Bike Riding

[TheCoffeeChick]

Do kids ride bike anymore?!?!? :confused:

 

Ds had scouts yesterday. The meeting was a special one in which the boys all brought their bikes to learn about safety and rules and to go through a fun obstacle course. These boys were mostly 8 or 9, but the age range was 6 - 12. Very few of the boys even knew HOW to ride their bikes and the majority still had training wheels!!! Most looked very awkward, like they had never been on their bikes.

 

Ds rides his bike just about everyday - hasn't had training wheels for about 2 years. He'd probably ride more, but I don't like to let him go very far by himself. When I was elementary aged, I rode my bike EVERYWHERE, all my friends rode everywhere, and everyone knew how to ride a bike. Why do these kids not know the joy of bike riding?

 

I guess it bothers me so much because it was heartbreaking to see all the boys get so embarassed and sad that they couldn't ride. Not many of them could even go through the obstacle course. :( Even with training wheels.

[Mama Geek]

My guess is it depends on where you are. I rarely see kids outside near my house in VA. I didn't know there were tons of kids in the neighborhood until we had a tropical storm come through several years ago that knocked out everyone's power for a couple of weeks. (This was the storm that caused most people to go out and buy generators so we haven't seen them out since.)

 

I go 1 1/2 hours to visit family and their kids ride bikes, 4 wheelers, dirt bikes, skates....you name it. They are out in the country and don't spend much time inside. Of course they are homeschooled;) but the PS cousins in the same area know how to do all of that as well.

[TheCoffeeChick]

I suppose it just makes me sad that we have a whole generation of kids being brought up who don't know the joys of playing outdoors. :( I'm not against TV or video games at all - we allow these things in moderation, but if our kids don't (won't) go out outside, how are they going to discover everything there is out there? There is so much more adventure out there than what you can find on TV.

 

How will they know what the cool wind against your face feels like on a brisk autumn day? Or the beauty of a pink sunset? Or the smell of freshly cut grass? Or ... well the list goes on and I am really disheartened. :crying:

[Joyofsixreboot]

My kids always seem to be the only children playing outside period. Dh and I joke that people probably think we're ogres and the kids are trying to escape.

[BikeBookBread]

I see lots of children riding in front of our home, obviously going to and from a destination (like the neighborhood pool, school, etc.) It doesn't seem like they are riding for fun. My girls seemed to ride more when we were in Arizona, but that could be because we live on a busier road now, and have to ride on the sidewalk rather than in our actual residential, non-thoroughfare, subdivision street.

[linders]

My DSs ride well. We have a nice little neighborhood, not big, but quiet, easy to ride around. They are the only kids who ride. Ever, as far as I know.

 

This is right up there with my post about the scouts who had no idea how to do a somersault.

 

I wonder how the de-emphasis on gross motor skills is affecting these young mids and bodies?

[abbeyej]

Some do, some don't. When I run in the mornings, I always see a number of kids biking to school with their parents. (It always tickles me to see the dads riding along with their kids' tiny Hello Kitty and Batman backpacks!) But neither of my kids were riding their bikes without training wheels at 6 or 7. We don't have a sidewalk, and practicing in the street makes me nervous, so I didn't push it when they were so young. Dd is 8 and still hasn't removed her training wheels, though I do believe she's perfectly capable and would ride in a day or two if she decided she wanted to. In ds Boy Scout troop, all of the boys ride bikes (and they take at least an annual long bike over-night), but of the Cubs, I think a fair number are still learning.

 

I also think a lot of kids use scooters instead of bikes...

[susankenny]

I suppose it just makes me sad that we have a whole generation of kids being brought up who don't know the joys of playing outdoors. :( I'm not against TV or video games at all - we allow these things in moderation, but if our kids don't (won't) go out outside, how are they going to discover everything there is out there? There is so much more adventure out there than what you can find on TV.

 

How will they know what the cool wind against your face feels like on a brisk autumn day? Or the beauty of a pink sunset? Or the smell of freshly cut grass? Or ... well the list goes on and I am really disheartened. :crying:

 

 

Well, my daughter didn't learn to ride until she was 8. We don't even have TV and she doesn't play video games (well, we have netflix, but it isn't sucking up her life). She didn't want to learn because she was afraid, and in our town, there is no where to ride a bike. Our sidewalks are old and have grass growing out of them & it makes it very difficult to learn on. We do pack up the bikes and go to a park sometimes, but she felt embarrassed there. It just wasn't an interest for her honestly until last year. Now she rides beautifully.. But even still, she can't ride unless I'm with her (not safe!). She's only 9 and way too young to cruise around town like I did at her age. I'm 40 & grew up in a neighborhood. Kids then traveled in packs. Nowadays, kids aren't watching TV after school from what I see....but rather, they are at many extra curricular activities and always on the go. No one is ever home to play outside anymore. I certainly hope no one feels sorry for my children though. As my daughter is hardly deprived. She plays outside every.single.day. Just because bike riding came later in life, didn't mean it was due to the circumstances listed above. My son is still learning to ride his bike. He's 6.

