Kids and clipless pedals

[CNY rider]

A question for those who have started kids out on clipless pedals:

At what age did the kids go clipless? Was it based on the development of certain skills or just deciding to give it a go at a certain chronologic age?

Reason I ask: Young man down the street from me, about 8, rides his bike each day to his job at the corn stand about 2 miles away.
I stopped to get corn and he was very interested in my clipless, asking lots of questions and being psyched about cycling in general, and talking about wanting to go clipless.
I've seen him ride, very briefly, a couple of times and he seemed safe/stable/reasonably mature.

I've got a spare set of Crank Bros in the basement and thought about giving them to him but I'm not sure now if that's a safe, smart thing to do.

[Dekonick]

can you find clipless shoes that fit the kid?

[CNY rider]

can you find clipless shoes that fit the kid?

Good question.
Now that I think about it I would guess he's closer to 10 years old.

(I have twins that are 17 months old. My knowledge of kids any older is woefully awful!)

[nahtnoj]

I think I started when I was 12. He is too young IMO, and shoes might be an issue.

Edit - if he is 10 he could be ready.

[Bytesiz]

Shoes are not nessesarily an issue... Six Six One and Answer both make shoes down in wee little sizes.

My daughter, now 8, can ride clipless pedals pretty well. She rides clipless on the tandem all the time and I move them over to her MTB when she asks. Having experience clipping and unclipping on the tandem helped when riding her own bike I'm sure.

[vqdriver]

as far as i know, it's more about habit and muscle memory than age or athleticism. my wife has more problems with clipless than some kids at my church. if anything, i'd think kids, not necessarily children, would pick it up a little faster.

my only hesitation would be if the rider has the ability to use proper judgement in neighborhoods and around light traffic.

any doubts, donate the pedals to his parents and let them make the call. they'll prolly have to mount them anyway.

[RJR]

My son's been using them since he was 5...a lot of little BMX munchkins use 'em. I don't think he took any more spills on them than the average adult to whom I've introduced them. He forgot once, fell over in the street, laughed his head off and didn't do it again. That said, I suspect not every kid would feel confident enough on a bike to be "stuck" to it.

[happycampyer]

These guys are clearing out their kid's shoes, fwiw:

http://www.upsideover.com/Kids-Cycling-Shoes-s/147.htm

As others have said, I would think that it depends on the kid, how much riding they do, their coordination, etc. A kid that rides 4+ miles each day sounds like a decent candidate.

[znfdl]

We started our youngest at 9 and he wore a size 36 womans shoe

[johnnymossville]

My daughter started using them this year at 10, but we've gone back to regular platform pedals for now. She's probably ready, but I'm not.

[MattTuck]

yeah....

I would just ask his parents if they'd let him use them.

I hate to say it, we live in a litigous society, and you need to protect yourself.

[pdmtong]

for those whose kids are on clipless, are you using SPDs with the adjustable tension or are you using crank bros/time style with no adjust? some camps tell me the non adjust is too much tension for a youth's ligaments to twist. what has been your experience?

[Bytesiz]

for those whose kids are on clipless, are you using SPDs with the adjustable tension or are you using crank bros/time style with no adjust? some camps tell me the non adjust is too much tension for a youth's ligaments to twist. what has been your experience?

My 8 year old daughter uses Shimano 520 pedals with the tension set at the lowest possible. I run my pedals tension high and when she tried them, not only could she not unclip easily, she didn't have enough strength or weight to clip in.