Tag Archives: family fun bike memories

Bike Pic, Aug 29, growing confidence of a young rider!

Looking through the HaveFunBiking bike pic archives, we found this young biker dude confident that he would soon be able to get out and shred some trails.

So, get into the zone when continuing your time outdoors and your #NextBikeAdventure. View all the great ideas and bike destinations in the latest Iowa or Minnesota Bike/Hike Guide. Then plan your next outing with family and friends, and check out more stories at Let’s Do MN.

Thanks for viewing our latest bike pic

Now rolling through our 19th year as a bike tourism media, enjoy! As we pedal forward, we aim to encourage more people to bike and have fun while highlighting all the unforgettable places you can ride. As we continue to showcase more places to have fun, we hope the photos we shoot are worth a grin. Enjoy the information and stories we have posted as you scroll through.

Do you have a fun bicycle-related photo of yourself or someone you may know we should post? If so, please send your picture(s) to [email protected]. Please Include a brief caption for the image, who shot it, and where. Photo(s) sent to us should be a minimum of 1,000 pixels wide to be considered. You will receive photo credit and acknowledgment on Facebook and Instagram if we use your photo.

As we continue encouraging more people to bike, please view our Destination section at HaveFunBiking.com for your #NextBikeAdventure. Also, check out the MN Bike Guide, now mobile-friendly, as we enter our 14th year of producing this handy information booklet full of maps.

Bookmark HaveFunBiking.com on your cell phone and find your next adventure at your fingertips! Please share our pics with your friends, and don’t forget to smile. With one of our cameras ready to document your next cameo appearance while you are riding and having fun, we may be around the corner. You could be in one of our next Pic of the Day.

Have a great day with a safe and memorable summer!

Its a picture perfect day and ice cream smiles Sunday is around the world. Here in Minnesota, at an Opens Street Minneapolis Event, these young bikers are a bit envious of each others flavor choices.

Bike Pic June 11, ice cream smiles Sunday around the world

In this ice cream smiles Sunday bike pic, we captured a group of young biker dudes a bit envious of each other’s flavor choices.

So, get into the zone when continuing your time outdoors and your #NextBikeAdventure. View all the great ideas and bike destinations in the latest Iowa or Minnesota Bike/Hike Guide. Then plan your next outing with family and friends, and check out more stories at Let’s Do MN.

Thanks for viewing our latest bike pic

Now rolling through our 19th year as a bike tourism media, enjoy! As we pedal forward, we aim to encourage more people to bike and have fun while highlighting all the unforgettable places you can ride. As we continue to showcase more places to have fun, we hope the photos we shoot are worth a grin. Enjoy the information and stories we have posted as you scroll through.

Do you have a fun bicycle-related photo of yourself or someone you may know we should post? If so, please send your picture(s) to [email protected]. Please Include a brief caption for the image, who shot it, and where. Photo(s) sent to us should be a minimum of 1,000 pixels wide to be considered. If we use your photo, you will receive photo credit and acknowledgment on Facebook and Instagram.

As we continue encouraging more people to bike, please view our Destination section at HaveFunBiking.com for your #NextBikeAdventure. Also, check out the MN Bike Guide, now mobile-friendly, as we enter our 14th year of producing this handy information booklet full of maps.

Bookmark HaveFunBiking.com on your cell phone and find your next adventure at your fingertips! Please share our pics with your friends, and don’t forget to smile. With one of our cameras ready to document your next cameo appearance while you are riding and having fun, we may be around the corner. You could be in one of our next Pic of the Day.

Have a great day with a safe and memorable summer!

A film & music festival to test out your multi-day bike touring skills

The 17th Annual Square Lake Film & Music Festival is the perfect way to experience multi-day bike touring. Just north of Stillwater, MN. This unique, bike-friendly, outdoor festival is August 10-11,2019. Over the weekend, with your camping gear shuttled free, enjoy local music on the outdoor stage. Plus short film & animation sets inside their theater-barn. You will experience multi-day bike touring fun, with a new beat for your ride home.

Music on stage with complementing movie screen adds to the fun.

Experience multi-day bike touring fun

Great music will include performances by Saltee, The Owls and The Cactus Blossoms. This is a family-friendly festival! So, in between sets enjoy some of Minnesota’s best local locally-made independent short films on one of the two screens.

Bikers entering the festival.

How far is the ride?

The festival is located on a private hobby farm, just north of Stillwater and only a few miles past the Gateway Bike Trail. Facilitated rides depart from Minneapolis and St Paul. Overnight “camping” on the festival lawn is free. Along with complimentary sag wagon support to carry your gear out to the event and back. Morning yoga and sound meditation are also provided for free to campers on Sunday morning.
Facilitated rides leave from the Twin Cities the morning of the event, with meeting
spots, in Minneapolis at the Hub Bicycle Shop and Summit Brewery in St Paul.  The 30-mile ride out to the festival utilizes the scenic Gateway Trail to its endpoint at Pine Point Park in Stillwater.  From Pine Point, the festival grounds are three miles further. Peace Coffee will again provide sag wagons to haul bikers’ camping gear. Overnight “camping” on the large lawn is also provided for free.

