How far is too far for a 5-year old to ride?

[hoj]

Hey all,

With the recent stay-at-home orders my son (5 yo) and I have taken advantage of some extra time to get out on the bike together -- there are a few jogging trails near our place and the weather has been nice.

Fortunately for me, my son absolutely loves it and he's got a smile on his face the entire time we're out -- really. Only problem is I have no idea at what point it's considered "too much" or "too far" for a kid his age.

We've slowly ramped up the miles over the last couple weeks (at his request) -- started at around 6-7 miles per ride, then last week we did rides of 10, 11, and 14 miles. Apparently that wasn't enough because this morning he asked if we could do a 15 mile ride later today.

He has never complained once on any of our previous rides and he's able to complete them all at his own pace without any assistance from me. Question is, should I be concerned about too much riding causing future issues with joints, muscles, etc? And at what point should I consider capping the miles? He's my oldest kid so I have no reference to base this off of and would love to hear what other parents on this forum have found to be a good balance.

As an aside, I will say that in all my years of riding, I don't think I've ever gotten as much satisfaction out of cycling as I do when I'm riding with him alongside -- man is it fun. The extra time I've had to spend time with the kids has definitely been a silver lining these last few weeks!

[joosttx]

Hey all,

With the recent stay-at-home orders my son (5 yo) and I have taken advantage of some extra time to get out on the bike together -- there are a few jogging trails near our place and the weather has been nice.

Fortunately for me, my son absolutely loves it and he's got a smile on his face the entire time we're out -- really. Only problem is I have no idea at what point it's considered "too much" or "too far" for a kid his age.

We've slowly ramped up the miles over the last couple weeks (at his request) -- started at around 6-7 miles per ride, then last week we did rides of 10, 11, and 14 miles. Apparently that wasn't enough because this morning he asked if we could do a 15 mile ride later today.

He has never complained once on any of our previous rides and he's able to complete them all at his own pace without any assistance from me. Question is, should I be concerned about too much riding causing future issues with joints, muscles, etc? And at what point should I consider capping the miles? He's my oldest kid so I have no reference to base this off of and would love to hear what other parents on this forum have found to be a good balance.

As an aside, I will say that in all my years of riding, I don't think I've ever gotten as much satisfaction out of cycling as I do when I'm riding with him alongside -- man is it fun. The extra time I've had to spend time with the kids has definitely been a silver lining these last few weeks!


My son and I did 15 mile rides (14.9 to be exact) regularly when he was 5. There were plenty of stops and midway we would have lunch. Most important thing is that he enjoys it and when he doesn't want to do it anymore you don't pressure him to do it. Thats my advice.

[ultraman6970]

15 miles for 5 y/o ??? IMO is way too much... what you do with kids in general is ride by time more than by distance but again we are talking about a todler not even a pre teen of 9 y/o...

Is he doing his own pace, are we talking like 5mph pace? I imagine he is going in a super small bike aswell right?

IMO, dont talk to him about distance and do it by time, whatever the 30 minutes or 1 hour hits and then come back. And what you can do is see if next day he is going faster so he will travel more distance in the same amount of time.

IME with kids not age of yours, older... ready to start racing that is like 10 y/o is that they absorb training really quick and the curve goes up quick and suddenly they tend to go down in spiral. The body kind'a shuts off, thats why we had to be carefull of doing a lot of mileage with them. We had kids that did not want to ride anymore, just mentally tired more than physically aswell.

The good part with yours is that he is enjoying the rides, and looks like he is super focused which is a good thing. If you do it by time you'll have more control of him of doing too much bike you know, even what you can do with him is work out/play to lets sprint from here to here... and work into the cadence aswell...

BTW, this is a simple thing u can do daily with him... take his pulse at night before going to sleep and in the morning when he wakes up, put that in a notebook or something and check him out, obviously if you notice that the pulse is higher in the morning is because he is not resting and what to do is pretty much obvious, thats a good indicator. We saw kids that had those problems but in my country cyclist usually have problems of nutrition too (sport of the rich, practiced by the poor) but here in the US that doubt happens aswell.

