Bike Trek or Bike Ride

[Gold Winger]

OK, you've had your fun. Now it's time to quit with the untoward remarks.

 

FScouter (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

[Bob White]

Gcan, No I have never hidden shiny things in the woods...well that's not true either, we did a Klondike Derby were we had gold nuggets that the scouts collected as they competed in various skills along a trail. Then they took them to the assayer's office to determine their value for their score.

 

We biked to a local lake for a fishing contest. We hiked to an airplane museum, we did a photography hike as part of a monthly theme, We did a conservation hike where we collected litter along a nature trail at a state park, we had a nature hike with stations along a route where the scouts would stope for a different nature exhibits and games, we did a one mile version with the cubs tgat ended at a zoo. Just as a few examples. We nenver took cubs out to hiuke just to hike. Hiking is just a mode of transportation.

 

But kids ride bikes all the time, so to ride a bike just to ride a bike does not require the efforts of a pack.

 

Gcan, how is it you are so sure that Pack15nissan lives in a suburban area,? lots of scouts across the countru live in areas where riding bikes around is not as uncommon an activity as you seem to think it is.

 

I did not say that taking the cubs would be a bad thing, I suggested that he could enhance the activity and probable get more cubs interested if there was more to the event than just riding a bike.

 

Ask your son is he wants to go for a car ride and the first thing he will probably ask is "to where" or "Why". To kids the transportation is not an activity it is a way to get to an activity. So the suggestion to Pack15nissan was don't just go on a hike, have a purpose, a feature activity to do while on the hike or at the end of the hike.

 

 

 

 

 

[Gold Winger]

"Ask your son is he wants to go for a car ride and the first thing he will probably ask is "to where" or "Why". To kids the transportation is not an activity it is a way to get to an activity."

 

Riding in a car is passive. Riding your bike with a bunch of friends is active.

 

Let's see . . . Pack15 said, "We have done this before as a Pack several years ago, and everyone involved said it was great and the kids who went (only about 10-15) enjoyed it a lot."

 

I'll tell you a little story. I used to ride my bike a fair amount. No, I wasn't a seriou biker with spandex pants and an ultralight bike doing 100 miles but 25 miles on a weekend day wasn't unusual. However, four or five days a week I'd go for a little jaunt of usually about ten miles. At first I was going by myself. Then my son started tagging along, then a couple of his buddies. Then my daughter joined in. Then a couple of her friends. Soon I looked like the Pied Piper. One large guy leading a parade of up to 10 kids. Some days there'd only be three or four kids and other days there was the whole compliment. This went on throughout the summer until school started. Museums? Not a one. Ice cream? Nope. Nature hikes? Nope. They came for the fun. We had fun. They'd race each other, they'd race me, they'd wave to people in cars and shout out to people that they knew. It was just simple fun disguised as exercise. Alas, it only lasted the one summer as I tore up my knee and haven't been able to pedal since. (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

[Gold Winger]

"OK, you've had your fun. Now it's time to quit with the untoward remarks. FScouter"

 

You think that this is fun? This is hard work.

[raisinemright]

Great topic.

 

A couple years ago, I took my then Wolf Den on a 5 mile bike trek to earn their belt loop. We have a bike trail nearby so we drove to it and rode the five miles. We had ten kids, ten parents and a few siblings. I assigned one dad to lead, one to take the tail and I was a roving leader.

 

With 25 or so people, it was about unmanageable as one group.

 

However, it was a lot of fun.

 

Here's my advice.

 

-DO THE RIDE!

-Advise parents in an e-mail that the ride is long, downhill and lots of fun. They can make the go-no go decision for their scout.

-Helmets are required of all participants. Period with zero exceptions.

-Break up into a couple groups. Assign a tour leader to each group. He should be an experienced cyclist if possible. Then pick a lead and tail parent. Nobody goes ahead or behind this person. Tail should have a radio or a whistle to stop the group if there is a problem. One blast means slow down, two means stop.

-Plan several short breaks with snacks. Plan one longer break, preferably near a creek or waterfall for the kids to play around near.

-Each rider must have a water bottle in a cage attached to the bike.

-Have a chase truck staged at the five mile point. They can pick up any that have mechanicals or physical breakdown.

-Carry a complete first aid kit and have the chase truck have extra water.

-On any road crossings, have a leader stand in the road and act as a crossing guard.

-By all means, pre-ride the trail. If it's too far away, call the council and see if a local Cub Scout leader can pre-ride the trail and give you a report.

