Nouvelles — biking with kids

We’ve known Martin since before the first Mac Ride child bike seat became public. We were still in the early stages of the invention when Martin reached out to support us through our Kickstarter program. When the Mac Ride bike seat finally came on the market, Martin was quick to get one. Martin moved back to Canada in September 2017 with his wife and children and immediately started getting out on the trail with his own Mac Ride seat. Clearly, the best things are worth waiting for as Martin raves about the Mac Ride seat so much that we have a permanent blush on our faces.

Want to learn more about Martin’s fascinating experience with the Mac Ride child bike seat? Read on to see how he’s passed on his love of the outdoors and tree-hugging to his little ones.

I love using Mac Ride on rolling bumps on packed dirt. That’s a perfect trail setup for my older daughter and me. She defines this as Rollercoaster Riding, and it is her definition of a “single trail.”

We get the most excitement from being outside in nature. We have ridden the urban network around Stanley Park, but as soon as the riding dynamics increase, the fun grows exponentially.

In the beginning, I was asking her to support me when we were climbing uphill to the trailhead. Her contribution was to squeeze my wrists and pretend to be working hard with some heavy breathing, copying me. Now that’s empathy!

Well, I have to say that my wife and I both have eBikes which make Mac Rides even more enjoyable because the radius of possible excursions has grown with the assist. We can take more things, and the rides can be longer. Last summer, we ended up having a picnic at the river, biking another 10k to have another picnic under a tree, playing ball, and then we biked to the forest for a third picnic. Those breaks are important to give the kids some relaxation time.

Helmets! I think that is a safety prerequisite, but the one really cool thing I always have is an action camera [like the main blog image].

This is the most beautiful no-brainer ever. Have not seen one child yet that did not like the experience. And I think I am now close to 20 Mac Rides that I basically “sold” to users. The amazing thing is that you can share the dynamics of the bike ride with your child.

First, make sure that you as a parent also like riding the trails and make sure that you rode a particular trail alone before you take your kid on it.

Later, explore the trail together when both are used to it. Of course, you can go and explore new stuff together safely.

Dress appropriately — it can get chilly for the kid on the Mac Ride kids bike seat. Better to over-layer a little bit. The cold is memorable and might interfere with the next ride.

That’s a longer and more philosophical question for me. I sense a fascinating and powerful energy when being in the forest. I would call it being close to Gaia.

Have you ever hugged a big tree and felt its temperature and listened to its sound? It gives me peace. I love the colour of light as it breaks through a canopy of trees. I love the smell of the soil and the sound of life. Happiness is not worth much if it’s not shared! And the joint experience of those beautiful things in nature with your little one is sharing in its purest form. Creating memories, feeling the adrenaline, and experiencing sympathy and meaning for nature together. I see lots of beautiful purpose in it.

If you want to follow along with Martin and his family on their many trail adventures, you can find him on Instagram. Ready to get this level of stoke and nature into your child's life? Shop online for your Mac Ride kids bike seat today.

We love to travel almost as much as we love to mountain bike. Almost. What’s even better is when we can combine both activities in one! We’ve definitely found that travelling with kids is a very different experience than when it was just the two of us — go figure. There are a few things we’ve found that helped us along the way to go from adventuring in our neighbourhood to adventuring as far as Costa Rica and Vietnam!

Yes, there’s the added expense of the kids’ tickets as well as extra food costs for extra little mouths. Thanks to services like Airbnb, it can still be very affordable to travel with kids. By renting a place with a kitchen, you can cook a lot of meals at home, which means familiar foods for the little ones. Not to mention, there are plenty of inexpensive countries out there just begging to be explored that are still safe for kids. Plus, we found that by packing the Mac Ride kids bike seat on our trip, we could save money on transportation and activities.

Travelling is exhausting for the best of us. Long days in airports, language gaps, and time changes are some of the most difficult obstacles we’ve faced with our kids in tow. We’ve found that not planning too many things in a single day was key. If planning is your thing, though, kids can be great at helping to pick out activities for specific days, especially if they’re each in charge of their own day. When you’re all tired and exhausted, instead of pushing through, a family nap could be the only adventure needed on vacation that day. For us, the biggest help with avoiding meltdowns from both adults and kids was maintaining a good routine even on vacation. Usual mealtimes and bedtimes are a must. When it came to long travel days, we made sure to have plenty of games and activities for the kids to help keep them occupied.

We were worried that there may not be enough to do with the kids everywhere we went. Some activities just aren’t suitable for little ones. Luckily, when it comes to adventure travel, a lot of activities are perfect for families with younger kids. Snorkelling, hiking, and biking are amazing activities for kids of all ages. We particularly liked biking to see volcanoes while in Costa Rica. Kids biking is something we’ve seen in many countries, and it was lots of fun for our kids to come along for the ride, seeing all the children biking in their own ways in new places.

There’s always danger when going to a new place. Food sickness and crime come to our mind when we think of some of the risks we worried about. Worrying about the safety of your kids in an unfamiliar place is enough to scare even the bravest parent! We tend to travel to safer places that are a little more expensive while still being cheaper in comparison to some of the most popular family-friendly destinations. We found that it was important for us to feel comfortable so that, by extension, our children would feel comfortable, too. We decided never to go somewhere that would have made us too nervous or on edge.

