Cyclists come in all sizes... Family Bicycling

Biking with your family is a blast! It allows you to be together with your children at all ages and have fun while exercising and seeing the countryside.

When our older son Ray was 2 and our youngest son Joey was two months old, we purchased a bicycle trailer. Over the years we have worn out two sets of tires.

Our early long distance biking was done on bicycle trails. By age four, Ray had a small one-speed bike and could ride 10 to 15 miles a day.

When Joey got too big for the trailer, we did short rides until both boys were large enough to ride 18-speed mountain bikes with slick road tires. We were on the road again.

Our bicycling took an exciting turn when we completed our first BWUB, Bike With Us to Bayfield ride. We took our first five-day ride with a group of friends from Spooner to Bayfield and back. Our friends, who also have small children, brought a sag wagon (this is a support vehicle that will carry anyone who is unable to ride the daily distance).

  Each day we rode 65 to 80 miles. The following year Ray rode the entire ride, rain or shine; and the year after that, Joey did the same. This was a terrific accomplishment at such a young age.

Our family biking took another big leap when we bought tandem bikes four years ago. This was probably the best investment of our family biking career.

We highly recommend tandems to families seriously interested in biking. We have also used them for trips without our children.

Our first trip on the tandems was a five day camping trip in Door County. We purchased two sets of panniers and off we went. It was a blast. You can't see Door County in a car as we did on bikes.

Other trips included GRABAAWR, a week-long tour along the Wisconsin River and two summers of week-long trips through Indiana.

Our next big purchase will be foldable bikes. We would like to be able to fly off somewhere, taking our bikes to our destination without renting a car.

"Just keep biking is our advice!" Make it fun with plenty of stops, good food and interesting experiences. Your children will learn to love biking and make it a part of their lives.