Stop the press!
I am so proud of her. I was all high fiving her and jumping up and down. She thinks I'm a freak. 7 miles, and it took us about 35 minutes with some monster hills. There's no way to do it without hills.
I am trying to think of a good carrot to keep her riding... she wants to paint her bike, so I said we'd get model paints and she was like, "they're too expensive" (she doesn't know expensive. Try auto insurance, registration, gasoline...) My wheels were turning. If she paints the frame, that means taking everything apart, where she (and I) learn how the bike comes apart and gets put back together. What a great winter project!

Last week I had street tires put on her bike and a nifty wire basket for the back rack. She definitely kept up a good pace. I rode my Jamis with loaded panniers (all my garden veggies for folks at work) in order to slow me down some. I think we averaged probably 10-12 mph.

Yay!

Any ideas on carrots for her? She's an artist, so I guess art supplies are a good incentive. But she is also an only child, and because she asks for so little, usually gets everything she wants immediately upon request - because mostly it's for art and I consider that tools of the trade. So she has little sense of working towards something - in fact she gets a little disgusted when I say, "I'll get you such and such" because she thinks such and such is expensive and she'd rather make her own money and buy it herself. But the problem is, she hates babysitting (even though she's good at it) and that's how you make money right now, at 15. So I am kind of in a pinch... I want her to learn "value" but I don't want her to be overwhelmed, either. And in my head I'm shopping for lights, knickers, a new helmet (hers is old), a high-vis jacket...