-If you pay my expenses, I'll gladly pre-ride it for you, but since I'm in Michigan, expenses will be very high, but it sounds like a great ride and I'm envious of you and your cubs for doing it.

-Pre-check the bikes. A local bike shop may be willing to send a technician to your meeting to show how to check tires and lube the bikes.

-Take a couple spare tubes and a patch kit, along with a good floor pump.

-Sunscreen and sunglasses are very important.

-If it's in your budget, get some neon yellow pack T-shirts made up with the Pack ### Cycling Team on them.

Have fun.

 

Commit that you're going to have fun.

 

When the inevitable problem happens, roll with it cause it's not an adventure till something goes wrong.

 

Sorry for being so long.

 

 

[Gold Winger]

"However, it was a lot of fun."

 

What??!!?? You had fun on a bike ride? Without anything happening special happening at the end? Just enjoyed the ride?

 

Did you not get the memo? Bike rides are just transportation to kids and they won't have fun doing that.

 

Sheesh! What's this world coming to? Kids having fun just riding their bikes. Next thing that you know, a presidential candidate will appear on TV and play a musical instrument.

[gcan]

here's another thought- if I recall correctly, all the levels of cubbing have some requirement about fixing a bike... if you have time before hand, I bet you could convince a local bike shop to come out and do a safety check and show the boys how to fix any problems that might occur? Or maybe make the store the initial meeting spot? Or at least have a mechanically inclined grownup read up on bike repair and go over the more common points with the boys beforehand.

You could also probably pick up some pamphlets on Bike safety at the local PD or even the library.

How about having a Cop dad/uncle/friendly local type talk with the boys before hand about the rules of the road?

 

Not only would adding something like that satisfy the "no-fun-without-a-predesignated-reason" crowd, but they could learn a lot AND get some requirements done.

[pixiewife]

Pack 15:

I think that you couldn't get any better advice than radinemright gave, with the addition of having some bike repair instruction thrown in for electives as so many have mentioned. I too wish that something like this were available here in Michigan!

Good Luck!

[croushorn]

Did this a few years back on a Boy Scout campout Parents dropped us off a couple miles away from our camping site for the weekend. Trailer with gear was driven to campsite. Had a great ride, not too hilly, but enough for some good stories to develop. The meeting prior, I got a guy from the local bike club to come in and go over basics of the bike, safety, repairs, etc. I really expected my guys would be bored, but they got a lot from it and had a lot of good interaction with him. Was a very good experience overall and PLC regularly brings up doing it again. Met requirement 2C #1c. Will try this next spring, but this time stretch it a little further to add Camping MB #9b3.

[PACK15NISSAN]

Thanks for all the input everyone.

 

However, one problem is going to be is this is a Pack trip, not just a den outing. I may have Tigers or maybe just Bears and Webelos, I have no idea and we can't fairly call it a Pack event and exclude some of the boys, especially when we are speculating that they wouldn't be able to make it.

 

Secondly, not trying to be selfish, but I can't afford to drive up to Virginia to check the trail with gas at $3.75 a gallon around here.

 

This is supposed to be a fun outing for everyone, the only thing I know to do is to require that parents attend, so that if their son can't make it they will have to wait with him until we can drive up and get them.

 

I will let the other leaders know to go over bike safety and I will make sure that everyone knows their child should know how to ride reasonably well before going. Also, I am going to mention in the Pack meeting and on the sign up that safety equipment is required by everyone (adults too) and that anyone who doesn't have it when we meet to leave, can't go. The only thing I can do is make sure everyone is informed that this a 17 mile ride, that is not too hard, but that there is no way for some one to follow us by car if some one wants to quit, and then let parents make the desicion.

[raisinemright]

Pack15,

 

Taking a group like that, including Tigers without support vehicles and without pre-checking the road may get you tarred and feathered if it doesn't go right. I understand not being able to afford going yourself. However, if it were me, I'd call the Council offices in the area of the ride and ask them about it. A really good resource would be to ask for one of the Bicycling Merit Badge Counselors in that district. They would likely know the route, or can go recon it for you. Since the MBC's have probably had Cub Scouts of their own and are usually good cyclists, they would be able to give you good advice.

 

This will probably turn out to be the coolest trip your Pack has ever done, however, it has some potential to be the worst trip took if a bunch of little cubs bonk.

 

"bonking" is a cyclist term for totally, completely and absolutely running out of energy while riding.