Bike Safety and Summer Riding for Kids

In 2009, Actress Denise Richards and a friend take her daughters Sam Sheen and Lola Sheen out for a bike ride in their neighborhood. Lola was just learning to ride and Sam was there for support

This past weekend, my fiancé’s niece received her first bike with training wheels! A pretty purple bike with training wheels and a neat bell. It made me think about when I rode my first bike called Starlight (a pink bike with a white basket and streamers)! Bicycling is safer now than ever before, thanks to helmet awareness and bicycle-safety classes! Still, each year in the United States, more than 200 kids under the age of 15 die from injuries involving bicycles, and an additional 360,000 are treated for serious injury in hospital emergency rooms, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Kids ages 5 to 15 account for more than 20 percent of bicycle deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Bike crashes send more kids to the emergency room than any other sport. Bike safety helps kids make better decisions and reduce their risks of death or injury.

Here are some fun ways to teach bike safety to kids!

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Summer Fun and Bicycling with Children

Happy cyclist!

We live in an area that has four distinct seasons. This lets us explore different outdoor activities. The summer season always makes me excited for bicycling. You get to see your neighborhood at a different pace when bicycling as opposed to driving your car. We began sharing our love of bicycling with our daughter at a young age. She first experienced bicycling as a bike trailer rider. We tried pulling the trailer on dirt roads near our house and quickly realized her little 10-month old head was bobbing up and down quite a bit! Maybe that type of road might not be the best for her age (as a licensed massage therapist by profession, I tend to be a bit protective of that central organ, the brain!). All was good as we biked the paved roads. She enjoyed being a passenger and sometimes would bring along stuffed animals and dolls to ride with her.

On her own energy she began to pedal a tricycle, then got the hang of a two wheeled bike with training wheels by the time she was two or three. When she was about three or four, we got a tag-along (trail-a-bike, third wheel – they have numerous names depending on the brands) attached to our adult bike, and she rode behind either my husband or myself. This bike attachment was pretty safe yet made the adult feel like they were riding with a drunk…as our daughter loved to lean from side to side as she pedaled! 😉 Most of the time we made it safely through our town doing errands or riding just for fun.

Dad and daughter bikers pulling into the driveway after a fun ride...

Sometimes my husband would create what he and my daughter called “the triple rig”: she would ride along on the tag-along which was attached to his bike, and the bike trailer would be attached to her bike. This way they could pedal to our local gardeners’ farmers’ market and bring home lots of veggies, fruit and other treats! We were amazed that the years passed so quickly and before long, she was pedaling her own two-wheeled bicycle along with us. It’s been a fun process that we hope becomes a life-long pattern of exercise and enjoyment for all of  us!

Where are you in the stages of bicycling with your kids – trailer, tag-along, tricycle, or 2-wheeled bike?

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Dad and His Mini-Me…Who’re You Callin’ “Mini”?

Those Yellow Turtle gals love our Father’s Day Mini-Me Contest! So, the ever-so-famous MS bike tour presents a related story! Look at the photo below (yes, taken after a looong ride!)…who is the Mini??? The Father or the Son??? The Mini-Me caption really got J.’s attention – apparently it is a joke in her family because, well, Alec is now bigger than his Dad (Bob) – which is why J. asks the question: Which one is the Mini? Is this a trick question, J.? 😉 Tell us, who do you think is the “Mini”?

Meanwhile if you know a dad with a Mini-Me of his own, enter our easy contest for a chance to win an exclusive, “sneak peek” $100 prize of our gorgeous and much anticipated le•top Fall 09 Collection! Just send us a photo of a Dad and his Mini-Me (look-alike), and his Mini-Me gets the fabulous threads! Contest ends on the 19th with a winner announcement.

Look! It's a Dad and his Mini-Me...or is it a Son and his Mini-Me...?!?

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