Quote Originally Posted by pinkbikes View Post
As the mother of an 11yo girl I salute you both!

I try pretty hard (without trying to look like I'm trying hard) to encourage her to get out in the forest to ride with us. Success is relative - as in, sometimes it's better if you don't ride with a relative!!!

I have found my greatest success in getting her out on the bike in the forest is finding other girls of a similar age who also go out for a ride with their parents (Dads mostly). We have founded a very casual thing called "The Princess Rides" where anybody with a little girl can come and we trek across town to the easiest forest in Brisbane for a ride. They all seem to have a lot of fun and we work on skills - getting off and spotting them individually over logs and rocks and stuff. They seem to take to it much better without boys along who are much braver!

Also, one of the local race organisers who does our enduro races organises kids races during the main race - just a couple of laps around the marshalling area. All the kids get a prize and can tackle it at their own pace - or even have their parent ride along with them if they like. It really encourages them. My daughter has ridden in a few.

Keep up the encouragement - they need positive role models that aren't their parents!

Great idea pinkbikes of taking the girls along.
Minimally if I'm whipping along on the bike, and any child who rides consciously to one side to let me pass by, I always cheerfully thank them. Every gesture of courtesy on bike routes helps.

I saw the most adorable little girl on a Stryder with a bright pink helmet on. She pointed to my helmet, then thumped herself on her helmet and said, loudly, "Hat!" with a huge grin on her little face. Her mom said she points out all the other riders with helmets. It made my day!
So cute, blackshill.


As for encouraging little kids, teens also need encouragement.
AFter all these years at cycling events, on road rides, bike routes that aren't stacked with cars, it's rare that I see teenage girls cycling on a regular basis compared to much younger girls. The mtbike world probably sees them there (I'm not a mtbiker.) plus the teenage boys, but overall, I wonder just on bike paths and roads where it's not busy and safe from too many cars/high speed traffic. And I've lived in cities with significantly higher number of cyclists with available signed bike routes.