Becoming a parent and accompanying a new person as they grow up can be great. Not so great, on the other hand, is having to radically cut back on your own hobbies. So is it an either-or situation, baby or biking? We don’t think so! Thanks to some clever bike parenting, everyone can have fun on the bike even with youngsters, and learn new skills while they’re at it.
Are you planning to have children, or have some already? Then you’ll have heard the joyful congratulations from those around you: “You’re having a baby? Oh, how lovely!” But you can’t stop thinking about riding your bike, and spend all your free time either on the trail, in the workshop, or reading our magazine? Then you’ve probably heard some variety of: “Oh, you’ll soon be swapping your bottle of chain lube for a baby bottle! You can say goodbye to your wild bike adventures when you’re a parent!” You might feel your chest tighten every time you hear someone say something like this. And maybe you don’t want children for this exact reason, because you damn well want to enjoy your free time just as freely and wildly in the future as you do now: spontaneous weekend adventures, bike trips all over the world; here today, there tomorrow, and a post-ride drink in the evening without having to constantly listen out for a baby monitor. We hear you! And hey, who would we be to convince you otherwise? After all, the feeling of maximum freedom is hard to beat. But what if your passion for bikes doesn’t have to make way for a baby when you decide to have children?
We know that you can have the best of both worlds: riding your bike and having a blast on two wheels with your partner and friends, while also being a good parent, raising a small human to become an exemplary member of society, and providing them with valuable lessons along the way! But if you have your doubts and still aren’t quite sure how that’s possible, you should read on! We interviewed one of the fastest MTB dads, Christian “Texi” Textor, asking the YT Mob enduro pro, multiple German champion and father of four children how he combines parenting with a life on two wheels. He must know all the tricks, right? And we’ve gathered a few damn good ideas of our own, which we’ve put into practice to make a big adventure of childrearing and riding bikes, rather than swapping one for the other.
Either biking or baby? No, bike parenting!
Don’t get us wrong, we’re not trying to convince you to have children. That’s for you to decide. What this article is supposed to be, however, is an encouraging pat on the back for those of you who want children, but are hesitant because having kids means having to give up your passion for bikes in order to be good, responsible parents, right? In any case, that’s exactly what society often suggests: “You can’t care for a child while pursuing a risky hobby! It’s one or the other.” Widespread comments like these can make us feel guilty and, in the worst case, influence family planning. We’re here to tell you to ignore all that and find your own way! We believe that with a few tricks, bikes and babies can complement each other, and you can devote time to both more or less simultaneously. Welcome to bike parenting.
Bike parenting: the conscious and thoughtful inclusion of bicycles in parenting, creating a world of learning, playing, and experiencing for both children and their parents; creating stronger bonds and making everyone yell hell yeah! – Official ENDURO Bike Parenting Guide 2035.
What exactly is bike parenting? By this we mean the conscious use of bicycles as a medium for healthy and varied child rearing, bridging the gap between the child’s education and the parents’ passion, from which all parties involved ultimately benefit. By being introduced to bicycles at an early age, children gain physical and motor skills, get to know their surroundings and nature, and learn to appreciate the joy of striving for and achieving goals: trying, failing, getting up, trying again and finally experiencing success. These are invaluable experiences that kids can make on the bike at an early age, and benefit from for the rest of their lives.
And it’s not just the youngsters who stand to benefit. Parents can introduce their kids to a rich world of learning that allows them to continue pursuing their hobby, keeping fit, and cultivating a common passion, creating even stronger bonds. The latter is particularly valuable. The idea of living only for your kids and having to completely put yourself and your own passions on the back burner is quite unnecessary, and understandably intimidating.
What we certainly don’t mean by bike parenting is that one partner selflessly takes care of the children, banished to the stroller and paved bike paths, so that the other can continue to chase Strava segments on the trails and celebrate their PRs. Proper bike parenting should benefit the whole family, not just the privateer racer of the pair.
