i've been lurking for a while and posting on occasion, and i've noticed a trend or mindset here that has me a little confused to say the least.

i see a lot of posts along the lines of "kids are lazy! they should be out on bikes exercising! america is the most obese country in the world!" okay. that's not an exact quote, but the message is the same.

right alongside those threads are other posts that have such an elitist attitude to them it makes me want to throw up. who cares of someone's bike is 40 pounds and only cost 50 dollars. they're on a bike, right? isn't that what was wanted in the first place?

let's get things straight, shall we?

i build, sell, and fix bikes for a living (at a real bike shop, thank you, not walmart or whatever other place is hip to bash this week). i've yet to put together a kids bike that didn't weigh a ton.

to a kid, a bike is a toy and that's what it should be. if you try to make it anything else they're not going to want to ride it. kids, by nature, are also very abusive to their toys. who in their right mind would pay a couple hundred dollars for what amounts to a toy only to have their kid break it? that's foolish and a waste of money.

in closing, i suppose the point of this post is to ask you to stop trying to hold other people to your own standards and make up your mind. do you want to see more people on bikes? or do you want to see fewer people on bikes that are really expensive?

the two just don't mix.