Apologies for the long title. Had our first family bike ride yesterday. Well not quiet as little one is only 4 months so we took it in turns to do 1.30 rides. We have a chariot trailer which will hopefully allow one of us to dive off down the good stuff while the other pulls the trailer round, not for a while though. Cannot really think of better way? Any ideas or does anyone have an alternative?
Unfortuantly we live in London so every ride begins with a drive. So yesterday took us about 6 hrs door to door, a bit long for the little one.
His and hers matching Crossers? Previously boring routes closer to home rendered entertaining by skinny tyres! Pulled our girls around on mine in the trailer - its quite hard work once they get bigger... Short blasts from your door, fitted in when you can are the way forward for the next few years i feel. Where are you in London?
In fulham. We are going to start with rides round richmond park in late summer. Think she will be big enough and strong enough for the trailer by then. Not massive fun though but nice in summer and we can stop for picnic etc. Cross bikes are out as we are trying to buy a house and i have been told four bikes between us enough! I am guessing if we want to get a good ride in we will just have to take turns. Bit sad as we have ridden together for the last 8 years.
No baby here - just two older kids (8 & 10), so maybe it doesn't apply to your situation... but...
We found that rides with the girls are just a nice way to pass the time with the family, and never really satisfy the need to actually 'ride'. This may change as they get older. If we do try and mix the two things then we head to a trail centre with a cafe, so that the girls get a couple of hours ride, and a couple of hours playing about and in the cafe. We fit our rides around this, swapping over at half time.
To be sure that we both still get rides in during the week we have switched to road bikes for quick blasts from the house (individually). To make sure that it actually happens, and so that each of us knows when we are needed to look after the kids / walk the dogs etc, we make a plan at the start of each week, so that we each get a couple of mornings (before work) and an evening, even if it is just an hour it all counts.
It has taken us a while a get the balance right, and you do have to make some compromises... getting up early, planning quick and easy meals for nights when one of you has bike time, riding alone alot of the time, but it means that you each get some time out and then can enjoy the family spins as a social event.
EDIT - Just read your post above - by using the morning / evening times alone, it means that (in theory) we are both still fit enough to enjoy a ride together when we get the chance.