Better happy part-time shredders than burnt-out world champions: I don’t want to be the dad who imposes his own dreams on his children. – Texi
And what we absolutely don’t mean by that is trying to turn your kids into pro riders and social media heroes. In spite of the best parental intentions, prematurely imposing a performance mindset onto your children can eat away at the fun of cycling in both the short and long term. And no one benefits from that. If Christian’s four kids don’t want to know about cycling for a while, that’s okay with him.
“But if they ask me to take them to the pump track five times a week, then we go to the pump track five times a week. We don’t want to force riding on them, but rather leave it up to them to choose whether they want to ride their bikes or not. And if not, then that’s okay.”
Bike parenting is not about pushing the little ones to perform, but about creating an enriching learning experience for them on the bike, from which all participants benefit. If this results in a healthy desire to compete and win podium prizes, that’s okay too. But that’s not the ultimate goal.
So, bike parenting offers the chance to teach your kids valuable lessons, allows parents to keep fit, and creates precious family time – sounds like a win-win situation if ever there was! But how does it actually work? Below are the three building blocks you can use to check if you’re on the right track.
Communication
This sounds banal, but it’s incredibly helpful: talk to each other! There’s a new person in your life and you must integrate them somehow. It’s up to you to decide according to which rules and ideals you do this, and even the most in-sync couples won’t necessarily have the same expectations. But the less you talk about what you think is right and important in integrating the child into your life, the louder you will hear the opinions of others from the outside. And those around you will be more than happy to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do – whether you want their advice or not.
The challenge starts as soon as you take your little one on their first ride in the trailer – we’ll get to the right equipment for the first rides together in a moment – but who is going to pull it? Daddy, because he’s stronger? His pride could quickly be shattered, because pulling a 15 kg chariot is a lot more difficult than running even the heaviest downhill tires with the softest compound. Or mum, because she can feed the baby if necessary? Holding the bike on a climb while simultaneously rummaging through the back pockets of the trailer can be a tricky balancing act. If dad thinks he’s the much better rider and must therefore pull the trailer, maybe there’s some ego involved. Perhaps mum is afraid of dad’s overly-confident, risky manoeuvres and therefore prefers taking the kid? As you can see, it’s incredibly important to talk to each other openly and honestly. Whose turn is it to play the chauffeur and shuttle the offspring? Who will ride without a trailer, but stick around to tend to the passenger’s needs and lend a helping hand? Which of the two you will get to ride ahead and shred the trail, while the other slowly rolls back down on the service road with the child in tow? And what does your child need when they’re riding in the trailer? What safety standards do you want to meet, and what are absolute no-goes? These are questions that you must ask when riding with a child.
The good news is that you can answer all these questions – and even learn to communicate as a couple while you’re at it! The first step is to ignore how everyone else is doing it. Yep, that’s right. There are countless ads, magazine shots, and feeds showing us idealised versions of what biking with your kids should look like. But none of them will tell you to take turns pulling the trailer, so that both of you can get your fair share of riding unencumbered – these are things you’ll have to discuss amongst yourselves.
Dream equipment for the whole family
Whether or not your offspring’s first foray into the beautiful world of cycling is a success depends heavily on having the right gear. In chronological order, we’ll give you a brief overview of what to consider at what age to make the best of bike parenting, and which well-intentioned gift from one of the various aunts and uncles you might want to quietly make disappear. We won’t be focusing on brands and models here, because we’ve already conducted a group test of the best kids’ bikes. Rather, we’ll be looking at features and characteristics that you should always keep in mind when considering any of the wide-ranging options on the market.
It’s important to avoid frustrating experiences due to inappropriate equipment that’s just been cobbled together instead of using reliable, purpose-built products, especially when your kids start riding for themselves. So, the donated bike from the neighbour is obviously still too big, but you can just put the saddle down all the way and it’s ready to go, right? Stop! Your child may be excited about the new bike, but they’re likely to have a hard time learning to balance and ride on a bike that doesn’t fit. They’ll stumble and perhaps even crash as a result, leading to unnecessary negative associations with cycling, and quickly diminishing the joy of learning a new skill. It’s like learning to write with a pen that has sharp edges and is painful to hold. You can avoid this by choosing the right bike, setting the preconditions for lasting fun. If this has you thinking of the insurmountable costs of always buying the right bike for every age, please read on. You’ll be pleasantly surprised about the incredible resale value of many kids’ products.
