Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

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CyclingReferee
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Joined: 15 Oct 2021, 9:44am

Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by CyclingReferee »

Morning all,

I'm after a bit of advice

What would you say is a sensible ratio of distance to climbing to expect from 12-16 year old riders? E.g for every 10 miles covered what would be easy/medium/hard rates of climbing?

Last summer I led a charity ride along the Flitch Way in Essex with students from the school I work at. That was 33 miles and about 600ft of climbing. It went well but some really struggled to keep the pace (about 7.5mph so not blistering)

For 2022 I'm planning on doing 3 rides of increasing difficulty with the longest being 36 miles and around 1600ft of climbing. Is this a bad idea?!

Thanks
freeflow
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by freeflow »

If the riders are not regular bike riders and lack the understanding of how to use gears and spin up hills, then I'd say you are guilty of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on them.
Jdsk
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by Jdsk »

Welcome.

What are your objectives for the day?

I'd place leaving them wanting another day out as top. What did they say after last year's, please?

Thanks

Jonathan
Vorpal
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by Vorpal »

What is sensible depends more on what they are used to than age. To that end, every day cycling is possibly at least as important as the other trips you plan. Do they cycle independently? To & from school? If not, it may be worth talking to them about it. Is there an opportunity to start a bike bus, or organise some rides to & from school?

In any group there will be disparity in capability, and likely that no amount of preparation will prevent 1 or 2 youngsters from struggling. Do they have decent bikes? Did some struggle last time because of heavy bikes or too-high gearing?

Assume that one or two will walk up the steepest hills, leave the time to allow that, and make sure they are aware there is no shame in doing so (and the others don't tease them about it).

I've known younger kids to ride further with little or no preparation. Young people are pretty flexible with that sort of thing, as long as they want to do it. IMO 7.5 mph is a pretty good pace for a group of youngsters & it may be worth considering if the pace should be a little slower to allow the slowest to keep up comfortably. My 12 year old is happy to ride that far, but I plan about 6 mph for days out with him, and plenty of breaks. So, for 36 miles, I'd plan 7 - 8 hours. That's 6 - 7 mph, 1 hour for lunch, & three 20 minute breaks). I also try to include something to do/see that my son likes.

How many are likely to go & do you have any other adults going/helping? You may need extra break time

If you've done this before, you have kit lists, risk assessments, etc?
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CyclingReferee
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by CyclingReferee »

Thanks all for your thoughts, keep 'em coming. Vorpal it's like you were on the ride, everything you've mentioned came up!

This past July 2021 it was an open event, any student could sign up with a parent signature that said they felt able to complete the ride. We had to get 2 of the 32 picked up because of excessive fatigue/injury at the half way point.

We did the 33 miles last year and it was exactly as you say, some of the youngest riders were the fastest and most capable. However because of that disparity we did end up with lots of stopping to let people catch up. We had everything from Talon 29ers to a few on 24" wheels (Year 7s) but that was no indicator of ability. I did a series of "wheely useful wednesday" emails with guidance on preparation which also got good feedback - food, bike check, how to carry things etc.

Jdsk - I did a survey monkey after the event and feedback - right length, took a bit too long but was ok (got a day off school!), would do it again, perhaps some different ride lengths of groupings to account for speed and distance difference (think that was a teacher colleague).

Like you say Freewheel - some of them were suffering at the end but they were all very proud of themselves and they said they would do something like it again.

Plan for this year is:
3 rides of increasing length/difficulty - 12 miles, 21 miles and then 36 miles.
To take part in the longest ride (which will probably be on a school day) the riders must have completed one of the shorter rides and shown they are capable enough to keep up and complete it safely as well as having a suitable bike for it.

Thanks again for your ideas all.
hamster
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by hamster »

A lot also depends on the bikes - heavy pseudo-MTBs with ghastly cheap tyres and too-tall gears are not going to help.
Stradageek
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by Stradageek »

With our children at 11 and 13yrs old we cycled from Northampton the Nottingham, stayed two nights with my sister then cycled back.

We did each journey over two days with a B&B stop at Oakham, so it was a bit of a meandering country ride. I've done the direct route in a single morning. There were lots of hills (Rutland and in/out of the Vale of Belvoir) but we stopped for a good long pub lunch each day.

The kids had cheap racing bikes and we carried all the luggage. They didn't do any practice/fitness training but they were confident cyclists who regularly used their bikes around town.

They still talk about it being the best family holiday we ever had :D
thirdcrank
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by thirdcrank »

I don't think anybody has mentioned setting off too quickly, but if sixteen year olds are suffering after 30 miles I fancy that's what's happened. I don't know how you prevent that with a group of enthusiastic teens without a lot of experienced - forceful - adults, but I think that's it. The other things mentioned like correct use of gears and bike weight are important, but setting of like the clappers is guaranteed to exhaust anybody.
Stradageek
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by Stradageek »

I was amazed at a 50 mile charity ride in Nottingham to be accompanied for most of the distance by a group of teenagers on BMX bikes who stunted and wheelied their way around the entire route.

I was so impressed I promised them each a 99 ice cream if they made it to the end - and I paid up :D
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foxyrider
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by foxyrider »

When i was in secodary school we had a school wide sponsored walk, everyone was expected to take part. The distance was 10 miles and it was a scorching summer day, there were a few blisters and 99% completed the course. Prior to that my scout troop did a night hike, once again a similar age range, everyone completed the 24 miles. I know they weren't cycling but cycling is much less fatigueing, i regularly see families with far younger children riding 10/12 mile routes, not quickly but they do it and as a just teen, day rides of 20/30 miles in the summer hols were not uncommon even before i started taking riding more seriously.

Youngsters are happy to ride/walk all day up to the point an adult tells them its hard, a long way, beyond them. So what if some are slower or need to stop more often or walk up hills, if they get the message that they can do it, they will have a jolly good try to do it. Do your routes have a destination? A target does wonders for morale, a long (!) loop can be soul destroying and if you pick somewhere like a castle or windmill it can provide focus and even have some educational value.
Convention? what's that then?
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Jdsk
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by Jdsk »

foxyrider wrote: 12 Feb 2022, 9:03pmSo what if some are slower or need to stop more often or walk up hills, if they get the message that they can do it, they will have a jolly good try to do it. Do your routes have a destination? A target does wonders for morale, a long (!) loop can be soul destroying and if you pick somewhere like a castle or windmill it can provide focus and even have some educational value.
Good advice, for both cycling and walking.

Especially for round trips!

Jonathan

PS: I've always been impressed with walking guides who never give the slightest hint that they'd be going twice as fast if I wasn't there.
mumbojumbo
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by mumbojumbo »

Choose a circular route so you can abort a resonable distance from base.Build up gradually.
Blondie
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Re: Long rides with 12-16 yr olds

Post by Blondie »

Really depends on the child. I had a 9 year old ride one of my audaxes which was 110km (70 miles) and 1000m (3300ft) of climbing.

I think by offering the 3 distances you’ll be able to find something for each pupil. What I would say is don’t make the shorter rides sound like the pupils undertaking them are any less than pupils tackling the longer ones. It should be a little bit about personal challenge and hopefully some enjoyment and not comparison.

Make sure the last child back gets as much of a well done as the first.

Will each route have a back marker who stays behind the slowest on each route? With distance the first aim is to complete it, and in future an aim might be to go a bit quicker.

Thinking about the routes, can you work out some figure of 8 loops or maybe three different loops and each pupil has the choice to doing one, two, or all three of the loops, returning to base between each loop?
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