Ready Kids › Getting Around Without a Car › Badge 1 › Lesson 1.4
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Passengers and the load
Say why one seat means one rider, and carry a bag without letting it change how the bike handles.
1Watch
Two on the bike
Two on the bike
A kid on an e-bike at a kerb. A friend jogs up and hops sideways onto the rear rack, feet dangling. The rider's hands go tight on the bars. A car turns into the street ahead. Freeze as the rider looks back at the friend.
20 secondsNobody has done anything yet. Watch the rider’s hands.
2The idea
Why the second person changes everything
You learned to balance a bike with your own weight. A passenger is weight you do not control, sitting where it upsets the balance most, that moves when you least expect it. And the brakes, the tyres and the frame were all set up for one person.
One seat means one rider. It is the law in most places, and it would be worth doing anyway. The only exceptions are a proper child seat or a bike built for two, fitted by an adult, and neither is what your friend is asking for.
3The steps
The two rules for anything you carry
Both hands stay on the bars. Nothing in a hand, nothing hanging off the handlebars. A bag on the bars swings into the front wheel on the first bump.
The weight stays still. On your back with both straps on and the zip shut, or on the bike in a rack bag, pannier or basket. Low is better than high.
If something cannot be carried like that, it is not carried on the bike. It is walked, or it waits.
4Worked example
The friend, and the pizza
The friend: “I can’t, it’s one seat. I’ll walk with you.” That is the whole conversation. You wheel the bike, she walks, five minutes.
The pizza: a box in one hand fails the first rule. Flat in a backpack, or in a rack bag, passes both. If you have neither, you walk the bike with the box on the rack, held with a hand. Slower, and nothing about it goes wrong.
5Look
Bag on, bag off
Where the weight sits
Side-on drawing of the same rider twice: once with a heavy backpack high on the shoulders, once with the same weight low in a rack bag. Arrows show where the weight sits.
Weight up high moves with you and pulls you in corners. Weight low on the bike mostly stays put. If you carry a bag most days, this is the difference you will feel tonight.
6Decide
Your friend missed her bus and wants a lift on the rack. Five minutes.
Pick one to carry on.
7Your turn
What is rideable
Three loads
Three loads appear next to the bike: a school bag, a pizza box with a shopping bag, and a friend. Drag each to where it would go. A bag on your back or in a pannier goes green, anything in one hand goes red, and the friend has nowhere to land.
The test is simple. Can both hands stay on the bars, and does the weight stay still?
8Find them
Which of these would you actually ride with?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 3.
9Say it
The whole conversation
Say it like it is not a big deal, because it is not
“I can't, it's one seat. I'll walk with you.”
It ends the argument before it starts, and it offers something instead of just saying no.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Ride your usual route, or up and down your street, once with your school bag on and once without. Notice what changes when you brake and when you turn. Tell a parent the one thing that changed.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
One seat, one rider. Anything you carry goes on the bike or on your back, never in a hand.
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