This is my own experience btw ok?

[C40_guy]

Always leave them wanting more...don't go so far that they're worn out and frustrated. Pick routes that have bail out options, and watch for early signs.

Stop often. Celebrate ice cream. :)

[zambenini]

Presuming you (still) have a baby trailer, take that along on your bike, ride together til you think he's done, throw him in and his bike in the back trunk area (our Burley D'Lite has one) or bungee it on top, and you can keep riding. Been working for us.


Edit: My guy enjoys the trailer way more than he would being flogged to keep on going. I expect most groms would agree. Edit to my edit: flogged in the metaphorical sense, obvi.

[smead]

Hey all,

With the recent stay-at-home orders my son (5 yo) and I have taken advantage of some extra time to get out on the bike together -- there are a few jogging trails near our place and the weather has been nice.

Fortunately for me, my son absolutely loves it and he's got a smile on his face the entire time we're out -- really. Only problem is I have no idea at what point it's considered "too much" or "too far" for a kid his age.

We've slowly ramped up the miles over the last couple weeks (at his request) -- started at around 6-7 miles per ride, then last week we did rides of 10, 11, and 14 miles. Apparently that wasn't enough because this morning he asked if we could do a 15 mile ride later today.

He has never complained once on any of our previous rides and he's able to complete them all at his own pace without any assistance from me. Question is, should I be concerned about too much riding causing future issues with joints, muscles, etc? And at what point should I consider capping the miles? He's my oldest kid so I have no reference to base this off of and would love to hear what other parents on this forum have found to be a good balance.

As an aside, I will say that in all my years of riding, I don't think I've ever gotten as much satisfaction out of cycling as I do when I'm riding with him alongside -- man is it fun. The extra time I've had to spend time with the kids has definitely been a silver lining these last few weeks!

I can't imagine there could be anything negative here. Physically what could be better for a youngster to do? Sit and play video games? Keep him going, great on him, great on you.

[verticaldoug]

As long as he is having fun and considers it playing, I wouldn't worry about it.
Every kid is different.

[hoj]

Thanks all, sounds like my thoughts are in line with a lot of you on this. Even after our 14 mile ride last week my son was asking if we could take extra detours on the way home, haha, so I don't think he's losing interest/energy even at that mileage.

I don't intend to increase the mileage over what we're already doing, as I kind of want him to feel like he's got something left in the tank at the end of the ride, which seems to have worked so far. Just wasn't sure if what I was already doing was taking him harder/farther than what would be recommended.

To answer the other poster above, as a reference we average around 8-10 mph on most of our rides according to my Garmin, and again the pace is dictated by my son (I don't ask him to speed it up, lol). Occasionally we'll throw in a mid-ride sprint here or there to mix it up and keep it entertaining, with snacks/clif bars at the midway point before we turn around and head home. Seems like it's been a good balance so far and we both have a lot of fun.

[vqdriver]

this kinda stuff i generally approach with the same mindset as hiking. let the kid lead. too far? too long? doesn't matter. if they want to stop and chase a marmot or stop to smell the flowers, let em. that could be 1/2 mile in an afternoon or 10 miles. i think if your child is asking to do it, by all means there's nothing to hold em back. i don't think it's too much as long as their heart's in it.

as the parent, just be mindful that there's a delay in what their body feels and what they are cognizant of. meaning, they won't say they're tired until it's too late and they've already hit the wall. so be in charge of timely breaks and nutrition. 10 miles for a 5yo is long enough that that will come into play. i like to disguise those stops for something random.
"hold up. look at that cloud, it looks like a butt. here have some water"
"let's pull over here to look at this squirrel eating. have a bite of this snack bar"
that type of thing. takes a minute and goes a long way.

one thing you can do if they're actually pedaling that much and for that long is to set proper saddle height. a lot of kid bikes are set up so they can easily reach the ground, which is fine for the neighborhood explorer. but that generally means they're too low for actually riding any distance. i like to sneakily increase the saddle height so their hips aren't too compressed. makes pedaling that much more enjoyable for them too.

good advice above to choose routes that have bailout options. so stay close to home or set a destination. ice cream is a good one.

enjoy it man, those days sure go by fast.

