Family Cycling

Cyclists who hang up their trouser clips at the first patter of tiny feet are doing themselves and their children a disservice. They are denying their young family one of the joys of life. In an age where few children under the age of ten are allowed to travel by themselves, cycling as a family can be a liberation just as much as a pleasure. Children love cycling. It allows them to be in touch with their environment, feeling the fresh air on their faces and soaking up the sounds and the scents of the world around them.

How much nicer than a day spent hot, bored and cramped, strapped into the back of the family car, or stuck at home in front of the video or the games console.

Children who grow up in the back seat of a car will long for the opportunity to move to the front row and drive for themselves when they’re older. By bicycle, children experience individual mobility in a positive way. The mental stimulation and physical exercise inherent in cycling brings self-confidence and awareness to growing minds and bodies. You’ll show other would-be cycling families that it can be done, and you’ll help increase the demand for streets safe enough for children to cycle in. Streets with reduced traffic volumes, lower traffic speeds and traffic-free sections to create breathing space for the whole community.

Whether simply for pleasure or for purpose, with the right equipment and a bit of planning, most journeys with children can be safely undertaken without the need of a car. Experience shows that, the less you use your car, the less you want to use it, and it’ll become more of a burden than the personal freedom enhancer it was once hailed as.

Cycling with your family doesn’t begin and end with the childseat. Products are available to suit all ages and sizes of children from newborn onwards. Children grow up fast and their needs will change as they do — so you may find that, once your kids have got the cycling bug, you’ll progress through a whole range of solutions for keeping your family a-wheel. In the following pages you’ll find all you need to suit your riding style and your pocket. Baby pods, childseats, family tandems, trailer bikes, adult tricycles all the way up to a four-wheeled, four-seater pedal-powered replacement for the family rust bucket.

The range of cycles and equipment for parents to transport their children is better than ever in terms of options and quality. And the choice of lightweight, easy-to-use solo bikes for children has never been so good.

As in any other area of life, you’ll need to think carefully about your needs, and those of your children. Trailers and trailer cycles which attach to an adult bike are very practical child carrying solutions for those who do not always cycle as a family. Simply detach them when you need to make a solo journey. Tandem trikes can carry two children and all the luggage, and make for a formidable road presence.

Encycleopedia can’t hope to cover the entire range of what is available. But we can showcase some less well-known, high-quality designs that you won’t have come across elsewhere – products which will make cycling with your family a practical pleasure.

But, be warned, we can’t promise it’ll put an end to cries of ‘Are we there yet?'