If you are planning some action packed family bike trips for the summer it is essential
to make sure that the whole family has the required bike safety equipment to ensure their safety. This is particularly important for children because they are less likely to be competent on their bike and more likely to fall off and hurt themselves. To ensure ultimate safety follow our simple guide to children's bike safety.
Cycling Helmets for All
All cyclists should wear a cycling helmet, your kids might think that they don't look cool but they are an essential piece of kit. You can fix most parts of your body without too much bother but your head is a totally different matter and it needs to be kept protected. You can buy some really exciting cycling helmets so there is no need to look uncool!
Making Light of the Situation
It can seem in the lighter months that bike lights are the last thing that you would need but like a car you need to make yourself well seen in the dark and in the bad weather it is important that if the weather takes a turn for the worse that you are clearly visible! So invest in some great bike lights for both the front and back of your children's bikes to make sure they can be seen from both the front and back. You can buy a vast range of different lights including battery and dynamo lights. A dynamo light is a light that is charged as you cycle about so would be best suited to older children because they are more likely to produce the level of energy needed.
A battery bike light is ideal for smaller cyclists so you can rest assured that they are going to be well lit even if they have spent a lot of time pushing their bike and stropping. The set up of bike lights is the same as other motor vehicles with a white light on the front and a red light on the back.
Cycling Gloves and Other Bike Accessories
Kids tend to fall off bikes more often and of course use their hands to break their fall so it makes sense for them to wear some cycling gloves. Not only do these gloves protect their hands from getting cut, they also offer some wrist support, which is great news because kids seem to break bones left right and centre!
It is really important to keep hydrated whilst on a cycle ride and this is even more important on a hot day when you are already losing a higher than average amount of water. Attaching a water bottle cage and taking a bottle on a bike ride would be the obvious thing to do.
With all of these safety measures in place you can have a really fun family trip, just remember to keep an eye on the smaller members of the family and don't take them somewhere that would be beyond their ability!