Originally Posted by jlippinbike

After commenting on this string recently I was thinking about it at work. I thought back to the 25-mile ride my parents took me on when I was 7 or 8. My brother was along, too. And he was 2 years younger. When my brother's oldest boy visited my folks at age 6 he wanted to do a towpath ride with them that was a little over 20 miles. I got him a 24-inch wheel Raleigh mountain bike with 18 speeds. Yeah, he fit on it barely. My dad had a 20-inch wheel girls bike for him, and my dad asked which one my nephew wanted to ride. He said the BIG boys bike "of course." I got a kick out of that. Connor finished the ride with no problems! When he was 14 he was on another visit to my parents' home (his grandparents' home) and I dared him to do a 50-mile ride that started in Fort Lee, NJ and hit all 5 boroughs of NYC. He took me up on the dare, and finished. Sore, but he finished. So after those pleasant thoughts I figured I would try to design a 100-miler bike route for a kid who lives on the other side of the US who wants to show the world what he can do. Eight-year-olds, the perfect age. A little younger and they aren't able to act adult. And a year older and they start talking back like they know better than those who are supposed to be controlling them....