Center Parcs June Challenge: Cycling

Tots100 and Center Parcs have challenged bloggers to go on a bike ride this month. See this webpage for more details, where Center Parcs spokesperson, Sam Dowsing, Cycle Centre Manager at Elveden Forest, has shared his tips on how you can make the most of your family bike ride. I was most inspired by Sam’s second tip which says If your little ones are new to cycling, confidence and practice is key. I’ve found that concentrating on gliding, rather than peddling, helps children to balance in the early stages. Taking them to a park is a great, safe place to get them started on two wheels.

Now this certainly is a challenge for our family. I don’t even possess a bike and neither of the boys have learnt to cycle properly yet. We got their bikes out of the garage and could immediately see that son1’s was far too small. He hadn’t used it at all last year due to being too poorly with leukaemia. So we went to Halfords and ordered him a new bike. And also got some knee, elbow and wrist pads too. A week later we collected his new bike.

Son1 in his new cycling gear waiting for bike to arrive

Son1 in his new cycling gear waiting for his new bike to arrive

We initially decided we would put the boys bikes in the car-boot and drive to the common where it would be safer for them to learn on the tracks. However we found 4 people and 2 bikes would not fit, so plan B was for them to ride along the pavement to the common. But we didn’t get that far. In fact we only got a short distance down our road. Son1 didn’t have the confidence or the balancing skills. But he has agreed to do a cycling course in the school holiday. Meanwhile even son2 with his stabilisers seemed to be finding it hard work.