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I still remember my first bike. My dad found an old two-wheeler at a garage sale, fixed it up, painted it bright red, and gave me the surprise of my life. I was beyond excited. I’m sure you feel thrilled with your brand-new Cervelo P2, but, let me assure you, you have nothing on a 6-year-old boy getting his first pair of wheels. In fact, the second most traumatic experience of my young life—followed closely behind my mom dragging me out on an errand and forcing me to miss an episode of He-Man—was when that bike was stolen. Fortunately, with help from my dad and some fervent prayer, we found it just down the road in our neighborhood. The pedal had fallen off and the would-be thief had crashed and fled the scene of the accident. We took it back home, cleaned it up, and I was back on the (banana boat) saddle in no time.

As adults, it’s far too easy for us to forget the love of cycling and instead just consider it one of the three disciplines of triathlon—and how could anything called a “discipline” be fun?! Are you looking to add more joy to your cycling? Let’s take a look at why cycling is fun for kids and see if we can recapture some of that magic as adults.

Pop a Wheelie

At least half the excitement of riding a bike came from doing tricks. We popped wheelies, rode with no hands, hit the breaks, leaving skid marks down the street, and even went off a few jumps (“Hey, did I just get some air?). For some, notably mountain bikers, tricks are still part of the joy of cycling. For us roadies and triathletes, we pretty much just go in a straight line with a few turns here and there. How do we bring back the excitement of doing tricks? Well, here’s a few suggestions:

• Go on a family bike ride. Observe how your kids ride and how much they enjoy it. Warning: if you try to get them to ride the way you train, they’ll be asking to go home within two minutes.
• While riding with your kids, show off a little by unearthing some of the buried skills from your childhood. Bonus: if you crash, this will become a great family story told over the dinner table for years to come, especially if you get a scar you can show off.
• Practice riding without hands. Sit up straight and feel the cool air surround you. This is a handy (sorry) skill to have anyway. Once you get this down, you may want to call your mom and tell her that you can ride with no hands. She’ll be so impressed.
• Take up mountain biking for a little variety in your training. Maybe even try going off a jump and getting some of that good old air.

Go Fast

I asked my kids what they love about riding a bike. Other than “because it’s fun”, “going fast” was a popular answer. I remember the joy of flying down the street, pumping the pedals as hard as I could, and seeing just how fast I could go. I wasn’t going to check my race results afterward or look at my Garmin to analyze any advanced metrics, I just loved how it felt. Maybe we can take a break from interval training every once in a while and instead just try to see how fast we can go for the fun of it.

Freedom!

New wheels meant getting to a friend’s house in one minute instead of four. To a kid, the extra three minutes can seem like a lifetime. Being able to ride a bike to my destination of choice brought a new sense of freedom and independence—only later to be one-upped by getting my first car. Now that most of us drive, we’ve forgotten that our bikes can be a great, and fun, way to get around town. They can even be faster than driving depending on where you live. Just think of the freedom you’ll feel as you glide by a huge line of cars backed up in traffic.

So, next time you hop on your bike for that long training ride, I hope you remember how you felt as a kid and instead of think how hard it’s going to be, think about how much fun you’ll have.