I'm starting to think of myself as an old C&V fogey: "In my day we rode our bikes everywhere", etc.

I got a nice K2 bike for my son this weekend off of craigslist. It was a few years old but all the hairs were still on the tires. The mom said her husband had hoped their kids would get into biking but they never did. This bike was practically never ridden.

When I was a kid, progressing from one bike to the next was a rite of passage. All the kids I knew rode bikes. That's how we got around. There was no "not getting into biking". Biking was a natural progression from walking. Now, once we got our drivers license, most of us quickly cast aside our bikes.

I know there are still lots of kids bikes being sold and the kids around here all seem to ride them, but is it different or did I just run into an unusual kid/family? They were in a wealthy suburb. Maybe that's the difference ;-)

I used to ride my Huffy bmx style bike all the time. Didn't go far after I turned 7 since we moved out to the "sticks", but roda all over the place on the property, & over to a buddy's house on the next side road. When I turned 13 I got a Raleigh Capri 10spd. Rode that a fair amount over the next three yrs, then parked it.

I think as for todays kids, unless the bike is in the video game they don't care! Yes, I played my fair share growing up, but still rode my bike as well. My boys love going for rides in the bike trailers, & are now learning to ride themselves ( they are 4 ). I just hope they continue to enjoy it. They got pretty upset when they were told they couldn't ride tonight because they had been acting bad. Boy did they straighten up real quick!

Chris

Yup, you hit the nail right on the head, if its not in a video game, they dont want anything to do with it, I jokingly asked my future son in law when he was going to start driving, his reply ? "When they replace the steering wheel with a PlayStation remote!"

UNusual is MY 13 yr old son doesn't know HOW to ride a bike yet!!

Lord knows I've tried, but he just doesn't have much of a sense of balance and the thought of falling off scares him. He lives at his Mom's 90% of the time, but visits fairly often. He's 12 miles away.
I think she hesitates to "push" him into something he's not comfotable with.

BUT! I think I've broken through that barrier finally!
I took him on one of his Boy Scout Troops rides last Sunday! It was 25 miles paved, 5 miles off-road.
So I talked him into the Stoker saddle of an old Gitane road tandem for the event!
He did GREEEAT!
That was by far the furthest he's ever riden in a single shot! On a two wheeler!
(I'm VERY proud!)

Next weekend we go for another Boy Scout ride. 35 miles Saturday, camp, then 35 miles back on Sunday!
But it's all road, so we'll ride the recumbent tandem TRIKE!

I think he may FINALLY see that a bike is the perfect "Freedom Machine" for a 13 yr old!
Here's hoping, anyway!

And that difference is...
Parents will drop a LOAD of $$$ on something the kid DOESN'T WANT!
(and then sell it for cheap a couple years later.)
that's how I got another recumbent trike! List price was $8,000.
The kid didn't want it.
I got it with 82 miles on the odometer for $2,000.
Go figure.

My sister's 5 kids all ride bikes and each one has learned on a great little Schwinn-type of bike with 16inch wheels that I bought for 5 bikes about 12 years ago. The 5 year old really loves it and even though it is too small for him now, he constantly bugs the 3 year old about "getting a turn on it".

I really should take a picture of it one day, that bike has some great history to it now

Kids will only appreciate the biking experience if they are expose to it one way or another. I myself have made it a point to invole those kids that are part of my life to the joy of biking and I know they ride more than most. Exposure is the best introduction to the sport of cycling.

When I was real young (as opposed to being 20 right now) my mom decided that she would rather drive me and my siblings around rather than have us ride our bikes to and from where we wanted/needed to go. Even though I always had a bike to ride, I just never had a reason to use it much. I really got into biking because I go to school at UC Davis where biking is part of life, and I absolutely love it. I'm the oldest of 4 children, and ever since I got back from my freshman year, I have really been pushing biking upon my siblings and my parents and aunts and uncles. My brother just bought his first road bike and although my sister doesn't like to ride much, my other younger brother just took over my old hoffman bmx and he loves it. Hopefully they'll do a lot more biking than I did before they turn 20.

