Kids on Motorcycles: What Age & What Circumstances | GTAMotorcycle.com

Kids on Motorcycles: What Age & What Circumstances

Kids on Motorcycles

  • Toddler: 2 years - 4 years

    Votes: 4 9.5%

  • Small Child: 4 years - 7 years

    Votes: 10 23.8%

  • Grown Child: 7 years - 12 years

    Votes: 20 47.6%

  • Pre-Teen & Teen: 12 years - 16 years

    Votes: 8 19.0%
  • Total voters
    42
Major

Major

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Talking with friends, this came up in a debate. I know it depends specifically on the child, but generally what age/height would you consider putting a kid on the bike as a passenger. Seriously want to hear opinions.

In your responses please include if you have children or not and if you currently ride with them or not. Also, interested in hearing about any pre-cautions or conditions you have to ride with them.

To start off, I think as long as the kids can reach the passenger pegs and is mature enough to know how to hold on and wont let go. Of course ability to wear correct safety gear is a must.

I have a 10 year old son and taken him out since he was 8.
 
Major said:
Talking with friends, this came up in a debate. I know it depends specifically on the child, but generally what age/height would you consider putting a kid on the bike as a passenger. Seriously want to hear opinions.

In your responses please include if you have children or not and if you currently ride with them or not. Also, interested in hearing about any pre-cautions or conditions you have to ride with them.

To start off, I think as long as the kids can reach the passenger pegs and is mature enough to know how to hold on and wont let go. Of course ability to wear correct safety gear is a must.

I have a 10 year old son and taken him out since he was 8.
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No kids never rode with them
Legaly.. Their feet have to touch the passenger pegs....and proper fitting helmet

One important factor to think about is that kids on bikes can fall asleep cause of the vibration and so you might want to consider tying them to you(there are a few harness thing avalible for this.)

I guess if you meet the legal requirements you have to judge your own kids abilty to be safe. Start on small rides before taking them out day triping etc.
 
As already mentioned feet need to reach the pegs, and legal helmet.

That said both my grandaughters that live with me, age 6 and 9 ride with me. They were gear including armor jackets, gloves etc. They only get to ride on bikes I have that have a backrest and I wear a belt with handles (Called Love handles) and you do have to be careful as mentioned they can fall asleep. Due to that I keep the rides short, local area, 30 minutes and not when they are already tired.

Also on that note, both of them can operate quads, and I am teaching them to operate dirt bikes now as well.
 
Two50noob said:
One important factor to think about is that kids on bikes can fall asleep cause of the vibration and so you might want to consider tying them to you(there are a few harness thing avalible for this.)

I guess if you meet the legal requirements you have to judge your own kids abilty to be safe. Start on small rides before taking them out day triping etc.
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Good point on the harness. I thought about it, but personally decided against it and taught him to hold tight. When I feel it loosen I pull over for a bit. Also, I don't do any highway at all and keep it to 1 hour or less only. I was thinking about a trip Niagara Falls later this summer (again no highway) and may need to get the harness as additional safety measure. Thanks for the heads-up.
 
Your opinion is the only one that counts.

In the past I organized some kids 2 up rides on here, lot of fun.

Most of the naysayers are non parents.

Be safe, wear the right gear and have fun.

I may have an old kidney belt that I don't use any more kicking around collecting dust.
 
Personally i wont take any passengers, never mind kids but thats just me.
 
Wouldn't do it myself. There is enough debate about having adult passengers and having to teach them what to do, nevermind kids.. lol.

Similar topic, when should kids be allowed to drive on their own? I think that 16 year olds getting drivers licenses is insane. The maturity level just isn't high enough. Imo it should be 19 before you can drive a car, and 21 for motorcycles just because they require more skill and maturity.
 
Johnny5 said:
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Similar topic, when should kids be allowed to drive on their own? I think that 16 year olds getting drivers licenses is insane. The maturity level just isn't high enough. Imo it should be 19 before you can drive a car, and 21 for motorcycles just because they require more skill and maturity.
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Don't know about that one. In Sweden, 12 year olds race with adults in old cars. They learn to drift and skid control when taking their driving course at 16. Driving courses are mandatory including mandatory winter driving course. You start at 16 and don't get a full lic until 19 (3 year process). Even if you want to 'teach' your kid to drive, you have to pass an instructors test and can't have any tickets on your own record. Also the test itself is extensive and multiple hours.

They have a healthy respect for vehicles. Also, speeding on public roads is based on personal income level so the rich are just as discouraged rather than just a $100-$200 fine.

Rather than raising the age, I think the process here should be more rigorous.
 
Interesting that this came up now. last week , I was driving in my car headed east bound on 407 around the 427 and some guy passed me riding a bike with a girl on the back, not only could she not touch the foot pegs, she was in bare feet and holding on to her full face helmet because it was to big for her and it kept sliding off. Then I passed them on 400 Northbound near highway 7. I thought you really dont like that kid much.

Also, later on that week I was in Royal in Barrie looking for a helmet for my wife. There was this guy in with his daughter trying on shorty helmets, I told him that there is a section for youth full face helmets and that it was good that he was her a helmet, but really should be looking at getting a full face one for her. He said that is funny because he was just at the shop that sells American Made bikes and the guy there told him to buy her a "shorty" for her and buying a full face helmet would be a waste of money because she will grow out of it in a year or so. I said a shorty wont be much good for her if she scraps her face on the pavement or gets hit with a bug. Then he said, I was thinking the same thing and I am firefighter and we never go anywhere without proper and full gear. About 10 minutes later he was at the check out with a full face helmet for her.

