Telling him/her that riding on the road is suicidal without knowing the road conditions, traffic and such, is jumping to conclusions. Foxy and Alex, I am sorry but you are a bit misguided here. This kid is 13 and his parents won't even let him/her WALK the 1/2Km to school!!! That is certainly being way too overprotective...and while I am noone to tell a parent how to raise their children, if they weren't going to let him/her ride, then why even let him/her have a bike in the first place. I like to think my parents were concerned about my safety too, but they bought me my first road bike at 10 and taught me the proper way to ride and be safe....then let me ride the roads (and this was 18 miles from NYC). I am sure the parents mean well but this is simply being overportective. My parents only drove me to school when I was 15 and had a broken ankle and coudn't ride or walk.

Pink_Ninja...good luck to you, I hope they come around.

Cheers,

Brian