Amen. Kids' bikes are treated as toys by many parents. The bikes that our kids' friends ride to the house at times have been in dangerous condition: snapped or pulled-through brake cables, bent calipers/pads, play in the headset, and even one kid whose parents would have let her ride around forever on a flat rear tire if I hadn't run to the store to get her a new tube. Some of the kids think it's cool to throw their bikes down on dismount, for that matter -- sometimes right behind parked cars. One of my son's friends got a new bike back in March ... bragged about its 21 speeds ... left it outside through all the spring rain ... wears a confused look on his face now that it won't switch gears.

I suspect many, if not most of the scary "self-destructing bike" stories on this forum are related to this kind of abuse and neglect. As you suggest, most riders here keep their own bikes humming, but no one should ever assume that others do the same. It only takes a minute to check a kid's bike out.