Family Friendly
Many of our rides and events are suitable for families with children, including a number of our classic Bicycle Fun Club rides, several of our weekday evening rides, all of our Pedal Series rides, and our Eagle Days program, to name a few. Trailers and trail-a-bikes for kids are welcome on our rides, but please no training wheels!

Before you consider how to ride with very young children, please read our section on Families Riding Together

Families Riding Bikes Together
As bicycling becomes increasingly popular, more and more parents are looking for ways to ride with their young children. The various types of child-carrying equipment include child seats, trailers, third-wheel cycles – aka tag-alongs and tandems with kid-kits. Before making a decision about how to ride with very young children, please consider the following safety-related issues:

• The primary determinant of when an infant can join his or her parents on bike rides is the strength of the child's neck. Usually by age 12 months parents can start checking with the child's physician to see if they have the neck development to safely go for a bike ride.
  Source: International Bicycle Fund
• Child seats are mounted in front or in back of the adult rider and some safety advocates recommend against them.
  Source: Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
• Trailers are perhaps the safest way to take a very young child along. They are lower to the ground, so when you crash the baby will fall a shorter distance, even when you turn the trailer over.
  Source: Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
• Tag-alongs are one-wheel child bike extensions complete with pedals that are added to the back of an adult's bike. Children as young as three years old can ride on tag-alongs, but it is recommended that a child has ridden his or her own bicycle – with or without training wheels – before trying a tag-along. Tag-alongs, as the name implies, allow children to tag along with an adult, pedaling or not as they choose.
  Source: Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
• Tandems with kid-kits require that both cyclists pedal together, so when the adult pedals the child will have to pedal, which differs from tag-alongs where children can sit back and enjoy the ride whenever they want.
  Source: International Bicycle Fund
• Regardless of how the infant or young child is transported, the use of a bike helmet designed for infants is recommended.
  Source: International Bicycle Fund

The benefits of bicycling for children – and adults – include improved physical and mental health, especially as related to reducing overweight and obesity. The physical and mental health consequences for overweight children are serious and include increased frequency of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, poor self-esteem, anxiety and depression.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General

So, the next time you go for a ride, consider taking your child along. Start with short trips and let your child be your guide – don’t push them too far, too fast. If you keep it up, you just might find that he or she becomes your favorite riding partner!