My elder daughter is on my butt to find a new frame for the Raleigh ATB she outgrew. My younger one can't decide if she likes the 21-speed ATB or her great-grandmothers 3-speed Dunalt better. No PSP, no Gameboy, no DVD player in the car, no cable or satellite at home.
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My son rides his Schwinn (Performance) around town for most of his trips. THe rest he takes the bus. He's 17 and seemingly not interested in pursuing his liscence just yet which is fine by me. He even chided me the other day about not riding my bike as much lately.

I think there has been a shift in values and modes of entertainment. My parents had the great foresight to ban television from our house when I was born. We grew up on books and music for entertainment. To me and my siblings a bicycle was a way of freedom, it got us to the corner store, friends houses, the public library, school and the like. We had very few organized activities outside of church and the scouts. My parents only had one vehicle and it was parked most of the time.

Today the bulk of parents drive their kids everywhere, quite often because of where they chose to live. We didn't have game boys, X-box, Wii or whatever the game machine of the week is. We also had paper routes, the ability to work delivering groceries, and mowing lawns. All of these jobs have gone to adults. I have done what I can to instill a love of cycling and the outdoors in my children. It must have worked...sort of... Both of my children (now masquerading as responsible adults) have a love for the outdoors, my son is living car free in Leeds, England and looking for a bicycle to get around on. He loves the larger city life and the availability of mass transit. Daughter is a Recreation Therapy major with one year left in school, her bike and her Kayak each cost more than her car So I guess dear old dad hasn't done too bad.

Aaron

While I'm not a kid, I'm young enough for some of you guys to call me a kid (22), and I and a bunch of my friends around my age definitely appreciate bikes. We all ride them for transportation and some collect them. A guy I know who's maybe 1-2 years younger than me put together a period correct 1960 something Paramount track bike.

There's hope yet, then!

Uhh, where's the photos of the Paramount track bike?

East Hill

Haha, I'm sure he has some but I won't see him until thursday night at the bike church. I'll try an ask if he could post them here.

It's blue with half chrome stays, period correct Campy Pista everything and I think a super old cinelli stem with the external bolt head. He used to have really nice steel track drops but a minor accident bent them and put a big dent there too.

.

I know we would all like to see a Paramount track bike!

East Hill

No, definitely not. For one thing, they can't ride them anywhere - parents won't let them, and roads and neigbourhoods are just way more congested, distances to things are greater, people drive faster, they drive while talking on the phone, etc. Kids get driven everywhere. When I was a kid, we rode our bikes everywhere we went -- and there was no computer or video game console to keep us glued at home. We were always gone somewhere, and it was almost always outside, and it involved having our bike with us. Our bike was our whole life. I suppose that's why so many of us in our 50's, 60's and more now still ride and have an appreciation for the fine bicycle as humankind's most elegant and enduring mechanical invention.

I think bicycles still have a place, in some neighborhoods. However when you raise your kids in a city, sometimes its too dangerous to ride bikes. When i was a kid, my bicycle was my freedom, i mowed lawns for older family members (great grandmother, great aunt, etc) and my bike was how i got TO their houses. When i was 14/15 my friend and I rode our bikes EVERYWHERE including a town that was 15 miles away just to go to a pet shop! this was all on mountain bikes, its all we had. Even once i got my drivers license, i never had a car so my bike was my main source of transportation to tennis practice...i rode the bus in the morning because i wasnt ever awake enough to walk, and walked home from school, rain, snow, shine, cold hot etc, then would ride my bike back to school for tennis

im 25 (a kid to some of you) and while i need to ride more, i definitely have a few bikes (5 at the moment). My road bike which i love, my mountain bike which i have put countless hours into building up from frame and components, a bmx i dont ride, another mountain bike that needs the frame welded/replaced, and my recent addition an older steel schwinn mountain bike that im repainting and fixing up for a commuter/errand bike.

I think the importance of bicycles to kids these days relies ALL on the parents. My girlfriend hadnt had a bike in years till I bought her one this summer. I got her a nice Trek because I knew she would use it, and she just deserves a good bike shes only 18, but you should see the smile when shes biking! If I ever have kids, they wont be driven around (unless its necessary) and they will have bicycles and tennis raquets...no video games! none. I never had any growing up till i bought my own, didnt hurt me any

We're a far more affluent society than we were back in the '60's and '70's, when a lot of us - me included - were kids. With affluence comes more discretionary income, and with more discretionary income comes choice. Take a peek into the garage of a typical middle class family today, and compare it to what you would have seen 40 years ago, and I'll guarantee you that you'll see a lot more leisure gear than you would have back in the old days.

