Some kids get excited about biking simply by seeing mom and dad on their mountain bikes. Other kids, however, need a bit more coaxing, it seems. What can be really fun is for your toddler or young child to customize their own bike. Do you remember your first bike? Did you stick on stickers, tassels, and playing cards on the spokes? What kinds of fun customizations did you do to your first bike?
When it comes to kids, crafts seem to be a pretty fun activity. Mixing craft time with biking can be an excellent win-win situation. Not to mention, playing around with customizations on bikes is a great activity for us parents, too. How do you think we came up with the Mac Ride seat in the first place?
A New Paint Job
Picking a favourite colour is an important part of shopping for a bike. Even as an adult, we’re all partial to our favourite colours. If your child is riding a hand-me-down, let them pick accessories and touches in their favourite colour to make the bike feel more like their own. A fresh coat of paint makes a world of difference with most things. Get creative with spray paint! It’ll make the same old bike look completely different.
Accessories & Fun Items
When we were children, we had access to a few fun accessories. You could add handlebar tassels, baskets or little clips that made noise on the spokes. These fun customizations do not need to stop at the items we all remember from our childhood. Now, you can customize anything on a bike relatively easily. Let your child help by getting them to draw their dream bike. Maybe you could get some multicoloured spokes or pedals. You can even design your own logo with your child and have it printed as a sticker or decal online.
In all honesty, when our daughter wanted a basket on her islay bike we were a little shocked, but it made her happy to take teddy along for the ride. Who can blame that logic, we loved taking her along for rides on the Mac Ride seat too. Plus, it taught her to plan ahead a little more for rides when she was thinking about what she needed to put in her basket.
New Parts, New Look
You can pick out custom wheels, a handlebar and new seat for balance bikes! We've heard a lot of stories from parents with more than one child about the painful task of getting the younger kid excited about a hand-me-down item. You could keep the same bike and add a few new parts to give it a bit of a facelift.
Tape It Up
Taping handlebars for added grip is an excellent idea that parents often employ. We see handlebars with tape on them for Mac Ride seat use, too. But tape isn't just for practical use or for grip, it's also aesthetic. Taping handlebars with fun colours and patterns is an inexpensive way to brighten up the part of the bike your child sees most when riding.
If you find your child is hesitant to learn how to bike on their own, try getting them excited about personalizing their bike with colours, accessories, or new parts. If your child doesn’t have their own bicycle yet and you don’t want to buy brand new, get a second-hand bike and turn it into a dream bike for your toddler.
The Mac Ride seat is fantastic for helping young children to learn what a bike feels like and how it handles on different terrain. When it comes to learning to ride on their own, a child needs to be excited about their bike and what they can do on it. Sometimes, spending some time off the bike to paint it and add a few frills can help them feel more engaged with the process. Have you customized your child's bike? How awesome was the process, and what was the final result? Share your toddler's bike creations with us on Instagram and follow along for more family riding photos.