Their own personal chariot
But first things first: Your child must learn to crawl before they can walk, and they’ll cruise comfortably in the trailer behind mum and dad before overtaking you on their bike. And if you have at least one ebike at your disposal, your life will be a whole lot easier at this stage – preferably an eMTB that you can also shred downhill. With a setup like this, it hardly matters whose turn it is to pull the trailer uphill. It goes without saying that a capable eMTB offers many more advantages than just making easy work of pulling a trailer. That’s why it doesn’t really count as one of the things to buy for bike parenting. However, if you haven’t yet and you’re thinking of buying an eMTB to pull a trailer, you’ll have to consider the frame material. If it’s made of carbon, the manufacturers usually don’t approve of pulling a trailer. At the very least, the rear end of the frame to which the rear axle is attached should be made of aluminium. For maximum flexibility, you’ll also need matching thru-axles and couplings for all your trailer pulling bikes. It’s worth the extra money spent as it allows you to swap between bikes with significantly less hassle.
Hair blowing in the wind
Once the kids are able to sit properly, their time as a passenger on their mum or dad’s bike begins, and thus also the time for both parents to be able to ride (moderate) trails together once again. We’re big fans of child seats like the Mac Ride and Kids Ride Shotgun, because they give the youngsters a front row seat, like Leonardo DiCaprio on the bow of the Titanic, putting them in centre of the action and allowing them to get a realistic feel for the bike’s and the handlebar’s movements. Clearly, it’s not the safest option, because the child has to hold on to the handlebars and keep their body in position. But the facial expressions of your little co-pilot on the top tube will quickly allow you to gauge how much they’re enjoying the experience and perhaps even catching the bug.
Less is more
The next step is huge: their first own bike – wow! Whether it’s a balance bike or one with pedals, it’s got to be light and easy to handle. And this is something you must follow through on consistently. Does your child really need a stand, mudguards, and a chain lock on the bike? No! It’s better to have the bike lying on the floor and covered in splashes of mud than have it weighing a whole kilo more due to all these non-vital accessories. After all, that would be about one fifth of the total weight of a good kid’s bike – or a whopping five percent of the rider’s weight. For comparison: you wouldn’t want three or four kilos of added weight on your frame, right? That’s like riding an ebike, without the motor! Precisely.
Okay, so get rid of all of the unnecessary add-ons. But what about MTB features like disc brakes, knobby tires, and suspension forks – or full suspension? This can wait. Sure, the MAGURA disc brakes and wide, knobby tires on the Kids Ride Shotgun kid’s bike look cool and appeal to biker parents. However, they won’t benefit your kid just yet. Yes, disc brakes allow you to adjust the reach more, and the levers are easier to pull. But V-brakes are lighter, more affordable, and ultimately offer more than enough braking power for a young child’s needs. Furthermore, skinnier tires roll much more easily, weigh less, and offer enough grip for everything from asphalt to woodland paths.
Hardliners might say that you can only learn real bike handling skills without suspension. In fact, many successful mountain bikers started out on a BMX or (barely suspended) dirt jumper, long before hitting the trails aboard a full suspension trail bike. Once you’ve honed your MTB skills, you’ll always benefit from the added capabilities of suspension. However, it’s not necessary when learning the basics, or even the first tricks. It’s only when jumps, trails, and bike parks start playing a significant role that it makes sense to take a look at our group test of fully-fledged kid’s mountain bikes.
