Do kids still ride bikes?

[Rich_W]

I wonder how many kids would quite like a bike, but parents veto it because the roads are populated by a (relatively small) percentage of cocktards (some of whom like to post on this forum berating cyclists for no reason other than once they had to slow down a bit for a few seconds) who will get the arse at a bicycle using "their roads" and will often drive aggressively towards bikes regardless of the age of the rider.

[Ari]

I suspect that gas something to do with it. That and the Faily Mail's paedophiles. Paedophiles as far as the eye can see!

In my immediate family kids have bikes, but they're used for occasional 'bike rides', they're not transport to get the kids where they want to go - that's what parents and cars are for.

[iphonedyou]

Ari said:

At the weekend we were driving through an estate when we were passed by a teenager on a bike going the other way. Not a lycra clad cycling enthusiast, not a BMXer doing stunts, just a normal looking normally dressed kid riding a drop handlebar bike looking like he was going from one place to another.

And it struck me - you never see that any more. I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw a kid on a bike who just looked like he was simply going somewhere.

When I was a kid (when I were a laaad, during the war, etc) we all used bikes to get around. Everyone went to school on them instead of in the back of mummies 4x4.

Do schools even have bike racks any more?

See loads of kids on bikes (Fulham) and loads of bike racks (QS, buildings I work on.)

[iphonedyou]

Rich_W said:

I wonder how many kids would quite like a bike, but parents veto it because the roads are populated by a (relatively small) percentage of cocktards (some of whom like to post on this forum berating cyclists for no reason other than once they had to slow down a bit for a few seconds) who will get the arse at a bicycle using "their roads" and will often drive aggressively towards bikes regardless of the age of the rider.

Virtually none, I'd say.

[Ari]

iphonedyou said:

Virtually none, I'd say.

Would you? Given the amount of parental paranoia you see these days I wouldn't surprise me. Look how many kids get driven to school because of road dangers and perceived paedos. It's bedlam around school gates at dropping off/collecting time these days, total snarl up of traffic.

[mildmannered]

Ari said:

iphonedyou said:

Virtually none, I'd say.

Would you? Given the amount of parental paranoia you see these days I wouldn't surprise me. Look how many kids get driven to school because of road dangers and perceived paedos. It's bedlam around school gates at dropping off/collecting time these days, total snarl up of traffic.

My wife was having kittens as our youngest decided to travel by pushbike the other night.

She's nineteen and a half and was cycling to work...

[chrismcg1]

My 9 year old lad has his cycling proficiency at school all this coming week. Took him out earlier, he can signal right but not left! Told him he might need to plan routes going forward!

[Otispunkmeyer]

Now that its been mentioned....no! Then again I think the small estate we live on is full of old people.

When I was younger a bike was basically your ticket to freedom. With a set of wheels, friends were much easier to get to. We used to go everywhere on bikes and we used to have our own races round the block. Once we had about 20 of us racing. Awesome times. Not so awesome when you leave your bikes down on the common whilst having a game of footie and some knobs come steal them though! (and it wasn't like the common was on the way to anywhere, it was in a cul de sac, you basically had to know people with bikes had gone there and followed them in).

The only people I see riding today are MAMIL's out on a training mission.



Thinking back I wonder how I did it all. I used to be swimming 6-8 times a week at that time and then be tearing around on a bike all weekend. No wonder I am a lanky streak of piss today!

[Colonial]

plenty around here.

Heaps of teenagers with surfboard racks on their bikes as well. Easier to get to the beach that way than to use public transport.

[Corpulent Tosser]

My kids had bikes and my grandkids have bikes, but I think bikes are used more as recreation rather than as general transport as they were when I was a kid, but then my parents never had a car and they used bikes too.

So yes kids do still ride bikes but I think the usage has changed.

[m8rky]

Not as much, and has been on the decline for several years IMO. We now have a generation of car drivers that have never been on two wheels and I am sure it contributes to some of the appaling driving standards and lack of awareness of road conditions.
That said Road Safety in general is not dealt with in schools now. When I grew up we had the Tufty Club, Green Cross Code etc. Vital life skills that were taught from an early age.