[ntb1001]

It’s a very good way to teach him the basics of proper cycling.
The lessons of how to ride together and road sense will stay with him forever...great job!!

I started taking my kids on rides around 7 years old. I had them set up with junior road bikes with 24” then 650c wheels.

I have 4 kids, all have ridden with clubs, and raced. One of my boys didn’t really take to it and stopped, but my others kept it up for a while until other sports and school, then cars took over. My youngest though...15 year old daughter still rides with me even if she doesn’t want to race anymore.


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[azrider]

Our 6 yr old routinely goes on 15+ mile rides. I'd say his longest was close to 20.

We do family rides to the grocery store all the time which is about 9 miles round trip and now our 3 year old is doing that no problem.............but then again, our daughters will/determination is stronger than our entire family put together so we're pretty sure if we went 20 miles she'd keep up just to prove she can :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[azrider]

I have 4 kids

Much respect.......;)

[mulp]

Our 6 yr old routinely goes on 15+ mile rides. I'd say his longest was close to 20.

We do family rides to the grocery store all the time which is about 9 miles round trip and now our 3 year old is doing that no problem.............but then again, our daughters will/determination is stronger than our entire family put together so we're pretty sure if we went 20 miles she'd keep up just to prove she can :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

That's amazing, your daughter is also carrying an extra passenger on those rides!

[azrider]

That's amazing, your daughter is also carrying an extra passenger on those rides!

Oh there's more than just the one passenger.

"Doggy" lucked out and got the back seat on this particular trip but there are three more (at least) furry critters stuffed into the backpack which is dangling off the front of her handlebars. Which I might add weighs about 5 lbs and swings wildy at times off the front making it much more difficult to steer but again.........this girls determination knows ZERO bounds...........sigh

(has daycare reopened yet ):help::help::help::help::help:

[robt57]

How far is too far for a 5 year old to drive?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/us/5-year-old-driver-utah-trnd/index.html

[Hakkalugi]

When my son was 4 he rode 20 miles on a flat bike path, on a 10” Jamis that weighed as much as he did. His prize was a Liquigas jersey, because that was his favorite team. He later got it autographed by Basso, King, and Sagan.

He’s 13 now and thinks 50 mile rides are great because there’s plenty of time in the rest of the day to do other stuff. He’s also winning bmx, road, cx, and MTB races and can spin at 140rpm on rollers without bouncing off. He thinks the bicycle is way better than sliced bread, but that’s only because he’s gluten-free. Suffice to say, my days of holding his wheel ended about 8 years ago.

Let them ease into it, and if they love it, let it grow. If they don’t, don’t force it. Keep it fun and all about the smiles. When they start dropping you, you can always sabotage their bike.

[4151zero]

My toddler rode the entire day on his balance bike @ Sea Otter 2019. He was just barely 3 years old.

He rode from the car, down to the entrance, across the bridges (I carried the bike up/down stairs)... then all around the vendor displays, and so many laps around the kids pump track I stopped counting. Then we had to pull him off the track and the only thing keeping him from a full meltdown was allowing him to ride back to the car, uphill... on a push/balance bike

This year he's learned to transition onto a pedal bike with no training wheels, riding in circles in our tiny back patio during the Covid19 lockdown.

I think he's found his calling. I'm exhausted...:bike:

Does that help? Probably not. My apologies :cool:

[Spoker]

5 year olds can go a long way.
This one was on his way to buy a Lamborghini in California:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/us/5-year-old-driver-utah-trnd/index.html

[bikinchris]

Muscular endurance is going to be the limiting factor here. As he ages, it will naturally increase. As long as he's not pushing anaerobic and he's having fun, it should be fine. Cycling is easy on the joints and strengthens tendons too.
Stop often for shave ice or snow balls, ice cream even lunch and break up the mileage.
Enjoy building a close relationship. You'll need that when he becomes a teenager.

