FS 2025 Pointless Kids prizes

I had a thought for prizes this year: for parents, towels with BAFS2025 <PRIZE> CHAMPION written on them.

Towels are the ultimate accessory for riding with kids, whether it’s drying off wet slides, sopping up spilled drinks or making sun-heated seats bearable.  Last year I found an Etsy vendor who does really good embroidery, so these can even look good (until pressed into sopping duty).

For the kids, I’d like to award a helmeted Lego Minifigure on top of a stack of bricks that represents the grown-up riders the withkid would have bested this year.  The top two will get minifgures on Lego bicycles.

For example, the current #2, “ebob” would get a minifigure on a bicycle on top of a stack of 21 bricks (Saddlero #229 rode 15 miles, ebop rode 16.6).

I know @jrenaud had to stop bribing his kids with Legos, but mine are just starting their journey with bricks.  What do other withkid riders think?

It looks like this year’s Kidical competition is going to be the Bunch Bike vs. the long tails, and right now the Bunch Bike is crushing it!

@alison-m, I was going to say that’s probably a better measure of where snow gets cleared and the trail network is complete.   There are no slackers in this year’s group of parents.

ebop and family moved about six miles west last December, but he still wants to ride to swim practice at the Franconia Rec Center and his reading time at the Sherwood Regional Library.  Now that ride is 12 miles longer and includes lunch and dinner at Kingstown shopping center if dad is too chill to pack food.

Saddelitos wranglers!

I meant to get this posted before the last weekend of FS, but I’ve been busy for the obvious reasons (four of them, to be precise), but better latte than never (b/c caffeine).

We have a tight race for the Pointless Kid!  Kid ebop and Kid Snowy have overtaken each other several times this week, and who knows what combination of cookies and cajoling will lead to victory? Also, my kids and I built the Lego Eiffel Tower, and as we take that down I’ll take a page from the Paris Olympics and use the bricks as part of the kids’ prizes.

For the Kidical prize, Team Bunch looks set to crush Team Longtail.  There is no match for the powerful combination of comfy ride and excellent infrastructure.  For those of us who live around hills that are too steep for a Bunch, this is more motivation to get involved with our planning commissions and local pols to make us more competitive.  The prize is pointless, but the joy of riding is the point.

That leaves the kidathon prize. I’ve heard a few great stories, but I’d like to see them here. Have you changed iron- hard ebike tires in the cold and rain while the kiddos took shelter nearby?  Have you taken a withkid on a group ride that most of your grownup friends would struggle to finish?  Have you shepherded or dragged kids on a dozen miles of rough trails at night with an unscheduled stop for pizza to ward off teeth chattering? Who pedalled for the first time, learned they could ride in the cold, or otherwise secured the future of Freezing Saddles?