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Home > Tips and advice > Advice for parents

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Advice for parents

Many people worry about safety when cycling with small children. This page contains lots of advice on cycling with children. If you can't find the answer to your concerns on this page ask Cycle Shrewsbury.

Take the whole family

Cycling with your children is great fun for all the family. There's no need to leave little ones at home, as there is a great range of products available which allow you to cycle with young children. You can choose from the following options:

• Baby seats - fixed to an adult's bike, allows you to take your child with you on even the longest of journeys
• Tag-along or trailer bikes - a "half bike" which attaches to an adults bike allowing a child to be towed. They can pedal whenever they want to help out, or freewheel and enjoy the ride!
• Trailers - make great taxis for small kids! Whether you are riding for leisure or doing the school run, there's space for up to 2 kids in the back, protected from the elements and carried in comfort.
• Towbars - convert a standard child bicycle into a tag-along bike.

For more information about these items and advice on how to chose which is suitable for you child visit our buying a bike page.

Choosing a bike for your child

Selecting the right type and size of bike for your child is very important. Look at our buying a bike page for advice on how to choose a bike for your child

Teaching your child to ride a bike

Bikeability training

If you do not feel confident teaching your child to cycle or you need some help cycling yourself, sign up for one of cycle training courses. We run courses for adults and children of all abilities and also courses that you can take as a family. It's best for children to get some cycle skills training before they start cycling on the road. Find out more about cycle training.

Stabilisers off

Download our Sustrans Bike It handy print out guide with instructions on how to help you child learn to ride without stabilisers. 

Balancing:

Here are 3 different ways to help a child to balance:

• Training wheels ("stabilisers") - When children are used to pedalling, steering and braking, raise the training wheels slightly, a bit at a time. Balance comes with practice!
• The undersized bike - Lower the saddle so they have both feet flat on the ground and the knees slightly bent. Practise balance by coasting along (children can put their feet down to stop a fall), then try pedalling. Gradually adjust the saddle to the correct position. Scooters (and bikes with pedals removed) can also help your child to balance.
• Running - Choose a wide safe flat space. Hold your child by the shoulders and run along behind. Don't hold the handlebars, or saddle and don't steer.

Mastering riding

After balancing, the next step is to practise:

• pedalling
• riding in a straight line
• starting (looking over the shoulder to check for traffic)
• slowing down, stopping, and emergency stop
• signalling, turning left and right at junctions

Riding on the road:

• Know your Highway Code and start by cycling on roads with light traffic.
• Watch out for turning vehicles (particularly near driveways and side roads), parked cars (give them a wide berth and watch out for doors opening) and pedestrians.
• Try to cycle approximately one metre away from the kerb. When riding with children and only one adult, it's best if the child leads and the adult cycles a bike length or half a bike length behind. In larger groups, try to keep close together, ideally with an adult in front and at the back of the group.

Where to ride with children

Check out our family friendly rides page for ideas of good places to ride with young children.

Further information

Most of the information in the page is contained in our handy print out guide to getting started riding with children.

Sustrans also produces an excellent guide to cycling with children which is available on their website.