Most people have fond memories of bike riding as a child. However, if you were to slap an odometer on those bikes, we'd see that most kids just putz around their neighborhood and might ride a bike 500 miles before they outgrow or wreck it. They never develop any sense of maintaining their bike; they think a bike always belongs outside; they don't even realize tires naturally lose air. When these same people become adults and choose to take up the bike again, this is the experience they draw upon.

When I picked up bike commuting, none of my non-cyclist coworkers had ever heard of regularly oiling a chain before.