, or assistance is also hired locally, so that the project funds are used to benefit the local economy. All Sponsor bicycle donations are used to purchase and assemble the bikes, and for local transportation, so that 100% of the donated money goes directly to the local economy and to the bike donation. All other costs, such as setting up on-site 88bikeshops in various countries, running bike repair workshops, orchestrating bike repair apprenticeships, IT, travel, 88bikes volunteer programs, administrative costs and overhead are paid for by the Endowment Fund. Additional costs are paid for by the founders. 88bikes is entirely volunteer-staffed; no one, including the founders, receives salary or compensation of any kind; 88bikes does not maintain an office.

Each child is given their bike in person from the founders, on behalf of the individual Sponsor who donated their bike, along with a postcard that shows the Sponsor, a world map, and the Sponsor’s hometown. Photos and film of the project are made available to the Sponsors, and each Sponsor receives a thank-you letter with a photo of the child who received their bike.

Accountability

We don't take any salaries, and we don't maintain an office or staff. Every $88 dollar donation given to purchase a bike is used to purchase bikes. If we can drive a good bargain with the local merchants, extra money is used to defray the cost of assembling the bikes, transporting the bikes locally, and for purchasing spare parts. We work hard to ensure that every penny donated is a direct contribution to the purpose of the project– buying bikes for kids in challenging places, and supporting the ongoing bike culture that we leave behind so that it can continue to be a source of joy and inspiration for the kids as they grow up. In 2008, we became a registered 501(c)3 organization and started an endowment fund to support past projects and to defray some of the expenses related to accounting and project implementation that are a part of our success. Every donation to 88bikes is fully tax deductable.

 To learn more visit 88bikes.org website

Take for example these different scenarios that have happened recently:

1.       If you read my blog about Holland, you can see how a positive cycling culture can be a wonderful thing to support people who travel on bicycles.

2.      I had never let my daughter ride her bike on the road until we visited Crested Butte. They have this wonderful laid back attitude about bikes.  Everyone has bikes and is supportive of anybody at any skill level biking around town.  My daughter got her bell, basket and streamers at Big Al bikes, they treated her like she was the top mountain biking athlete and decked out her bike, so she could cruise in style.

3.      When I or friends travel on local bike paths with kids very strange things happen.  Men see children riding their two wheelers or practicing on their balance bikes and they slow down, encourage them and are truly amazed.  On the other hand, women stare right ahead and say things like “ On your left”  when it is very clear that the child in question is way too young to know their left from their right, let alone be fast enough to get out of the way of these speedy women.

4.      Sometimes, biking can get you too close to officers of the law. This summer when I was very pregnant, I was crossing at a busy intersection.  A Garfield County Sheriff officer cut me off while turning left.  If I had not seen him and I speeded up and he slowed down he would have hit me, my pregnant belly and the bike stroller carrying my daughter.  I complained to the sheriff office and to the town and nothing was done about this incident.  The officer on the spot did apologize and did say he did not see me, yet the Garfield Sherriff office felt like since there was no witness to take my side, nothing should be done.  I have biked in cities since I am 9 years old.  If one thing about me is clear is that I am very conscious of laws and follow them to the T. (this drives my father nuts, because I am very inflexible).   I know that I was doing what a cyclist should do and I know that the officer was not following the code of the road for drivers.  But, it seems like paperwork and reprimands are too much work over the safety of cyclists in Garfield County.

5.      In The New York Times: “In 2007, a city councilman was quoted in the Village Voice saying that pedicabs caused pollution by increasing congestion. Perhaps he’s right; perhaps pedicabs and cars cannot coexist in Manhattan. Maybe it’s not safe to have three wheels darting in and out of four-wheel traffic. Maybe the time has come to make a change. How about we get rid of the cars?”   Your should read the article Three Wheels Through the Park by Ariel Kaminer to find out more about Pedicabs in New York City and all the fuss they are rousing.  Pedicabs are three wheeled bicycles that people hire to be pedaled around town.

