At what age did your kids get into biking?

Ours were in trailer from a year old.
They progressed through tag along to own bikes.
We've always ridden for fun, I've never kept track of distances or days ridden.
For me they had to want to go, fun was the motivator for them. This meant my riding choices took a back seat, and thier ideas and choices took precedent.
Two are very keen MTB riders, one a mellow road/tour rider. They're now 18,20 and 21yrs old.
Similar applies to hillwalking and canoeing, our other sports.

Edit: thread needs pics.
Where it started:
https://flic.kr/p/sbNwo

Where it's at now (10th in Morzine chainless DH)
https://flic.kr/p/2oVqySM

All kids are different. I loved bikes as a kid but was a ball sport team player. My kids are way more into bikes than I was and have shown virtually no interest in ball sports.

My eldest had to be weaned off his trike because he was refusing to walk. I’ve videos of him drifting through the kitchen.
Both lads took to proper bikes young and as we always went out together they have never been towed.
By four we were doing tame trails up to 10km.
By six the youngest could manage 25km and decent elevation.
They’re sending big jumps now too aged 9 and 12.
I built a table top and a big berm in the garden/driveway and they would session it for hours.
Today i raced my 12 year old on a dh flow track and he kept up with me…

But the kids that live near the tracks are another level again.

We only ride once a weekend properly and do one fun coaching session a week - they swim in the week too.

Jack Moir gives kids some great advice, saying they should only ride for fun because if they’re any good they will have plenty of time to train when they’re older.

9 year old who thinks he’s Michael Jordan.

Unfortunately you can't make your kids get into mountain biking! Just because we love it doesn't mean our offspring will.

Give them opportunities to go biking and make it fun. Also give them chance to do lots of other activities and hopefully they will find something they are passionate about.

My eldest took a while to overcome the difficulty of a pedal bike but when he did it was brilliant. Then he started getting more adventurous and kept falling off on concrete while turning, ie skidding out on dusty or wet patches. Now prefers computer games rarely rides at all 😒

Ours 2 girls were from an early age. We were lucky as they were always out on the bikes with or with out us. We never took any notice of time and distance as it was always about fun

They are very competitive with each other and always egging each other on.

Youngest took if further and competing allowed her and us to ride in some amazing places.

Aged 28 and 25 they are still out on a regular basis.

My best rides are when we are chasing each other down the trails

Maybe the real question I should be asking is how do I make them want to be mountainbiking gods of their own accord

Totally different IMHO to the questions on "how far".
Pre 5-6 their liver isn't big enough to hold enough glycogen so they need to be fed and such... mine had zero interest to 5... 2nd or 3rd ride we did 10 miles nearly flat with the intention of him being picked up by his mother.. he rode back

By 7-8 he was doing XC races and quite happy to do a full day somewhere like Cymcarn and do both reds... or both sides of Afan in a day... then he got into DH and had bad experiences in XC (punished for missing an XC race because he had a DH race the same day)

From 9 on I'd take him on group rides and he'd not be the last going up by a large margin and first down

My boys were never interested but the girls were. Girls both started to get into it around about 7 but stopped when lock down came in so 9 and 13. Not managed to persuade either to try again

I echo the make it fun as opposed to we are doing this specific 20k ride. My daughter has been riding since she could walk and from about 5 / 6 she was doing some pretty decent distances, 20 - 30 miles with more mellow elevation. She’s nine now and comfortable doing things like the red at Llandegla then coming home and wanting to jump on the bike again to go play basketball, so she is a long way from pushing herself.

I give her a lot of control of rides which works well for her motivation; she has planned all the rides over the last few days, which included Llandegla, XC routes, technical trails and our local jump park. It’s also cool if she doesn’t want to ride, whatever is going to be fun really! 🙂

Especially when she was younger, we aimed for specific activities on route, rope swings, trees to climb, cafes etc and still do that a bit now although the activity is more let’s head to the jumps! It won’t be long and she will be crucifying me on the climbs…

Our eldest used various kinds of balance bike from 18 months up to age 4, then an Early Rider belter for a year or so, followed by an Islabike Beinn 20 for 4 years:

Now (aged 10, nearly 11) he has a Whyte 405:

He’s not one for big days out on the fells (for the time being, at least), but prefers built trails. We go to Hamsterley most weekends, and on most of the reds and blacks he’s becoming very confident and fast (I never need to stop and wait any more for him to catch up). I’ve always let him lead on what kind of riding he wants to do, and I think that’s paid off in his enjoyment of riding. We often see riders on Descend Hamsterley and he is itching to get a full suss so he can have a go. My youngest OTOH (just 8) loves cycling but hates hills so we spend most of our rides on the blues, but that’s cool because he has a nice time.