Bikes have competition, and attention spans are shorter.

Come on guys, kids still love bikes, maybe not EVERY kid, but they are [and I hope always will be] an important part of youth.

I grew up in a third world country away from any American cultural influence in the early 80's and spent more time on my bike then I did in bed. The other day I was training for an upcoming cyclocross race and I noticed kids riding their BMX bikes at the dirt jumps which had been there the day before. Don't generalize about video games etc etc etc ruining them. Kids are in to bikes if they receive the right influences to enjoy them.

As a kid in Tennessee, I was turned loose on my BMX bike from the of 8 onward. Dad showed us how to fix a flat and we figured out the rest. We were allowed to ride as far as our legs would take us, as long as we were home by dinner. We rode in the street (without helmets).

Somehow, I doubt that most kids today are granted as much freedom.

There have been a notable number of adults coming into the bike library looking for a bike for a 12-17 year old, usually male, because they want them to learn to ride. Typically, the adult is a mom or foster parent. While I haven't done a scientific survey of the situation, my anecdotal impression is that these are kids coming from single parent households. I don't really draw any concrete conclusions, just an observation. But I do have some general theories.

Whether it's true or not, there's the perception in many parts of the US that it's just not that safe anymore to let the kids bike around (or walk for that matter) by themselves.

I taught my daughter to ride a bike (and a couple of her friends, too) but her riding was limited to the park and bike trails when with an adult...

Sad.

Unfortunately, we're in this boat. My kids absolutely love riding, but none of it is for transportation. I have to explain to my wife that the kids need to learn that a bike ride shouldn't start with putting the bikes in the truck and driving to the rail-trail. We do have forest access in the neighborhood, but there's a steep climb to get there.

There is hope: on one of these rail-trail rides soon after getting new bikes (6yo boy has 20" 6 speed Trek, 10yo boy has Fisher hardtail) the 6yo saw someone ahead and immediately put it in high gear and chased him down! Gave him a raspberry as he passed! On our neighborhood rides they're both climbing 8% grades going to our city's forest reserve and riding 5+ miles at a shot on steep singletrack and logging roads. We did a bunch of rides while my wife was working this summer and the kids progressed so much that when she joined us for a good forest ride they both dusted her, and she's fit!

I do wonder if it is irresponsible to teach my kids to wheelie and hop 2' logs. I remember as a kid I had to do that stuff surreptitiously.

Later

Mel

Oops, I thought this thread was titled "Are bikes as important AS kids today." I was all ready to say "absolutely, just ask my wife," but now I'm not so sure ...

My first "serious" bike was a shiny (Diamond Back Harry Larry??) BMX with those crazy old "Nylon" star/mags for wheels.

It took me to far away, exotic, and exciting places, un-be-knownst to my mom, who would have killed me if she'd known I was ridning clear across Milwaukee to spend my allowence at this new thing called the "Video game arcade"

It allowed me to make new friends and to ride with the much older and cooler guys... It allowed our "gang" to explore the entire VA Hospital grounds and the woods that surround it.....We explored the railroad tracks at the old US Steel plant, Rexnord, Allis Chalmers, Briggs & Stratton, and Grafs Soda.....And we ALWAYS stopped at a working-Man's tavern in the industrial section where for $0.45 the nice old gent sold us 7UP in a genuine beer glass and Whatchamacallit candy bars.....The best candy bars ever....Our mom's would have tanned our hides for that....
We rode to the "Moon Fun Shop" daily to look at black light posters....Again, our mom's would have killed us for that...Because they called it "That filthy head shop with the pipes in back.."

Bikes were a CRITICAL ASPECT OF PARTICIPATING in culture.
I think kids today have a very different set of priorities...Do they even make friends like that anymore?? Yes, I'm sure there are still a few cool kids, but more who prefer text-messaging is unfortunate..

The freedom my early/childhood bikes gave me has never been surpassed, but riding my new Paramount in the Rocky Mtn's might match it

Irresponsible?!? Heck no! Those are valuable bike-handling skills. Personally, I'm trying to teach my son to hold a track stand before his fifth birthday.