6.      Two steps behind me: The New York Times published two days after my balance bike article a slideshow featuring the different options:  Check out the article

So, with all these stories, make sure that your child is knowledgeable about the bike culture where they ride their bike and that they are able to make sound and safe decisions.

Enjoy the ride and be safe,

Heidi

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7.      No training wheels please:

Training wheels are a crutch that does not help your child develop balance.  Once your child is tired of using them you still need to teach your child how to bike and you still need to hold them on the bike, which is terrible for your back.  Of course, if your child does not want to use a balance bike  don’t force them..  It is about your child.

8.      Two wheeler:

You can buy a two wheeler that comes in 12 to 16 inch frame sizes.  The cheap models found at big box stores are fine.  You need to make sure your child can be straddling the seat and having both feet touching the floor (preferably flat, but my daughter is so small she only can touch with her toes).  They also need to be able to have their full foot touching the pedal while on the seat.  We measured our daughters inseam and then took a measuring tape to the store.  Bringing a toddler to pick out a bike can be a bad idea. They may fall in love with the wrong size bike.  Just make sure that you don’t bring them home with the training wheels on.  If your child sees them, he/she will want to keep them.  These bikes are very heavy.  Once your child becomes an accomplished biker you can move on to a more sophisticated, more expensive and lighter model.

9.      Good bike manners:

As soon as possible teach your child to stay on one side of the bike path without zigzagging. Also, teach them that when they get off their bike it should not be left on the middle of the road or path.  You should teach them to pull over when a car or faster cyclist goes by.

10.      Safety:

Teach your child basic safety tips.  Always have your child wear a helmet.  If you slack on a day they are just on the grass, they will think that helmets are not that important.  You should also model and wear a helmet.  Teach them about Stop signs, staying on the side of the road, crossing light signals, getting off the bike and walking across streets, being careful because drivers (especially in parked cars) can’t see them because they are so small.  Also, teach your child how to brake or fall off the bike.  We have a rule:  You can only bike when you don’t have anything in your hands.  No dragging toys, sticks or such.  Also, if you bike somewhere, you bike back. We don’t carry your bike back home.  This way they bike within their comfort zone.  Wear good, closed-toed shoes that don’t slip off easily.

11.      Embellishments:

Children love bells and whistles.  Don’t use special beautification items as rewards.  So much research indicates that using rewards for your children makes them accomplish activities to create a sense of self and get love from parents.  Children should be left to be who they want to be and to grow into their fullest potential without thinking that the only reason to do something is to be rewarded. Let your child set their own limits for their abilities and let them reach their own goals so they can be self-fulfilled rather than extrinsically motivated.  Coralie asked for a bell, a basket and some streamers.  We purchased them for her once she had complete control of the bike.  Adding anything to the bike can be a distraction and can be more hurtful when they fall.

Have fun,

Heidi

Part I of tips for teaching bike riding:  Tip 1 to 6

1.      Open Parent attitude:

Remember that you should keep an open mind.  It is not about your child being the youngest, best or fastest bike rider, but about your child having fun outdoors with you.  It is about your child’s goals and needs, not about you.

2.      Positive Child Attitude:

Your child has to be interested in learning and open to the experience.  If your child becomes cranky, scared, or bored, forget it and try another time.  Only go on bike rides or practice rides if your child agrees.  Do not bribe your child.

3.      The good and bad of peer Pressure:

Have your child start this process with likeminded friends and parents. It is incredible what children can accomplish when they see each other performing.  Try to avoid the child who is very scared, really not interested, or overly accomplished.  Some children get turned off and frustrated if their friends can really do something and they break down and don’t want to try anymore.

4.      Start with a Balance bike:

Balance bikes are bicycles with only two wheels, no brakes and no pedals.  The child uses his or her feet to get the bike moving.  For the first few times, your child may be very slow and not even use the seat.  Once they get the hang of it, they push off on the ground then glide while sitting on the bike and lifting their feet. They stop by dragging their feet on the ground.

