My son just got his first pedal bike - and I hope it doesn’t spell the end of our Shotgun adventures

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This Christmas, Santa delivered a bright shiny blue pedal bike. After just a week of transitioning from a balance bike, my son is already pedalling, pretty much unaided aside from the occasional nudge to help us get along. I couldn’t be prouder. But, it got me thinking - will his newfound independence spell the end of our days riding together on my bike?

I have carried my son on my bike since he was around a year old, first in a rear rack-mounted Bobike seat, before transitioning to the Kids Ride Shotgun seat in early 2024. The Shotgun seat attaches to the top tube, giving your child a front seat on all the action. But now, all of a sudden, he’s mobile without me powering the pedals. After just three years, I am already being abandoned by my son in favour of a more stimulating alternative. If it is the end of our Shotgun adventures, I’ll be sad, but okay with it. We made a lot of memories riding together in 2024 and I know we will make many more as he starts to ride his bike further.

I personally wouldn’t have had a good year on the bike without the Shotgun seat; 2024 wasn’t my greatest in terms of mileage. First, an extremely wet spring stifled my motivation, then a new job here at Cycling Weekly shifted my focus, and - finally - a frustrating knee injury kept me mostly off the bike from September. The year was over before it ever got going. The Shotgun seat offered a great way to get out for shorter, more relaxed rides when I totally lacked motivation or didn’t want to sacrifice my time with my son.

In late July we combined our love of trains with a big bike ride, hopping just a few stations along the line and riding a slightly ambitious 35km mostly traffic-free route home. It was a ride full of surprises and packed with potential, more importantly, plenty to keep a toddler occupied. We passed by a house with more Gnomes than a Gnome factory, stumbled upon a castle in the middle of a field, nearly ran over a peacock, ate cookies the size of our faces and a lot of waving was done at farm animals along the nearly entirely traffic-free route. This really was a magic few hours, I wished it was my everyday.

We followed this up in August by using the bike exclusively to get around during the annual Airbourne Airshow weekend, in our home town of Eastbourne on the south coast of England. For those who have never visited Airbourne, well, it gets busy. Moving around this small town during the weekend means either sitting in traffic jams or getting stuck at closed road signs. So the best way to get around is by bike, my Cotic SolarisMax hardtail mountain bike fitted with the Shotgun seat allowed us to use all the closed roads to get to the best viewing spots and skip the crowds. Bikes, planes, ice cream and for some reason always a serious amount of stickers, what could be better than that?

Some of my favourite rides in 2024 and core memories made weren’t even that adventurous. A number of them were just doing the kilometre or so to the nursery. Riding along the seafront, witnessing the sunrise, saying good morning to the swimmers or seeing the monster diggers doing their annual Longshore drift reversal chug along the pebbles really made my days better. The Shotgun seat seems to bring happiness to people from every demographic. Riding along you can see faces light up, maybe it's my son's beaming smile or just the sight of a father and son spending quality time together, but it feels like we bring a bit of joy to everyone’s day and thats cool.

If I had one regret it's we didn't get the Kids Ride Shotgun seat sooner. I really do hope we have more time sharing one bike, I am not ready to see it go just yet. At the very least I can still see over the top of him and we are still well within the recommended weight limit so, in theory, we have mileage ahead of us. Regardless if we’re on one bike or two, my one hope is that bikes help us adventure long into the future, even if it is just on the way to a big school. I hope this is just the start.