jamie
I have already spoke my mind in part but ... I think the most important part of this issue is that we realize this is not a true competition for mass start events, even though governed by a racing organization. So fears of pushing our kids to the limits and massive crashes would hopefully be very limited. I feel making it child/parent is too restrictive, but then again if that is the only way to make it happen it seems ok. However uncles/aunts and older siblings might want in on the fun as well. Family seems like a good boundry, but how to you restrict that?
Having something like a requirement of no prizes or only equal prizes to all participants is another good rule that well help remove the idea of an agressive driver taking too many chances. Maybe restrict to stoker ribbons/medals only? To me the whole idea is to involve the kids in a fun day out and getting them involved in the sport. This is an event that is like the regular youth races we see at the crits, but with an extra step of length added. Maybe in that aspect we promote it as a youth only stoker to keep it simple? but then what about the 12 year old stoker who is new, do we require that they ride with the older groups, I think that is a grey line I would like to leave upto the promoter and parent as I would have no issue racing against slightly older stokers as long as everyone had the same basic goal of enjoying the event and not winning at all costs.
As for my kids, I have a hard time thinking I would ever let someone else pilot them, but then again I can also see the case where it might be ok. As for the people that feel we are pushing our kids too hard or putting them in harms way ... we do that every day we get in a car, or go anywhere with our kids. Life is about making choices and I see this as far safer than taking my son out on the open road with cars. Basically I am paying my $20 for a safe and organized ride with friends and my son thinks its cool because it is called a race. They get to learn about winning and losing and being a good sport, while spending time with daddy/mommy doing something both love.
I am also pro tagalongs for time trials only. In my opinion just about any human powered vehicle should be allowed for any time trial as long as the promoter is ok with special categories. I think that is the easiest way to get someone started and actually allow you to race with your kids vs a more low key aspect to the mass start events.
As Candi mentioned there is likely a need for a minimum age, especially for mass start events. 8 seems like a logically starting point for me, but if it was low key enough I could see my 5 year old doing a mass start race for fun. I know that he would love it. For TTs I think the starting age is even harder to set, but maybe we use the basic idea of car seats. If the kids are 40 pounds, 40 inches which is about 4 years old, then they are ok just like being able to be in a booster seat.
And yes I still fear for the first time we have a crash with a little kid buried under a 40 pound tandem and 200 pound driver. But then again that is better than being hit by a car or many of the other things that can go wrong on a day to day basis. Heck my 2 year old nephew just broke his tibia coming down the slide at the park ... so what are you going to do?
Jamie
----- Original Message -----
From: Leibowitz, Flo
To: OBRA
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Juniors on Tandems
I'm not a parent, nor a tandem rider. However, I like how OBRA events typically try to be family-friendly. So I think this is a great discussion to have introduced. I have a couple of questions I'd like to hear more from the tandem parents about.
1. Are you ok with youth stoking for mass-start races of any kind, even with you as the captain? What does "youth" mean to you here?
(What if youth stokers were permitted in time trials when the captain is one of his or her parents, but parent-child mass-start teams were restricted to the special case of a designated parent-child field? Is that too restrictive, in your opinion? I gather that many races might not make that special field practical, but some dedicated tandem events and the like might be able to do so.)
2. I love the idea of allowing tagalongs on some time trials. I assume, though, that it'd be better to have a length limit on these, too. I have no idea how practical this field would be for promoters, but I guess that's a separate question.
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