Having said that, I have been on a bike since I was 6, the guy who lived up stairs had a HOnda 150 and use to take me out on it everyonce in a while, I had a proper fitting helmet and gear and started riding on my own when I was 9 and have always had a bike since then. ( 45 years of riding) and I can not support an numerical age for being allowed to ride a bike or get a licence to ride one, I see guys on the road who are 50 and are not mature enough to cross the street by themselves let alone ride
 
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gwelfmike said:
I can not support a numerical age for being allowed to ride a bike or get a licence to ride one, I see guys on the road who are 50 and are not mature enough to cross the street by themselves let alone ride
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+2

Could not agree more!
 
Been riding a few years now with two of my three kids. They are 13 and 9 now. I find kids are better passengers than adults. I know I can take my 13 year old anywhere. The 9 year old, I keep it fairly short, within an hour or so.

It's really a mind set, not an age thing. Of course following the law too, supporting themselves on the foot pegs, proper fitting gear and helmet etc.
 
Living out were i lived allot of kids has to drive at 16. There is no public transit what so ever and most had to drive the farm trucks to help out. Technicaly speaking its not till 25 that most (MEN women get this quicker) have the ability to make good risk vs reward decisions. The number are arbitary anyway i knew plenty of great 16 year old safe drivers and the same amount of people who i would not get in a car with when they were 23. I would approve of a more stricker point system for young driver however.
 
Some of my best memories are of my parents losing me off the back of one of the snow machines..at 50km/h..hitting the lake..then walking for 20 mins until they figured out I was missing... :-D
 
My assessment of when a child is big enough to ride on the back is based on whether they can handle the potential fall. You don't ride expecting to crash but you should have a reasonable expectation of surviving a crash should it happen. That's why cars have seatbelts. Motorcycles don't have seatbelts or airbags. The only thing going to keep a passenger safe is the equipment they are wearing and their capability to fall and slide. Young kids can't be expected to do that.

Riding with a passenger that is likely to be badly hurt in the event of a fall is like driving a car without having your passengers wear seatbelts. And that is just dumb.

Also, most kids I see have helmets way too big on their heads.

I took my kids for short rides, with full gear, when they were about 10.
 
Both of my children rode with me once they were big enough to reach the pegs. They also had to properly fit the XS helmet I had bought for them to use. In our case they were both in the 8 to 10 age group and I kept the rides to about 30 minutes and included a destination they would enjoy, like going for ice cream down at The Forks.
 
My first ride on a bike was around the block a few times. I was about 3 years old, sat in front of my uncle with my hands on the inner part of the bars and no helmet... Got hooked. Next time on a bike, I would have been about 5 or 6 with a helmet way too big, sitting on the tank of a KX250 with my dad's friend pulling wheelies and climbing some decent hills and was then hooked on dirt bikes for life.

I see kids that are about 3 or 4 years old operating their OWN bikes (and half of them don't have training wheels) with proper gear. Never too soon to get kids started. By the time they are 12 they are more skilled than most of us on this board will ever be. And when it comes time to get to the street on their own machine, whether is be a bike or a car they are already set.

As for taking kids as passengers on the street, as long as they meet legal requirements, have FULL gear (it's not their choice on how much gear they wear, it's YOUR responsibility) and are strong enough and mature enough I don't see anything wrong with short trips.

I have more of an issue with people putting kids on the back of their 4 wheeler. Too many kids get seriously hurt or die because the parents can't properly operate the machine, and when they flip it the kids can't get themselves out of the way and get crushed.

Johnny5 said:
Wouldn't do it myself. There is enough debate about having adult passengers and having to teach them what to do, nevermind kids.. lol.

Similar topic, when should kids be allowed to drive on their own? I think that 16 year olds getting drivers licenses is insane. The maturity level just isn't high enough. Imo it should be 19 before you can drive a car, and 21 for motorcycles just because they require more skill and maturity.
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Not where I come from. I started driving before I hit my teens out with the farm trucks playing around. Learned vehicle control out "drifting" around the farm and playing around in the mud. Had a few mishaps, but I also learned my driving limits. Same thing as most of my friends. By the time I was 16, I didn't need to learn how to operate a car, all I needed to do was get used to traffic.

I've operated off road machines even longer than I've driven (bikes, ATVs, sleds), by the time I got on the road with a bike, I wasn't learning how to operate a new machine, I just had to learn how different it was on the road.

Can't lump everyone in due to age.

Young minds learn faster, start them off young and they will be more advanced in the end.
 
Griffin said:
My assessment of when a child is big enough to ride on the back is based on whether they can handle the potential fall. You don't ride expecting to crash but you should have a reasonable expectation of surviving a crash should it happen. That's why cars have seatbelts. Motorcycles don't have seatbelts or airbags. The only thing going to keep a passenger safe is the equipment they are wearing and their capability to fall and slide. Young kids can't be expected to do that.

Riding with a passenger that is likely to be badly hurt in the event of a fall is like driving a car without having your passengers wear seatbelts. And that is just dumb.

Also, most kids I see have helmets way too big on their heads.

I took my kids for short rides, with full gear, when they were about 10.
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Actually I gonna have to disagree with you. I think kids are the absolute best at falling. Most kids that take a fall generally get up and continue going about their business after a few minutes of making a poopy face...hell I remember my sister pushing me down a flight of stairs on my tricycle and I just got up to chase her down to exact my revenge....mean while you have adults that slip one step and break everything. Proper gear and a childs understanding are important. Only you know the mental capacity of your child and whether they are capable of being on the back of a motorcycle.
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