The festivals first “star score”

In partnership with the Minnesota Astronomical Society, banjo/guitar player Mike Rosetto will be playing a music set specifically designed to be heard while star gazing at the festival.  Telescopes will be set up to project images of the stars over the festival onto a large movie screen in the event of clouds!

Stars over the festival onto a large movie screen

How much does the event cost?

Bikers who attend the festival receive half-price tickets when purchased in advance. Regular price tickets are $30 from now through July 10th and $35 after that for attendees arriving by car.  Bikers receive a steep discount – only $15 when tickets are purchased in advance.  Tickets sales are capped at 400, and of that, almost half are sold to bikers. So try multi-day bike touring and enjoy a music festival that will put a beat into your pedal stroke.
Balance bikes are sweeping the world as the best way to teach children to ride bikes. What is a balance bike and how does it work? Balance bikes are designed to teach kids the most difficult portion of riding – Balance.

Balance bikes are a great way for kids to adapt to a life of riding

by John Brown, HaveFunBiking.com

Balance bikes are sweeping the world as the best way to teach children to ride bikes. What is a balance bike and how does it work? Balance bikes look a lot like a normal bike with two wheels, frame, seat, and handlebars. What you won’t see on a balance bike a crank, chain or pedals. Balance bikes are designed to teach kids the most difficult portion of riding – Balance.

Balance bikes for fitness and fun

The best way to get kids excited about their balance bike is to make sure it fits them and it’s fun. To adjust the fit, start by loosening the seat and dropping it all the way down. Next, have your child stand over the bike and lift the saddle until it makes contact with their backside. Tighten the seat at that height. Once the seat height is set, adjust the handlebars to a comfortable position for your child. They should be able to reach out normally and hold the grips. If they look as if their arms are too high (this will fatigue them prematurely) lower the bars. Inversely, if the child is reaching too far down, raise them.

balance bike sizing

So once the bike is fit right, be sure to make it fun! In short, make sure the bike is what the child wants it to be. Stickers, colored tape, bags, bells or horns work great to customize your child’s balance bike for them.

Safety

A balance bike is a bike and should be treated as such. This means you want to practice in a flat safe area free of traffic, wear a helmet and be careful of obstacles.

Start out fun

Starting out on the balance bike can be intimidating for your kids. Try to keep it fun. Kids love motorcycle sounds and wheelies. In my 15 years working in a bike shop, I never once ran into a kid who didn’t like getting pushed around on a bike while making motorcycle noises. If you can add a wheelie to the mix, all the better. Even if the first rides aren’t very long, be sure to stop as soon as it’s not fun. 5 to 10-minute rides may seem short but are totally acceptable.

Support the child not the bike

While helping your child with their balance bike, remember that the goal is for your children to understand how to balance WITH the bike. This is different from balancing ON TOP of the bike. A great way to help this is to support the children by the shoulders rather than holding the seat and handlebars. If you support the child, they will learn to use the bike to help them balance. If you hold the bike stable, the kids have more trouble feeling what real bicycle balance is.

Pedals aren’t all bad

All our talk about balance makes it sound like pedals at the young age are a bad thing, That’s not the case. Bikes with training wheels or tricycles have a great place in teaching kids how to pedal. The action of pedaling forward is not as difficult to learn as balance, but the frustration of not being able to do it can hamper a child’s move from balance bike to pedal bike.

What age

Balance bikes come in many different sizes. The smallest sizes can accommodate kids as young as 18 months. Before picking a balance bike, have the child stand over it. You want some clearance between the child and the bike, and a comfortable distance from the seat to handlebars. Most Balance bikes will top out sizes for kids around 6.

Transitioning to a full-size bike

In a few stories, you will hear about the kid who got off his balance bike, mounted his new pedal bike, and pedaled away. It’s a great story, but not too common. Transitioning to a pedal bike takes a little effort. Start in a similar fashion to the balance bike – Fit and Fun. Adjust the pedal bike’s seat and handlebar. Next step is to explain how the bikes brakes work. With a balance bike kids can become accustomed to stopping by dragging their feet, so it’s important to show them how the pedal bike stops. Next step is to let them ride while supporting them by the shoulders and let them pedal around. Once they feel comfortable pedaling, you can let go. You will find they have almost no issues riding and the transition from balance to a pedal bike will happen within a day.

Make your bike a balance bike

After all this, you’re probably asking yourself “Why can’t I just pull the pedals of my child’s bike and use that as the balance bike?” The truth is, you can do that.

Pulling the pedals off a bike will give you a lot of the same benefits as a balance bike. The shortcomings of doing that are pedal bikes are wider than balance bikes and make it more difficult for the child to push off. Pedal bikes are also heavier than balance bikes. Pushing around the extra weight of a pedal bike can be difficult for smaller riders.

However, you choose to teach your kids to balance, keep it fun.