News

Actions

Pioneer Park hosts Strider bike races Saturday

Posted at 10:27 PM, Aug 08, 2015
and last updated 2015-08-09 00:27:57-04

SALT LAKE CITY --- The Strider Championship Series raced through Pioneer Park Saturday, and some of the riders are just 2 years old.

Salt Lake City was hosting the event for the first time, and it features Strider bikes, which don’t have peddles.

Kids 2 to 5 years old strapped on their helmets and tested their skills on obstacles and ramps.

"Literally there's bike gangs,” Parent Justin Hewett said. “These Strider bikes go around the whole neighborhood, five or six, you know, 2 or 3-year-old kids, and they're so confident on these Strider bikes.”

The design of the bikes allows kids to learn to ride without using training wheels, as when they start to tip they can just put their feet down.

"Our son loves to run around and race on his Strider bike,” Hewett said.

It’s not just little kids, either. Eight Special Olympics athletes from the team Jimmy's Jaguars in Salt Lake City have been training to ride Saturday’s championship series.

"It gives these kids an opportunity to feel mainstream, that they can go out and ride bikes with the other kids in the neighborhood, and it helps their self-esteem and it helps learn how to balance on the bikes, which is something some of these kids struggle with,” said Sandra Kibbee, who is the track and field head coach for Jimmy’s Jaguars.