Travelling with kids - The Guardian
Cycling tipsDea Birkett
Saturday April 9, 2005
The Guardian
When I wrote about cycling with kids a couple of weeks ago, many of you came up with your own methods. And having discovered what works best, you recommend investing in your own bikes and taking them with you.
Andy Harrison, who pedalled over 600 miles last year, has a bike purpose-built (family-bike.com) to carry a child between the handlebars (forward-facing with a small windscreen, or facing the rider) so you can chat to them as you go along. He also advises investing in puncture resistant tyres (schwalbetires.com).
The Casalotti family made a week-long cycling holiday in Norfolk with six-month-old Miles (cycling is one of the few active holidays that can accommodate kids of all ages). They rode a Danish Nihola tricycle, and put Miles in his car seat in the front box, clocking up 50 miles a day.
And although I mentioned tag-on trailers, Adrian Clancey says, for kids over five, a childback tandem for two is better (sjscycles.com/thorn); you can even get one for triplets.
Interesting that travelling tips usually come from mums, but when cycling is concerned, it's the dads who get in touch. Why's that?
· Share tips and queries on the Travelling with Kids Forum.
Urban young ride demand for bicycle innovation
FEATUREBy Lucas van Grinsven
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Marcel Bouw always regarded his four-person bicycle as an indulgence, until it was stolen.
"We had our third child and then at the same time our bicycle was stolen. We found it was essential to have one. I cannot bring my three children to day-care on a normal bicycle," he said.
Until recently, people such as Bouw could not buy a bicycle other than a straightforward two-wheeler which carries a maximum of two children, one behind the handlebars and one on the back. It is a delicate and not very safe balancing act.
In the past few years a class of young designers and welders emerged in countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark to address the inner-city transport needs of families and companies.
Their designs are taking congested cities by storm.
Riding the streets of Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Stockholm are thousands of radically new push-bikes, ranging from tricycles for day-care centres which carry eight children and low-seater bicycles with passenger-carrying trunks in front, to robust transport bikes with large containers for delivery boys. Folding bikes and retro army bikes can be spotted everywhere.
VeloVision April 2004 Issue 14
SPEZI 2004Peter Eland reports from the ninth Special Bike Show, or SPEZI, which took place in Germersheim, Germany, at the end of April.