Next up in our Real.Bike.People series is Jaco and Jacob. It must be pretty cool when your dad works for a bike brand! Little Jacob is the lucky owner of a fully customised Ribble CGR AL in XXS! At just 8 years old, Jacob already has a seriously cool bike, thanks to dad Jaco who works for us here at Ribble!
Jaco is part of our customer service team and you may have seen him feature in some of our helpful videos. His component and frame knowledge is virtually unrivalled and if Jaco doesn’t know it, there won’t be many that do.
A pair of CGR's stalk the picnic site in search of food.
We spent an afternoon with Jaco and Jacob to see where they ride and how they spend some quality time together while riding their Ribble bikes.
“Getting a bike for your child isn’t easy when you know they will outgrow it so quickly. Getting this XXS frame now has probably helped me for the next few years. I can just buy components now instead of more frames, and it looks great too. I know I can trust the quality of the frame to last that long, it’s just a case of adjusting cranks, stems and gears as Jacob grows up.”
Jacob is a very enthusiastic young dude, which was evident straight away. Riding no hands, standing up with no hands, and riding away and back. He’s already learning how to throw loops in for when he gets his own Strava account and get his stats up.
Jaco is an experienced cyclist having raced in South Africa and has worked in the cycling industry for many years. Riding a CGR 725, he explained to us why riding with Jacob is so refreshing.
Look dad no hands....oh you're doing it too!
“When I ride with my friends, it can be very serious and very fast, and sometimes you just want to relax. When I ride with my boy, we get to spend a great time together. It’s a good time for me to actually enjoy being on the bike for what it is while passing on my knowledge to Jacob to help him develop. If he wants to take it further, that’s great, if he just loves to ride a bike, that’s perfect!”
Asking an enthusiastic 8-year-old that is riding circles around you what they want to do with cycling isn’t easy. But Jacob found a moment to explain it…”I want to be a scientist” and then he rode away again!
We rode on some quiet roads, a cycle route local to Jaco and Jacob with all different surfaces, from asphalt to sand, and gravel to mud. Both the CGR 725 and CGR Al frames are perfect for this style of riding. Riding with the type of surfaces you can expect to find alongside rivers, and when riding through fields, backcountry lanes and parks too.
“We don’t really ride on the road as such, it’s not super-safe for an 8-year-old, but it’s sometimes unavoidable. So, we ride very carefully and always make sure that we know what’s around as at all times. There are a few challenges, but we’ve managed so far.”
Jaco getting the practice in for when Jacob actually starts dropping him!
Along the route, we stopped for the best part of any bike ride, the refreshment stop. Though on this occasion the cafes are shut we each got ice cream and managed to get a few energy sweets in.
“The biggest ride we’ve done together is 50km, which is obviously a very long way for an 8-year-old. It’s important to make sure he’s hydrated and got the energy to get around, which sometimes disappears more quickly with his over-exuberance! I always have to carry extra water and energy bars and sweets, which is easy on this bike as there is plenty of space for frame bags.”
If you are out with your children and family this father’s day, let us know and tag us in your adventures! Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and cycling dads out there!
If you enjoyed reading this why not read Ava Brown's story, being too young to go out riding with Dad she instead took up BMX and discovered she had a real talent for cycling.
Jack Purves used to watch his dad Andy go out cycling and longed to be out there with him. Now jack is old enough he has joined dad out o rides where things can get a little competitive. Read about it here.
Keen runner Chrissy Hinton converted to cycling in 2016 and never looked back. Now Chrissy's been joined on her rides by son Tom and granddaughter Maddison. Read about it here.