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Other than the normal safety gear what should I make sure of when giving my children rides (1 at a time of course)? I gave my 3 sons (I have a daughter as well but shes only 9 months old) a ride around the local parking lot and just had them hold onto my jacket straps. They did fine with that but I never reached past 20mph. Any suggestions other than the normal stuff about leaning etc etc. btw my oldest son is 5 and my youngest son is 2. I have no intentions of taking my 2 yr old on the bike for a couple years yet but the 5 yr old ans soon to be 4 yr old I am willing to take on the road (though not highway).

NO SUGAR BEFORE RIDES...
Wrider

Until my daughter was 11 I made her hold onto my belt...not just because it was firmly attached to me, but because I could feel her hands.

Other than gear I would say keep the trips short with the little ones...car naps could suck on a scoot.

Do you have a backrest or sissy bar on your bike?

blues2cruise wrote:Do you have a backrest or sissy bar on your bike?

+1 there. Before I bought my v-strom, I had the little one (10) get on a show model, with me, and give me a sense of what she felt. She immediately decreed that she wanted something as a backrest to counter fears of leaning back. Enter a Kappa 48L topcase. Problem solved.

blues2cruise wrote:Do you have a backrest or sissy bar on your bike?

yes there is a backrest. I could have him hold onto the metal bracket that goes under the back seat and around the backrest but Like mentioned above I want to feel their hands around me so I know they are there. I guess I could set one of the mirrors far enough back to see them behind me.

You could also use a Buddy Belt..or if your kids fall asleep a lot on the back (A lot of them do!) you can go with something like the child riding belt which allows you actually strap the kid to your back. Then you don't have to worry about them falling asleep and falling off. as much.

There's a lot of great tips in this article: http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/street ... with_kids/ and has links to sites with kids gear like http://www.familymotorcycling.com/ and http://www.babybiker.com/.

I'm kinda thinking it's illegal around here, but not sure. They have to be a certain height or something? Check your local laws.

Scott58 wrote:I'm kinda thinking it's illegal around here, but not sure. They have to be a certain height or something? Check your local laws.

I'm confused - are you saying you think somewhere in the USA it is illegal to ride with a child as a passenger? I don't think it is possible that there is such a law. Now whether you feel you can protect your own childs skin enough to feel safe about it, is the real question.

I'm not certain, but i believe there is. I don't have kids, but I recall helmet size issues, the ability of the child to reach the foot pegs and what not. Like I said you should check your local laws.