Cycling UK Forum

I'm planning a cycle tour with some chums - one of the party is a football-mad 10 year old who is an occasional cyclist - what do folk think is a reasonable daily mileage for such a creature?

It's really hard to say without cycling with the child. If it were my child, I'd build up the mileage gradually. If I were touring without the opportunity to do that, I'd try to avoid definite desitnations, and just see how he got on. If that's also not possible, I might do something like 10 miles the first day, 15 the second, 20 the third and increase that way to a maximum of 30 miles per day.

Have you asked his parents? A 10 year old is probably almost as capable of doing long miles as a adult, if he has built up to it. Where a 10 year old is likely to struggle is getting fed up with cycling all day. Most kids need to be able to do other stuff, as well. But it also depends upon his determination and interest. If he really, really wants to come along in face of all odds, he's likely to do what he needs to to go along. If he's not so keen, he's more likely to struggle. His parents are probably better placed to judge that sort of things.

I've known kids his age to do 50 miles per day, but they had trained in advance, and children as young as 11 have completed LEJoG in 22 days.

Cheers Mr V - I don't have any of these creatures myself and can't remember back that far!
I do remember going miles on my 5 speed racer but I'd have been 15+, 'cos I got it for finishing my O levels (note I say finishing not doing well at...)

simonineaston wrote:I'm planning a cycle tour with some chums - one of the party is a football-mad 10 year old who is an occasional cyclist - what do folk think is a reasonable daily mileage for such a creature?

is it camping and is the 10yr old carrying his own gear? is he carrying his own gear if it's Credit card touring? is it going to be hilly?

this will make a big difference even if the kid was a regular rider.

It depends hugely on the terrain and his bike, but my son was happily riding 25 at that age.

However, it's a different way to how adults ride - it was four legs with rest, exploration and play in between. Probably the biggest necessity is regular feeding, with snacks at each of the stops (and one of them lunch).

Yes, he will probably eat his own weight in food each day.

As what has mostly been said, at that age my son was still touring on a tandem, so was not always contributing a lot to the power. Around that time we toured the Black Forest, but always tried to add some interest...
But then he had been touring since he was a few weeks old and ante-natally as well.

Youngsters of that age tend to have bursts of energy and then die... then will burst off again. So much depends on his interest, experience, how much he will be carrying and type of touring; camping or B&B. If he is not used to camping I would not take him on a long trip, or ensure there is a mixture of camping and B&B, camping can be tiring in it's own right, all the jobs needed to be done on the campsite etc.

You really have to know the child. And, just like an adult, what you might do on a one-off basis on just one day is likely more extreme than what you can do or tolerate day after day on a tour. So, fr’instance, my daughter’s longest day at age 7 was about 60km. This year, at 8, she came on an 8-day cycle tour, on a 20” wheel Islabike, 7 riding days, and we rode about 50km on riding days. I confess I started out with much greater ambition, thinking we might ride up to 70km, given she had done up to 60km a year younger, but day 1 quickly taught me that was wrong. To make it a holiday for her, we usually had at least 2 significant entertainments during the day, though one could be at one end of the ride. Day off in the middle. She said she very much enjoyed the holiday. But this is her nature as a child. There was the occasional strop on the way, but then that’s normal whatever you do with her. We know much older children, even those brought up in “cycling families” who, because of the nature of the child, this would be intolerable for them. Netherlands was a really great place for a child’s first cycle tour, things are close enough together to achieve all this.

Yes. All three of my children love their bikes, but the middle one doesn't like more than three or four miles (he's 8 ); the oldest will go further. If I pushed them I'd just put them off.

We used to have two tricks....

First was short distances with breaks (Play grounds, ice cream, something to see) so the cycling was short with a rest, then more cycling. Enables more miles... Sustrans routes can be good for this
Second was to take the train out and then cycle back along the train route. With a local stopping service we were never more than a couple of miles from an escape route if things went wrong.

There is an article in Norwegian about cycling around Europe with 11 children. It is a family with 8 children, plus nieces and nephews. The children range in age from 10 months to 16 years. http://www.vg.no/sport/sykkel/sykler-eu ... /23475036/ You can stick it in a translator, if your browser doesn't do that. They've gone more than 6000 kilometres (Norwegian mil = 10 kilometres).

I was amused by (translated)
Q: How do you motivate eight children to keep going?
A: Ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream.

There's a book titled '20 miles per cookie' or something very similar about a family cycling tour which included young children

Doing the Way of the Roses, some years ago, my 10 year old daughter was fine with about 35 miles a day, carrying two small panniers on her rack. She was riding a Islabikes Luath 700c touring style bike, ideal for the job. We kept morale up with nice café stops and "as many cakes as you can eat". In the evenings we had pub food. We all enjoyed it.

swing em around by their ankles, you should get one about 15 feet.

I would look at it from the child's perspective and tailor the trip around him/her. I would find out what interests they have and fit those into the riding so that the cycling becomes a way of getting to the next interesting thing rather than an end in itself and as other folk have suggested, gave a loose plan that is adaptable to allow for changing energy levels and weather