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How to wrap a bike for Christmas!

How to wrap a bike for Christmas!

If you have decided to give the gift of cycling this Christmas then you may be wondering how on earth you are going to present it on Christmas morning! Do you want to try and hide it so it’s a complete surprise, wrap it - but still make it clear it’s a bike to increase excitement or maybe something totally different?

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8 best bike helmets for kids

8 best bike helmets for kids

As we all know, cycling is a fantastic activity for children, despite what the weather may have in store over the coming months. Whilst out and about, it is essential that we keep little ones protected and safe by investing in a quality children’s helmet.

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The Best UK Child Friendly Pump Tracks

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Pump Track Fun


7 August 2020

The Best UK Child-Friendly Pump Tracks

A pump track is a small, looping trail that you can ride continuously without even pedalling! Eventually, your ability to gain momentum by simply ‘pumping’ out of any bumps or corners is what will deliver your speed on the track and negate the need to pedal. The origins of the pump track lie within the BMX bike trails of the 70s and 80s, but thanks to the fact they are simple to use, cheap to construct and can cater to a variety of skill levels they can now be found in back gardens and town recreational areas all over the world.

Over recent years more and more pump tracks have been appearing in our towns and cities and are great fun to ride. In addition to the smaller tracks found in local neighbourhoods, there are also bigger options, both indoors and outdoors with many offering technique lessons and cafes to make a visit to the track a family day out.

If you do not have a smaller track locally or just fancy trying one of the larger options we’ve compiled a list of family-friendly pump tracks all over the UK. There’s never been a better time to join in the fun, grab your bike and get pumping!

 

 

What are the Benefits of a Pump Track?

To Promote a Healthy Lifestyle

It's really important to have facilities in local communities that are actually fun for youngsters to use, after all, the more they enjoy something the more they are likely to do it! The pumping motion really is a great all-body workout, and once you master it, the speed you can generate is surprising! These simple little tracks are also a gateway to developing a lifelong interest in a sport – not only cycling but also other wheeled sports like skateboarding, scooters and roller skating, which will all help to keep your child active and healthy as they grow up.

They're Socially Inclusive

Pump Tracks are fun and beneficial for people of all ages and abilities. A good pump track or skills park is designed so that anyone can use it, the only thing you need is the basic ability to ride a bike, or maybe even a scooter, skateboard or roller skates. The process of generating speed and momentum through “pumping” means that you control the risk involved. Although it is scary to watch your little one fly around the track the first few times, just remember a high level of skill is required to get up to those high speeds.

Pump tracks have a similar appeal to skate parks in that they are small areas and promote fellow track riders to interact with each other, but are often less intimidating. They can be amazingly inspiring places, where it’s not unusual to find professional riders riding alongside a four-year-old on their balance bike. Everyone is having fun on the same track, and most importantly the facility is safe for everyone to use.

 

 

 

 

 

They're a Great Place to Develop Skills

Anyone and everyone can use a pump track. But the real benefit of a good pump track design is that it continues to engage riders as their skills develop. What you learn doesn't stop here either, it can translate to mountain bike trails, dirt jumps and increase your general cycling skills. A pump track is a place where people can turn a spark of enthusiasm into a lifelong passion for all things cycling.

Riding at the pump track can help older children to concentrate and focus. This type of riding has a steep learning curve, it might be easy to ride the track at first, but it's harder to master and ride fast. Once the pumping action has clicked, riding a pump track becomes almost addictive, it’s hard to stop going until you reach your limits! With each lap your speed increases but eventually you do reach a limit, to progress further you might need to learn to wheelie, or maybe even jump from one roller to another. It’s this continuous challenge and development that really engages and focuses kids (and adults).

 

 

The map below shows just some of the pump tracks around the country that are suitable for children to ride and enjoy. However, we want to look at this as a work in progress! We regularly see your fantastic pictures taken at pump tracks and posted on social media, if you have a recommendation that we can add to our map for other families to visit then please do let us know. Add your favourite track to the comments on our Facebook post here and we'll add them to the map. Let's work together to make it a fantastic, collective resource for parents all over the country!

The Frog kids bike sizing guide

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How do you find the right Frog bike sizes for your children?
We all remember receiving hand-me-down bikes that were usually too big and being told: “Don’t worry, you’ll grow into it.” This phrase is of little solace when your heart is in your mouth because you can barely see the floor let alone put your feet on it!

Here at Frog, we take sizing a child very seriously! This is one of the most important factors for cycling success and enjoyment. Read the blog to find out how to get the right size bike for your child and Frog's bicycle sizes.

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Towing kids bikes: How to ride longer with kids

Towing kids bikes: How to ride longer with kids

For those of you who have been lucky enough to be enjoying regular family rides recently you may be finding that everyone is ready and excited to ride a little further. Maybe you’ve started to plan a ride to a local park or forest to enjoy a picnic? But what do you do if the way there was enough and tired legs don’t have the energy or inclination to pedal back again?

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Learning to ride: Part 2 Pedalling

Learning to ride: Part 2 Pedalling

In this blog we are going to explore the different stages of learning to pedal and break it down into sections. If your child is moving on from a Balance bike then you may not need to spend as much time on the learning to balance phase.

Wherever your mini biker is on their road to cycling superstardom we hope you’ll find this breakdown and tips from qualified trainers helpful.

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Teaching a child to ride a bike: Balance bikes

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Riding a bike is a complex task of coordination involving balancing, pedalling, steering and braking. Traditionally, we have been taught to pedal first with stabilisers attached to the bike and then gain balance by removing them. An increasing number of parents are now moving away from this approach, preferring to teach children to balance first.

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Should you use stabilisers to teach a child to cycle?

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Training wheels, or stabilisers as we call them in the UK, are the extra wheels that can be mounted parallel to a bicycle's rear wheel to help when learning to ride a bike. They assist by giving a more ‘stable’ feeling until the rider has developed a good sense of balance on their bike.

All children learn differently and the question of whether to use stabilisers or not crops up often and can cause big debates among parents. So we thought we’d do a little research into the pro’s and con’s of these cycling stalwarts to help you decide what’s best for your child!

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How do I choose a kids full-face helmet?

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Finding a kids bike helmet can be challenging, there are more full face models on the market than previous years but they are still not as readily available as standard helmets. There are 3 main aspects to consider and these are SIZE, WEIGHT and SAFETY CERTIFICATIONS.

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Frog and Dimitris Katsanis introduce breakthrough design

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Frog Bikes has worked with independent scientific researchers to study the impact of Q factor (pedal spacing) on bikes for children. They were surprised to find that reducing the Q factor of a child's cycle decreases lateral forces by much more than for adults. i.e. it makes the bike significantly easier to pedal.

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