 

 

Susan

Edited October 13, 2010 by susankenny

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Well, all of the kids in our neighborhood know how to ride their bikes, except mine. And the kids I'm talking about are aged 5-9. They whiz up and down the street like nobody's business.

 

My kids can ride their bikes with training wheels. Last year, we got bigger bikes where the training wheels are slightly off the ground, and my kids did not like that at all. They screamed and cried as if someone were trying to murder them when dh and I made attempts to get them to ride with the slightly wobbly training wheels. So, we tried again this summer. They still would have nothing to do with any sort of wobbliness, so I took the bikes to a bike repair shop and got special training wheels that still touch the ground on both sides. Just in the past few weeks, DS1 wanted to try riding the bike without training wheels, so I've been holding the bike for him up and down the driveway, but he has no sense of balance on it, yet. I'm thinking maybe by the time they are 10 or 12, they MIGHT be able to ride a bike by themselves.

 

This is very foreign to me, because I remember getting a yellow bike with a green banana seat for my 5th birthday, and begging my father to take the training wheels off. I pretty much taught myself to ride it, and only crashed a few times. I don't know why my kids are so afraid.

[sagira]

My ds (7) is afraid to ride a bike without training wheels. He took a looooong time to master the tricycle (he was probably 5). He's the cautious type. He wouldn't be sad about not being able to bike, he would have been sad if I tried to teach him. That said, I've already talked to dh about it and we're working on this Fall/Winter (we live in Florida). We brace ourselves for a lot of tears and reluctance. Zero interest to learn, even when all his friends can. He doesn't care. This child really doesn't like stepping out of his comfort zone.

 

Otherwise, this same boy loves to zoom around on his scooter, to play outside, "make rivers", climb trees, and imagine.

[susankenny]

This is very foreign to me, because I remember getting a yellow bike with a green banana seat for my 5th birthday, and begging my father to take the training wheels off. I pretty much taught myself to ride it, and only crashed a few times. I don't know why my kids are so afraid.

 

:lol: LOL. my first bike was a banana seat too. I learned to ride in kindergarten, and I didn't have training wheel's ever. My dad just took me out and gave me a shove. I fell an awful lot at first...but if I wanted to keep up with the neighborhood pack, I had to learn to ride. At age 5, I was gone all day with the older kids and my mom never even worried about me. As an adult, that seems insane!

[quetzal]

I've been trying to teach dd7 to ride without training wheels--she's terrified of falling. How do I get past that? She's been riding with training wheels for at least 3 years. I've seen bikes for small children with no pedals--you push off with your feet and coast. I'm wondering if that is a better solution than using a bike with training wheels for small children?

[Wheres Toto]

I'm actually glad to see this since I thought my son was way behind. He can ride with training wheels and we recently took the pedals and training wheels off his bike so he can try it like a balance bike. Unfortunately he doesn't get the chance to practice much since we have a gravel driveway and live on a very steep hill. Going anywhere to practice involves walking down the hill (which means back up later) carrying two bikes (my dd's trike) and trying to keep dd from tumbling down (it is that steep of a hill). Next year our new house will be done and we are going to have a long, flat, level, paved driveway that I'm hoping will open up more opportunities for them to ride bikes.

 

In my neighborhood all the kids ride bikes and scooters around. They are mostly slightly older kids - at least 8 - but a couple younger ones.

[Tutor]

We live in a rural area on a hilly road with no shoulder and a 55mph speed limit. We have nowhere to ride, so 2 of my kids don't know how. The other two learned when we lived in a place with plenty of places to ride. I grew up in a place similar to this and don't know how to ride. If we move to a place more amenable to cycling, my kids will learn if they'd like, but not learning to ride a bike isn't dooming them to a funless childhood. The play sports, build obstacle courses, have bonfires, climb trees, camp, hike, garden, bird watch, swim, build, make animal track casts, ride scooters at the park. Different kids, different families, different opportunities, different childhood milestones.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

DS and I have logged quite a few miles this summer and I can honestly say that there are very few children in our area who ride bikes. It's a real shame.

 

DS tried to get his Boy Scout Troop (not Cubs) involved in earning the Biking merit badge. Of the 20 boys in the troop only 5 have bikes and of those five only DS and 1 other boy ride on a regular basis and can ride any distance. When the other three boys learned they would have to ride 10-50 miles per ride they dropped out of the badge. One boy's mom told me he had never ridden farther than around their block.

