Accessories	Bicycles	Parts	Specials	Tools

Search sheldonbrown.com Search WWW

Articles about Family Cycling
by Sheldon "Daddy" Brown

Life is not easy for the family with young children that is serious about cycling. There are several awkward years, when the children are to big for baby seats or even trailers, but too little to keep up with the adults on their own bikes. The ownership of a suitable tandem can make all the difference, and allow the family to maintain a continuous cycling tradition.

Kidbacks to Chartres

A description of a family tour by kidback tandem, when our children were 8 & 6.

Teaching Kids to Ride

One of the many tasks parents must undertake is teaching their children to ride bicycles. At every stage of the learning process, there are several possible approaches, and most parents will be unsure how to proceed. This article will try to cover the options and explain when to choose which.

This article focusses on only the most basic skills: pedaling, steering and balancing, that make it possible for a child to operate a bicycle. There is much more to teach and to learn about cycling than this, but that is beyond the scope of this particular article.

Trailer Cycles

This page is about the Adams Trail-a-Bike, which turns a conventional adult bicycle into a "kidback tandem", allowing a child to share in the cycling experience.

Home Built Tandems

For hard-core tinkerers

This article describes one way of building a tandem by grafting two solos together. The resulting tandem will not have the ride quality nor the reliability of a multi-thousand-dollar tandem from a tandem specialist builder. It will, however, be superior to many "serious" tandems of the 1970's and earlier.

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Glossary

For all cyclists.

An encyclopedic listing of bicycle lore, technical data and opinions.