I'm an avid mountain biker (and the editor of this off-road cycling website), so as you'd imagine, a lot of bike activity happens regularly at home. I'm also a father and I figured my son would just naturally fall in love with bikes too. But while a procession of pre-bikes, balance bikes, and mini MTBs with every possible wheel size replaced one another over the years, my lad had a disappointingly casual relationship with getting mucky on bikes. Despite a few excited minutes where he was joyfully smashing his balance bike through muddy puddles in the woods early on, MTB failed to get elevated beyond the likes of family walks. Cue cries of "Do I have to?" beforehand, despite grudgingly enjoying it once out and about (OK, chocolate bribes were involved too).
Yes, much to my disappointment, mountain biking was an activity that didn't rank particularly high on my son's 'fun stuff list'. However, that started to change earlier this year.