This is the biggest struggle we have faced — limiting the number of toys or special items our kids want to bring. Getting toddlers and young kids packed for vacation is like playing Tetris blindfolded. You can start by setting limits on how many toys or special items can be packed. Having a “must-have” list for your child is a great idea, too. That way, they can see how much room they have left over for their toys and special items they want to bring. It’s almost guaranteed that you’re going to have some of their stuff in your bags. And by some, we mean a lot. But as long as you keep this in mind, you can save a little space among the essentials for your kids’ extras!

We aren't the only family travelling with our kids, either! We’ve been lucky enough to see other families jet setting off to adventurous new places for a vacation with their kids. @GetOutThereAustralia and @Jonasstefans are just two of the many families we get to watch exploring the globe with their little adventurers in tow every day.

We’ve been lucky enough to travel with our kids to near and far destinations, and every time, we bring the Mac Ride kids bike seat along. Thanks to its small size and ability to fold up, the seat is the perfect adventure activity for any vacation. The kids feel much safer with this familiar method of transportation, and now, we’re able to explore new and unseen trails and places. This touch of home has helped our kids to feel more comfortable in unfamiliar places.

So, how do you adventure travel with your kids?

We’re so grateful to have such a strong community out there on the trails using our seat. One such family, who’s been there from the beginning, is @GetOutThereAustralia. This adventurous family is made up of Lynn (mom), Michael (dad) and Zachary — the little shredder himself.

This intrepid group was also one of the original backers of the crowdfunding project and have been out on the trails with their Mac Ride seat since May 2016. Zachary was only two years old when he climbed up onto his parent's bike to start adventuring. Now, the family is travelling across Australia in their caravan and on their mountain bikes. We’re sure they’re enjoying every moment of their adventures, and we love to follow along! But you don’t have to take our word for it. Lynn was kind enough to let us know first-hand about some of their triumphs, tales, and bumps in the trail.

Our most recent Mac Ride adventure has us riding 30 km along the Australian coastline, ending up in a little town called Goolwa where we caught a steam engine trail back to our starting point.

We always get quite a lot of attention with the Mac Ride when exploring various towns, and we are always happy to chat and share our praise for the bike seat. Influencing other families to get out and explore is something we enjoy, and the Mac Ride bike seat certainly helps to create epic adventures!

It is always so much fun to hear Zachary squeal with excitement when we ride over little jumps, berms or technical trail features. He has never turned down an opportunity to come for a ride with us, and it has meant that my husband and I still get to ride together, which is something we did a lot of before having a child. Being able to get out on our bikes together helped a lot with my recovery from postpartum depression, and I cannot thank Ashley and the Mac Ride creators enough for making such an awesome, adventure-filled child’s bike seat.

We always carry an extra sweater in a backpack in case Zac gets cold while riding. We are always prepared with snacks, water, the Trailforks app to help prevent getting lost, and a sense of adventure. We also do a bit of geocaching at times which gives Zachary a bit of a break during longer rides while he hunts for 'treasure.'

We honestly couldn't believe how easy the seat was to get onto the bike. We were also impressed that it didn't rub against our carbon frames like some other seats. Zachary took to it straight away and had no issues getting comfortable with it all. Our legs had to get used to pushing around a bit of extra weight, but since we have to ride slower with him on it, it still gives us a decent workout despite the slower speed.

This family sure knows how to make memories, and getting families to go out and explore is something we enjoy, too! Zachary is growing up with a sense of the world, and his capabilities and the stories he’ll have are going to be pretty cool! If you want to follow the adventures of GetOutThereAustralia, you can find them on Facebook and Instagram.

Have a story about your experience with Mac Ride? Want to tell us about the best trail you’ve been able to take your child on? Perhaps you have a funny experience to share that other parents could relate to. Contact us because we’d love to hear about your experience with Mac Ride and maybe even feature you on the Blog and our newsletter!

Chances are that if you opened up the archives of your memory and thought back to how you learned to ride a bike, a pair of training wheels would come to mind. These popular contraptions caused many a scrape and scar or a little scare with tetanus, thanks to the rusted sharp edges common on a twisted pair of hand-me-down training wheels. So why do some continue to suffer through this method of teaching children to ride a bike? We have learned the wonder of the balance bike and we can say, full steam ahead with the balance bike brigade! Why do we prefer them over the methods of the past? Here are a few of the reasons we joined Team Balance Bike to help you decide what method is right for you.

The biggest skill required to ride a bike is balance. If a child learns to pedal but doesn’t learn to balance, the minute you take the training wheels off, it’s like learning a completely new skill. Training wheels don’t actually train your child how to bike. If anything, a bike with training wheels on it is something completely separate from a bike. Alternatively, with a balance bike, kids are learning to balance first and foremost. When they’re ready to put the pedal to the metal, the foundational knowledge is there, not to mention, they know if they start to tip, they can just put their feet out.