[Kermit power]

iphonedyou said:

Rich_W said:

I wonder how many kids would quite like a bike, but parents veto it because the roads are populated by a (relatively small) percentage of cocktards (some of whom like to post on this forum berating cyclists for no reason other than once they had to slow down a bit for a few seconds) who will get the arse at a bicycle using "their roads" and will often drive aggressively towards bikes regardless of the age of the rider.

Virtually none, I'd say.

I'd say lots.

Our kids' Saturday morning bike club has 40+ kids on bikes there every week, and you also see a fair number of kids on bridleways and canal paths, but whilst the roads of Surrey are rammed with adult cyclists at the weekends, you hardly ever see kids on the roads, and I'd say most of the reason for that is motorists' attitudes - perceived or real - to cyclists on roads.

I think nothing of cycling to Waterloo and back for my commute, but when I do that, I'm generally able to travel at or above the speed of motorised traffic. I tried to cycle to bike club on one Saturday morning when I only had my eldest (she's 12) to take along, and roads which I'm perfectly happy riding on my own at 18-20mph were terrifying with her at 10mph, as drivers who would've held back at the higher speed lost all patience and started forcing their way past at every opportunity (again, real or perceived!) to the point that I had three separate occasions where cars tried to push in between me and my perfectly visible daughter 5 feet in front of me because they didn't have space to go past both of us.

[soad]

I see bikes and skateboards, so yes.
Balls kicking about too.

[Ari]

soad said:

I see bikes and skateboards, so yes.
Balls kicking about too.

As transport?

[soad]

Ari said:

As transport?

No. At least not to the school/s.
Local park, local shops/library, back streets etc.

[Kermit power]

Corpulent Tosser said:

My kids had bikes and my grandkids have bikes, but I think bikes are used more as recreation rather than as general transport as they were when I was a kid, but then my parents never had a car and they used bikes too.

So yes kids do still ride bikes but I think the usage has changed.

I suspect much of that is down to the fact that these days, kids bikes actually can be used for recreational purposes!!

I had a Raleigh Chopper as a kid, and my mates had either the same or a Grifter. We used them a lot, but three gears and the weight of a small terraced house (a quick google suggests around 16kg for the Grifter and a staggering 18.5kg for the Chopper!!), they weren't really much use for anything other than a quick ride round to a mate's house!

My daughter's Islabike, on the other hand, weighs in at under 10kg with 8 gears on a wide range cassette with proper working brakes (something the Chopper certainly never bothered with!), so she's perfectly confident riding down 10 foot bomb holes and up the ever side. We might've tried that once on a Chopper, but probably not twice!! Sure, at £400, it's expensive for a kid's bike, but I don't think it's any more expensive than the Chopper and Grifter were in their time.

[Triumph Man]

Round here only the 20 something chavs seem to ride bikes, and that's because they can't afford cars. Aside from this the only people round here who ride bikes are serious bikers.

[Moonhawk]

m8rky said:

That said Road Safety in general is not dealt with in schools now. When I grew up we had the Tufty Club, Green Cross Code etc. Vital life skills that were taught from an early age.

Yep - IMO the highway code, green cross code, cycling proficiency etc should all be on the national curriculum. It's crazy that something as all pervasive as our road network has no mandatory requirement in terms of education or training.

[P-Jay]

My Son does and doesn't really - most of the kids in the street have some sort of bike or other, but my Son prefers to scream up and down the street on his scooter thing.

He's got a mountain bike, which he uses when he's out riding with me at trail centres (purpose built mountain bike tracks) and even in the Alps - but it cost a bloody fortune (relatively) and all the other kids slam theirs on the floor when they're finished with it, leave it outside over-night and whatever else - I think it goes through him a bit ha ha.

[Ari]

soad said:

Ari said:

As transport?

No. At least not to the school/s.
Local park, local shops/library, back streets etc.

I guess that was my point really. You see kids playing on bikes riding up and down the street where they live, or occasionally on bike rides (often with parents after being transported there with bike on bike rack).

But I almost never see kids looking like they're just popping to their mates house or to the cinema or even to school come to think of it, hence wondering whether it was just me.

Seeing the kid on a racer on an ordinary road with a bag over his shoulder looking like he was just going somewhere was really stand-out unusual.