As in-demand as VW buses – Even with scratches
Let’s address the elephant in the room: cost. High-quality kid’s trailers, seats, bikes and the like are anything but cheap. Recommended bikes like the Early Rider can easily cost five hundred euros or more. With children seeming to grow by the minute, and perhaps more than one child in the house, the yearly expenses quickly add up. Is bike parenting reserved for the wealthy with two full-time earners? Not at all: while bike equipment for kids is expensive, it also has an astonishingly high resale value. Good kid’s bikes often pass through the hands of several families on used goods marketplaces without dropping significantly in price. This is where buying high-quality products pays off twice as much, because you get the best equipment for your kid, and you can also be pretty sure that you’ll be able to sell it for a good price – even if it’s got a few scratches. Kids’ bikes are bound to get scratched anyway and, fortunately, many parents don’t mind. It seems that bikers are less vain with kids products than they are with their own bikes, and that’s a good thing. Simply clean, advertise, and resell almost without loss – investing in good kid’s equipment is more of a deposit than money spent for good.
Loads of new skills
Let’s briefly set the ideal scene of your bike parenting experiment. Your child has caught your enthusiasm and is currently learning to ride on their own, on a suitable bike. As parents, you’ve divided your roles and tasks fairly and come to workable agreements, so that everyone can have fun and everyone’s needs are met. You might have bought used bikes and equipment, and you got good prices reselling it, so that the overall costs remained within limits. And above all, you’ve spent a lot of quality time with your family on two wheels, the benefits of which extend far beyond the world of bikes. Nice! But what about mum and dad’s skills? Did they have to put their ambitions of becoming better riders on hold?
If you’re pulling a trailer or have a child sitting on the front of the top tube, you’ve got no business riding high-speed or technical trails. So you might think that your learning curve will be limited during bike parenting. If you’re too quick to judge, however, you’ll overlook the things that mum and dad can learn from bike parenting. We’ll give you a few examples to illustrate. If you pull a trailer and don’t let an ebike do the heavy lifting, you’ll do a lot for your physical fitness, which will come to your advantage when getting back to blasting down the trails. Enduro pro Texi frequently used this as an opportunity to improve his base level fitness, ultimately making him faster on the trail when not pulling a trailer. A bike’s handling also feels different with a small passenger on the top tube. In that case, precisely hitting a line and confidently avoiding rocks, ruts, and roots presents a challenge to your coordination that you’ll rarely face otherwise. Modern mountain bikes would usually forgive any mistakes or questionable line choices and while this can be fun, it also blunts your skills. Having to focus on hitting your lines and riding smoothly improves your precision, which can make all the difference in really rough terrain. Speaking of precision, how exactly do you look at a new line before you ride it? Kids want to emulate their parents, and love to ask questions, so they’ll want to know. By analysing and expressing exactly what you do and why, you become more conscious of the skills that you use intuitively, thereby allowing you to refine and make better use of them. Becoming a coach allows everyone to learn – both the kids and the coach.
Another, often overlooked bonus of bike parenting is that you’ll discover new locations and riding spots, perhaps even trails, in your local woods. If you look at the terrain through a child’s eyes and look for things that you can ride together, you’ll explore areas that you wouldn’t have otherwise and discover a whole new world of possibilities. “Oh wow, I didn’t know about this yet,” you might hear yourself say when exploring together with your little ones. And being forced to slow down can also do the fastest mums and dads a lot of good, like when the most interesting thing about riding suddenly becomes the colourful bug on the side of the path.
Besides, it won’t be long before your kids want to learn things and skills that really challenge you – as a mentor or even as a bike buddy – like when the youngsters can’t get enough of the pump track, making you finally give it a try yourself. Pumping, manualing, jumping; this opens the door to a whole range of new skills that you might never have developed without kids, making you an even better and happier rider than you were before.
Bikes and babies are no contradiction. Parents who can openly discuss their own desires and ignore the furrowed brows of those around them can use bike parenting as a way to create a healthy family and learning environment for the kids, teaching them invaluable lessons for life, while also allowing mum and dad to continue pursuing their wonderful hobby of cycling – win, win, win. And those who don’t mind buying second-hand and reselling what they no longer need will even be able to do so on a tight budget.
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Words & Photos: Moritz Geisreiter