5.      Terrain:

We started our daughter on a well paved bike path with rolling hills and soft shoulders.  She fell in a bush once and in a barbed wire fence another time while on her balance bike.  If consoled and taken care of quickly and you explain that it is a part of learning, your child will probably want to try again if you don’t make a big deal of the accident.  After our daughter mastered the paved bike path we tried a dirt bike trail with small bumps.  That way she could really work her balance bike and understand the subtleties of the terrain. Then she was ready for a two wheeler.  She still uses her balance bike on the mountain bike trails, but uses her other bike to go into town.

6.      Don’t fall into the trap: 

Other parents may laugh at you or criticize you for not using training wheels or for expecting too much from your child.  Remember it is not about expectations but about fun (Tip Number 1).  The desire to bike and to accomplish has to come from your child, not you.  Also, some parents may think your child should be doing more on the bike; ignore them.

 Heidi

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A two wheeler is a bike with two wheels, foot brakes and no training wheels.  Bring your child to a place where they can experiment with the bike and feel safe.  Do not hold your child on the bike. Remember they already know about balance because they have used the balance bike for a few months now.  If you start to hold them, they will lose the sensation and you will have to break your back holding them.

 Your child may not know how to start so you need to get them going buy supporting them under both armpits or on the small of their back.  With practice they will get it and you won’t have to do this very often.  Find a slight downhill for them so that peddling is effortless at first.

Also, your child will stop for the first while using their feet since they did that using the balance bike. Encourage practicing with pedal braking on a flat surface.  After a while they will only use the pedals and you can have them wear normal shoes again.

Once your child is comfortable peddling, and breaking you can have them go on longer outings with more difficult terrain.  The first time they encounter an uphill teach them about standing up to get more power or getting off and walking the bike up.  When they bike on gravel for the first time, explain that they need to power through it or they may skid or not be able to start again.

You need to teach every step of the way, each time they encounter a new ‘problem’.

Now you are ready to go on your first bike tour with your child.

Heidi

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Note: Before we start here is a little bit on tricycles.  Tricycles are great in of themselves.  They provide toddlers mobility and they learn steering and functioning of pedals.  They do not teach balancing or are not a natural progression towards learning to ride a two wheeler.  Because of the angle of the child’s leg on a tricycle it is hard for the child to get enough power to go up hills or through rough terrain.

This series of articles is useful for any child to learn how to ride a bicycle.  However, if your child is older than three or four, you will not find a balance bike that fits them. You would have to use a regular bike and take off the pedals.  There are disadvantages to this:  The pedals arm will be in the way.

I recommend starting your child on learning to ride a bike as soon as they have an interest.  By the age of three my daughter and her friends were zooming around a two wheelers without training wheels.

First start with a balance bike:

A balance bike is a bike that has two wheels, no peddles and no brakes.  Your child rides on it, while using their feet for locomotion and for breaking purposes.  There are many different models of balance bikes.  Select one that fits your child and your budget.  Make sure that your child is wearing shoes that you don’t mind getting wrecked.  Since they use their feet to stop, the soles and toe tips get worn out fast.

At first your child will straddle the bike and walk with it between their legs.  They will be very slow, but after a while they will realize that they can sit on the seat while running with their legs, picking up momentum and then gliding with lifted feet.  When they want to stop they will put their feet down.   A good place for them to get the feeling of this gliding, balancing act is a grassy downhill.

Have your child go on walks around your neighborhood with the bike, they will get familiar with the different skills needed on different terrain.  It is good to have your child understand balance on smooth surfaces, gravels, and bumps, uphill and down hills.  Make sure your child is ready and knows how to stop when going down a hill.

Once your child is gliding effortlessly on the balance bike, going uphill with a lot of leg power, going downhill and is able to stop, you are ready for a real two wheeler.

Heidi

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When I was 16 I traveled to Europe.  One of the countries I visited was Holland.  I spent most of my time in the countryside, but I also spent a few days in Amsterdam.

A recent New York Times article (September 20^th, 2009 by Beth Greenfield), “The Amsterdam of Playgrounds and Pancakes” explains that Amsterdam is a good country to visit with your children.