I was also determined I wouldn’t force them into riding. Both learnt to ride late (6 & 5).

2014 we went to Glentress on holiday, they were 11 & 6, 2015 went to Kirroughtree, both were keen and we did a bit more, but then their other interests took over at weekends and the chance was lost.

Love going out for a pootle with them when we can fit it in, happy to support them doing the things they'd sooner do though.

Our two (now 15 and 13) were happily doing gentle 20 mile old railway line pootles at 8, also took them to Swinley and Bedgbury fairly regularly on their Frogs, and managed some pre COVID easy ski-lift rides in Les Gets and Briancon.

Moving from an 8kg Frog to a 12kg small HT seemed to coincide with a loss of interest..

Now they both enjoy Kendo every Sunday and occasionally compete in the SE, but are indifferent to bikes (and most sport in general), although will enjoy themselves if I can cajole them outside. We've managed to do some easy touring and the odd day out recently and are heading to the Alps again next week, although I suspect I'll struggle to get them out more than a couple of times on two wheels, they seem to prefer hiking given the choice.

I'm a little envious of those with keen cyclist offspring, although now I do enjoy my time escaping from family routine when out cycling on my own or with mates.

Best of luck!

Also worth showing them entertaining videos that make it fun... Danny Macaskill, Joe Barnes (esp Joe and Bo videos,) Fabio Wibmer etc

Definitely.
Kids especially like riding with other kids of course, so if you can find a crew that works it helps. Also, our local club has paid to train a few of us  as skills coaches and we have a thriving kids group now. All focused on skills and not competing with others.

I’ve been trying to gently persuade my lad (nine next month) into riding for years. He’s never shown that much interest until this year when I took him to Cannock to try the short blue “Perry’s Trail”. He absolutely loved it and knocked out three laps back to back. Now circa 6 months later he can do 95% of Follow the Dog without a foot down (including bits that have adults off and walking). We’ve been to Glentress, Nant-yr-Arian, Coed-y-Brenin, Llandegla and most recently Bikepark Wales. He’s getting fitter/stronger every ride and does seem to have a knack for line choice. I’ve been surprised how much I enjoy just tootling along at his pace, just brilliant.

24  was her start to riding  prior to that   her idea of exercise had been  a walk to the book case to change book . It started with station commute now rides track and road . Don't give up hope but never pressure!

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I've got a ten year old who when I drag him away from Xbox /tablet enjoys it as long as I tailer the route to avoid big climbs. We've recently moved to new Zealand so get to ride Rotorua where they have a pretty good shuttle service to get you up the hill . With him it's all about patience, going at his pace and not trying to coach him too much and trying to keep it fun . He does basketball and parkour as well so I just try and encourage whatever it is he's into .

My 5 year old loves riding his bike and is always up for a trip to the local velodrome where they have a smaller sized pump track but he also knows he'll probably get an ice cream at the cafe . I don't really do longer rides with him as he just loves riding round the pump track and I've got a BMX so take that and ride round with him . He's a completely different character to his big brother and just goes at stuff whereas his big brother needs to build up to things and needs some help with his confidence but they both enjoy the pump track .

You know your kids best but the one thing I've definitely been guilty off is going out for too long and it turns into something not fun anymore, sometimes 45 mins is enough 😁 and haribo , lots of haribo.

I’ve been surprised how much I enjoy just tootling along at his pace, just brilliant.

Definitely this!

Thanks for all the above. He has enjoyed a pump track so I think I'll take them both to that. I think a good point is, as has been said, to make it fun. I think I will need to put my riding on the back burner as well.

Taking my 9 month old on the bike seat to the pub for beer and chips later.  She's rubbish at carrying pints though.

Loves it over short distances and we did some nice stuff in France a few weeks back.