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Tips for fat biking with children

If your family, like ours, welcomed a few new fat bikes over the holidays, it’s time to get outside and ride. Here are a few tips, and photos, from our recent fat biking fun:

Other tips

Keep it short – Don’t try to take a multi-hour trek your first time out. Start small – 30 minutes to an hour – so the kids can adapt to the new bikes, the new terrain and you can test equipment and clothing.

Keep them warm – Key to a successful date out in the cold. During yesterday’s trip, the temperatures hovered around 38 degrees (Fahrenheit). Our 10-year-old daughter wore several layers including a balaclava under her helmet, a wool bike jersey over a thermal undershirt and athletic top, mittens, two pairs of leggings, ski socks and winter boots. A pair of toe warmers and hand warmers ensured her extremities stayed toasty (the hand warmers ended up being unnecessary).

Capture the moments – I used a GoPro Hero 3+ mounted on the front of my bike in a waterproof case for most of these photos. Rather than capturing hours of video, I set the camera to take time-lapse photos throughout our ride. I ended up throwing away hundreds of pics, but it’s worth if for a few great shots (and I can focus on riding).