Training wheels aren’t very manoeuvrable. Even the slightest change in terrain or uneven ground can cause the bike to tip or the wheels to bend and get damaged. With a balance bike, a child is learning to steer and lean naturally without being hindered by the stabilizers, or training wheels, getting in their way. When it comes to dirt or grass or even uneven asphalt, a balance bike will be able to handle it, whereas a bike with training wheels will be held back by the very wheels that are supposed to be helping. A balance bike allows kids to explore other terrain and doesn’t limit them to a flat area of cement. Falling on grass is also a lot nicer — too bad training wheels and grass don’t seem to mix. Oh well, another win for balance bikes!

When a child learns to bike with training wheels, they develop a bit of dependency, which acts as a crutch. The minute it’s time to take those wheels off and they find themselves tipping a bit or even falling, their confidence is shattered. Because a child on a balance bike has been balancing and steering in the same manner, the transition is a lot less daunting and foreign. Biking with kids on balance bikes feels a lot less stressful to us as parents, too. They’re always hopping on and off and running around unhindered because the bikes are low enough for them to touch the ground. This makes riding our bikes around with them, no matter what terrain, a lot more enjoyable.

We’re huge fans of balance bikes as the method of teaching kids to ride a bike. By using a child's bike seat to help our children understand the feeling of a bike in motion, and then a balance bike when they were a bit older, our kids were excited to start pedalling on their own and felt more prepared and at ease. Balance bikes may look like little baby bikes, but they’re effective ways of teaching your child to be independent and confident when it comes to biking on their own. So, are you ready to step away from the training wheels? We’d highly recommend it.

If your child is interested in getting out on biking adventures with you and a balance bike won't cut it for a long day of adventure, try out a Mac Ride seat and bring them along for the ride. Using a child's bike seat, like Mac Ride, along with a balance bike for shorter, more independent riding was a great way for us to get our kids biking.

Ever had a self-doubting day? One of those days where your toddler was pushing all of your buttons that morning? They wouldn’t put on their socks, brush their teeth or listen to a single thing you said. All day long, you thought about it and dwelled on one single question, “Am I doing enough?”

As parents, we can be extremely hard on ourselves. Always wondering if we’re doing the right things, saying the right things, or spending the right amount of time with our kids. In a world where we’re all juggling family, work, hobbies, and other commitments, we can end up feeling like our kids are suffering thanks to our busy schedules.

There’s a reason for the saying quality over quantity. It’s called quality time, not quantity time. You could spend every waking moment with your child, but if you weren’t fully present, it wouldn’t have the positive effects that you think it would. Children are a lot more observant than we give them credit for. They can tell when your mind is elsewhere. We have found our children asking us to put our smartphones away while at the park more often than we care to admit!

The best way to make sure you’re spending quality time with your child is to get it on the schedule. You’re juggling a lot, so make sure when you have those quality moments with your child that you’re present and in the moment. When we schedule our lives a little better, it can be easier to shut off the worry and focus on the moment at hand.

Kids love the outdoors and being in nature is healthy for us adults, too. Our family loves to bike together, that’s where the idea for the Mac Ride kids bike seat came to be. It allowed our family to get out on the trail and go biking with the kids when they got a little older and wanted to be part of the action. Getting your kids biking or hiking with the family is a great way to keep active and share valuable life lessons together. If you can spend quality time with your kids doing activities you enjoy, too, it’s easier to be present. Exploring new places and interacting with nature is a great activity to engage in with your children.

You are not a superhero, you are a super parent. Even Superman and Wonder Woman had their bad days and moments of doubt. Cut yourself some slack. Instead of asking yourself if you’re spending enough time with your children, ask yourself what kinds of activities you could enjoy together. Don’t beat yourself up about those difficult mornings and question all of your choices and decisions. When you’re feeling guilty or stressed, this will affect the time you spend with your child. So take a deep breath and say to yourself, “I’m doing just fine,” and then check into those quality moments with your child — without the guilt.

Never forget the importance of “me time.” Yes, it’s vital to make sure you’re spending quality time with your children, but as we‘ve all probably experienced, if you’re guilty or stressed, the quality of the time spent will be negatively affected. Make sure to recharge and take care of yourself so that when you do show up to those quality moments, you’re bringing your best self.

There’s no scientific way to know how much quality time your child needs with you. Each child will have different needs. These needs will also change based on their age and friend group. What we do know is that your child needs those quality moments of attentiveness, and you can’t be fully present if your mind is elsewhere. Next time you find yourself wondering if you’re spending enough quality time with your child, ask how you can spend more quality time with them instead. Or better yet, how you can improve on the time you already have.

Biking with kids has always been a great way for our family to spend quality time together. We’ve used many kids bike seats throughout the years. We’ve biked with babies and toddlers and used many different methods. Our time spent biking as a family has brought us both joy and tantrums, but it is always quality time. We all enjoy being out on the trail. Biking as a family gives us a chance to get some exercise, make lasting memories, and teach our children. Think biking is the right activity for your family? Check out the Mac Ride kids bike seat and get your child up front on the adventure.