I believe that families would find Amsterdam’s cobbled streets, house boats and mellow atmosphere a great place to bring children who are old enough to  appreciate the different architectural and cultural landscape from back home.  For example, as the article mentions, the Anne Frank House  totally enchanted my teenage mind.  Days after, I found myself day dreaming about Anne’s life and had specific images to go with my thoughts.  The book had really contextualized a piece of history for me, but the house enabled me to see the concreteness of it all --a regular home, a regular child and the horrible things can happen within that context.  You may think, “oh, I don’t want that kind of realization formy child on vacation”, but I think that for me it was reassuring to see that the world still continued after such events.

There’s nothing really special about Dutch cuisine, but The Pannekoeks (pancake) is considered a local dish eaten any time of day.  When I visited, I ate three plates of poffertjes, a style of pancake that is small and served on a plate that looks like an egg poacher.  They are doused in butter and powdered sugar.  I liked them so much I ate three plates and got very, very sick.  I ate them in a small town that I visited after a long bike ride.  The restaurant was an open air structure that resembled a carousel.

This brings me to bicycles.   Holland is so flat and so wonderfully conducive to traveling by bicycle.  The bike paths are plentiful, the spaces wide and there are many places to park your bike.   I find that cycling is a great way to visit a place like Holland with children.  Children and teenagers have so much energy to spend and parents don’t always want to spend their vacation going to playgrounds.  Biking enables the child to follow along, while the parents look at the passing landscape.

I also went camping in the Netherlands.  It seems like many Dutch folks love to camp and the campgrounds have lush grass to set up your tent.  Unfortunately, I cannot give you specific information about my travels since I was young and did not think that 18 years later I would be sharing this information with anybody.

So if you are interested in visiting the Netherlands with your children, I recommend you read the NYT article for starters.

Heidi

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Prana, the company that is known for its stylish and cool climbing clothing, has come out with a few prenatal clothing items that have become essential to my wardrobe.  More and more women are continuing their active lifestyle while pregnant but hardly any companies offer outdoor wear for the expecting crowd. Both tops are made out of synthetic material.

The Luna maternity top:  Is a tank top style shirt that fits better towards the end of the pregnancy.  I was really quite huge and it was the only shirt that covered me up until the end. During the first two trimesters of pregnancy it looked a bit like a tent.  At first I was not sure that I liked the thick material it was made of, but after wearing it for a while it became my favorite top.  It has an integrated bra, which works very well. I ended up wearing my own bra as well because the one provided still showed a bit of nipple action.  I think that anyone that is looking for a shirt that could work well to run or do other outdoor sports would love this shirt. In winter, it could be worn with a warm layer and your belly would not be in the elements and you would have a good sport quality material to keep your sweat from making you cold.

The Luna Capris:  These pants fit amazingly well from week 1 to week 40.  They look good, are stylish and not too sporty, so I could dress them up a little. They are like yoga pants.  Again, these pants could work well in winter because of its very wide belly band that you could wear over your belly during sports where you want a bit of support and belly coverage. If not you can just fold it over and have a fashionable pair of pants.

Otter has always been a strong bike rider, he loves it and asks to ride all the time.  He wears his helmet to dinner and to the movies and forgets to take it off when he takes a nap.

When grandparents visit we always go on a bike ride – we’re lucky to live next to a rails to trails bike path and can travel all the way to aspen or, soon all the way to glenwood springs.  When summer comes and the trails around us open, we love to ride along the river, bringing a lunch and picnicking along the trail.  Peter pulls Wrenny in the bike trailer and I have Tucker Mac on the back of my bike; Otter rides his own bike.  Because Peter has an Extra-cycle, we can travel longer distances and put Otter in the bike trailer when he gets tired.  The  Extra-cycle can easily carry the kids bike.  We try and have a destination, like a park or spot next to the river and it always fun to push each other.  It takes lots of patience, just like anything with kids, we stop lots and have drink breaks and snacks and let little ones run around.  These are always some of our best memories and that is what childhood is all about.

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