Biking Skills & Activities

The goal of this game is to be the last over the finish line! Yup, you heard that right.

Set up a start and a finish line (can be straight, looped, or swerving). Have the campers line up and ride their bikes as slowly as possible to the finish line! If a camper put their foot down, they are out. Challenge campers to try this multiple times or single campers to increase their previous time. This activity builds skills in balance & is a great way to discuss how forward movement actually helps a camper to stay on their bike.

Create a single straight line, about twenty-five feet long. One end is the start line, the other end is the finish line, which you should mark clearly with a bold line. Have the kids begin at the start line, and ride toward the finish, aiming to stop pedaling and apply their brakes so that their front wheel ends up squarely on the main finish line. This activity helps build skills in stopping with control and avoiding skidding.

You and the campers work together to come up with a list of things to look out for on your bike ride (can be urban or trail). Try to include some easy things and some difficult things! If you'd like, attach some sort of point value to each item or a possible prize if the campers check off everything on the list! Some ideas for things to look out for: a bird, a purple flower, a red car, a bus, flags, someone walking their dog, an airplane, etc.

This is a fun game that allows kids to play practice delivering newspapers on a bike. For this you’ll need two to four targets (clothes baskets, large tubs, trash cans, etc.) and an equal number of rolled 'newspapers' (magazines, shoes, or anything else that serve as the "newspaper"). Give the children a 'newspaper' and challenge them to throw it into a target while riding their bike. To increase the challenge, give them a few 'newspapers' to throw and see how many targets they can hit during one ride.

Variation: Consider adding the "newspaper delivery" element to a greater bike obstacle course.

Use sidewalk chalk, cones, or other improvised devices to set up and obstacle course to challenge your campers to get through. Add small branches to pop over, tight turns, "speed boosts", and any other additional obstacles to challenge each campers at their level. Be creative with the obstacles/challenges in the course. Feel free to get the campers involved in creating the obstacles as well! Have timed run-throughs, relays, points, etc.

*Consider adding any of the other biking skills activities to the obstacle course to make it multidimensional and challenging! Example: Add a "paper delivery" section to the obstacle course, a slalom section, a section where they have to change their body and pedal position, a simple bike maintenance section, etc. You could even create sections on the course with chalk that would mimic environments where they would need to stand up, level their pedals, slalom, etc. Example: draw a puddle they have to bike through and they will have to stand up on their pedals to not get wet, draw a rocky field with a narrow path so they have to slalom through and keep their pedals level.

Use cones or other improvised items to set up a slalom course. Think about framing this as a timed group initiative and challenge them to see how they can improve their time as a team. You could also add in more challenging elements like obstacles for them to pop-over, etc. Share how these skills will transfer to riding on changing terrain on trails.

Ask campers to describe some trails they've been on. What are some characteristics of different trails (e.g., rocky, steep, twisting)? What are some ways to we can move our bodies while riding that will help us to better ride varying terrain?

Start with modeling the below progression of body positions and have campers copy you as they are able. Moving through the progression one step at a time is important to building up the final skills:

• • • Sitting on bike and pedaling

    • Sitting on bike and coasting

    • Sitting on bike and coasting with level pedals

    • Standing on bike and coasting

    • Standing on bike and coasting with level pedals

    • Standing on bike coasting with level pedals while changing body / bike positions – riders move their bodies up, down, forward, back, and move the bike side to side underneath them

    • Standing on bike and pedaling

Activity to build skills in changing body positions: Remote Control

If you have an open space to ride this can be done as a full group with the instructor calling out body positions. If not and you have a safe section of trail to ride, campers can work in pairs to switch out calling body positions to their partners.

• The instructor (or a camper from a pair) is the "Remote Control" and the campers (or other partner) is the "Controlee". When the Remote calls out a body position, all controlees need to follow suit (i.e., "stand....sit....stand....peddle...move up...move back etc."). Continue until campers have cycled through a good amount of changes. If campers are working in pairs, have them switch roles.

• Use this to communicate down the line preferred body positioning for upcoming terrain as you ride trails. Explain that this is always challenge by choice, and that campers should always ride within their comfort levels.