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RE: [ST] Giving your kids rides



Eric,

My son (who is will be 14 on Halloween) started riding with me at age 8. My
suggestion is to consider the following:

The child's feet reach the passenger footrests.
Your step-daughter should be able to hold on to you tightly.
The child should have proper fitting full coverage helmet, plus protective
gloves, pants, jacket, and over-the-ankle leather boots.

Once you have all this squared away, be sure your passenger is WIDE AWAKE,
as kids that age (believe it or not) can easily and quickly nod off even on
the back of a bike. Be as smooth as possible on everything, and keep the
rides under 15 minutes to start. When you dismount, talk about the
experience.

Recently, there was a really good article written in (US) Motorcycle
Consumer News by my good friend Ken Condon. He goes over all these issues,
and gives some good sources for things like small-sized protective gear,
plus the Buddy Belt and other "passenger retention aids".

It's not so much an age thing, it's more about the child's stage of physical
development. I do know that riding with my son has proved to be a very
strong bonding agent, we've ridden probably 12,000 of the 42,000 miles on my
bike together. We've ridden all over New England and into Canada, and shared
a LOT of great experiences together in motorcycling. It's been well worth
the time.

Ken Mitchell
'00 RS
Spencer MA USA

- -----Original Message-----
From: Eric Mann
Subject: [ST] Giving your kids rides


As a "new" dad (wife had a kid from a previous marriage), I am wondering at
what age it is OK for the kids to ride on the bike with you?  If you have
kids and they ride with you, at what age did you start that?

The daughter is 6 years old right now.  Just wondering if that is too young
or not.<<



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