[benb]

My son did rides up to about 10 miles when he's 5. These were dirt rides.

He'd easily do 15-20 right now at 7, he's got a lot of enthusiasm right now and is asking to go on a ride together every day. He rides about 10-12mph on flat, he can probably do about 15 but that's spinning out the top gear on his bike, it's got very short gearing, but just right.. he can ride singletrack & up at least a 7% grade with the gears it has.

Unfortunately I can't really figure out where I can take him to push the distance and still be safe on the whole social distancing thing.

I am working with him on road behavior. He's doing very well navigating sidewalks if I'm walking with him, but I don't let him ride on the street without me. But he is starting to learn stuff like hand signals & taking the lane to take a left turn.

I didn't really start to learn this stuff till I was about 10, although I rode my bike a lot between 5-10.

I took my son on rides up to 20-30 miles in the Burley from about 18 months and then additional rides with him pedaling in a Weehoo. The Weehoo was kind of a waste because his window where he could ride in the Weehoo until he could ride without training wheels was extremely short, we got the Weehoo the spring when he was 4 and he was riding without training wheels a few months into the season. But all that activity got him interested and understanding that longer rides can be fun. (We usually had lunch along the way or whatever.)

[robt57]

5 year olds can go a long way.
This one was on his way to buy a Lamborghini in California:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/us/5-year-old-driver-utah-trnd/index.html

Done and Done..

[Hilltopperny]

My daughter was doing 15 mile rides with me at 5. We did not have a car at the time and rode our bikes everywhere for everything. Kids have lots of energy and as long as there are enough breaks, water and snacks then I wouldn’t worry unless the child is showing signs of exhaustion.


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[Dired]

Slight segue here, but wanted to let you guys know that zwift has a free tier for kids. They quickly made a premium account for my 7yo and she's been on the indoor bike daily.

[buddybikes]

Tandem!

I have crank shorteners hanging around if you need them.

This was most memorable part of our kids upbringing (till those evil tween years)

Started our younger one at age 3.5

Also tag a longs are popular but your speed is highly impacted.

(my daughter and I hit 49 going into St. Albans Vt, she tucked her head in my back). Very stable Bilenky owned by a Paceliner now.

[azrider]

Slight segue here, but wanted to let you guys know that zwift has a free tier for kids. They quickly made a premium account for my 7yo and she's been on the indoor bike daily.

omg.......

[mdeth1313]

15 miles for 5 y/o ??? IMO is way too much... what you do with kids in general is ride by time more than by distance but again we are talking about a todler not even a pre teen of 9 y/o...

Is he doing his own pace, are we talking like 5mph pace? I imagine he is going in a super small bike aswell right?

IMO, dont talk to him about distance and do it by time, whatever the 30 minutes or 1 hour hits and then come back. And what you can do is see if next day he is going faster so he will travel more distance in the same amount of time.

IME with kids not age of yours, older... ready to start racing that is like 10 y/o is that they absorb training really quick and the curve goes up quick and suddenly they tend to go down in spiral. The body kind'a shuts off, thats why we had to be carefull of doing a lot of mileage with them. We had kids that did not want to ride anymore, just mentally tired more than physically aswell.

The good part with yours is that he is enjoying the rides, and looks like he is super focused which is a good thing. If you do it by time you'll have more control of him of doing too much bike you know, even what you can do with him is work out/play to lets sprint from here to here... and work into the cadence aswell...

BTW, this is a simple thing u can do daily with him... take his pulse at night before going to sleep and in the morning when he wakes up, put that in a notebook or something and check him out, obviously if you notice that the pulse is higher in the morning is because he is not resting and what to do is pretty much obvious, thats a good indicator. We saw kids that had those problems but in my country cyclist usually have problems of nutrition too (sport of the rich, practiced by the poor) but here in the US that doubt happens aswell.

This is my own experience btw ok?

also make sure they're wearing a helmet AND are encased in bubble wrap!