Edited October 13, 2010 by The Dragon Academy
logging limes is a fun and all but not what we did

[2_girls_mommy]

Add us to the non riding list. My 8 yr old has been petrified, much like a PP's child, ever since she got the big girl bike w/the higher training wheels. We picked up practicing recently w/her again (we run alongside holding on) and she is deathly afraid and constantly puts her feet down to stop. Ah well. She will learn eventually.

 

ETA... it isn't because of lack of outdoor time. My children love to tear around on their razor scooters. Those are their wheels of choice!

[TheCoffeeChick]

I'm glad to see that just because kids aren't riding bikes doesn't mean they aren't outside. I see quite a few kids in our neighborhood playing outside everyday - even some riding bikes, so I know not ALL kids are stuck inside. It just seems anytime we are doing things with ds's cubscout pack, none of them have basic physical skills. I hope the boys get more than one hour a week to be outside and doing physical activities, it would be a shame if they didn't

 

I didn't mean to say to everyone on here that your kids are horrible because they can't ride bikes - sorry if I came across as snooty. My niece just learned how to ride without her training wheels last month and she is over 8 - my brother didn't learn how to ride without them until he was 10. But he was out everyday riding with me and our friends, just with training wheels. ;)

[Luckymama]

We live in a university town/small city. The majority of non-neighborhood roads have bike lanes or get light traffic :) All neighborhoods within the city limits are required to have sidewalks :) Almost every store or business has a bike rack immediately outside or a few doors down :)

 

Kids ride their bikes to school, to the pool, to friends' houses, etc. Older kids ride downtown to stores, to McD's, to the library, to get water ice, etc. Adults in our neighborhood commute to work by bike. Dh used to ride before he started working from home. We see teens and adults riding for exercise and for race practice every single day, in good and in poor weather. Icy and snowy days are the only times no one rides.

 

When ds's Cub pack and Boy Scout troop held/hold bike rallies, everyone showed/shows up with a bike and a helmet :)

[elegantlion]

My ds learned later because of where we lived previously, busy street no sidewalk.

 

He doesn't ride much now, honestly it's been too hot until a few weeks ago. Also we wouldn't let him ride out of the neighborhood because the street right outside is busy. Also drivers around here suck, excuse my language, but there have been several pedestrian accidents recently. I don't trust the drivers!

 

We are moving soon and I hope we'll get some riding in at our new town before winter hits.

[Farrar]

I never learned to ride because I grew up in a rural area without any paved places or flat areas in which to learn. It has been such to my detriment and I keep wanting to learn so I told myself that my kids had to learn. But they're so not interested. We live in an urban area so they need it too. I just can't seem to get them excited about it and I feel like a lot of it is because I don't know what I'm doing at all. *sigh*

[LibraryLover]

Bikes are very popular here. Even my older children still ride their bikes with friends to various shops etc. My youngest ds rode his bike to camp all summer as well, and I notice there are several bikes locked up outside at the high school. Soon the roads will be too icy to use bikes, but when the weather is good, I see kids riding.

 

As for the younger children I know in the 5-7 or so range: some have training wheels, some don't. I don't think that much matters.

Edited October 13, 2010 by LibraryLover

[Sherry in OH]

I never learned to ride because I grew up in a rural area without any paved places or flat areas in which to learn. It has been such to my detriment and I keep wanting to learn so I told myself that my kids had to learn. But they're so not interested. We live in an urban area so they need it too. I just can't seem to get them excited about it and I feel like a lot of it is because I don't know what I'm doing at all. *sigh*

 

Get yourself an adult tricycle and ride with your kids. Let your kids use training wheels if they are not comfortable without them.

 

You can get stabilizer wheels (AKA training wheels) for adult bikes, but I think the tricycles look more fun to ride.

[Tabrett]

To ride a bike, you have to go in the front yard. I don't let my kids go in the front yard or up and down the sidewalks/streets by themselves until about 10 years old. I can't stand in the front yard long enough for my dc to learn to ride without training wheels.

 

I live in a nice, safe neighborhood and I never see kids biking without an adult. I really never see kids biking. It is kinda sad since the public school connects to our neighborhood, but I assume most of the parents think the way I do. I can see the elementary school from my front door, it is so close. The elementary kids in our neighborhood are walked with an adult to school.

 

I'm thinking this maybe what is happening with most kids.

Edited October 13, 2010 by Tabrett

[HLDoll]

For all the folks talking about the kids being afraid of falling and balancing issues, my uncle shared the following tip with me. He took the pedals off my cousin's bike and took her to a very slight decline so she could just practice balancing with her feet low to the ground (and ready to stop if she needed) and the pedals out of the way. Once she got comfortable with her ability to balance, it was nothing to add the pedals back on and round out the skill set. We never did this as my kids each picked it up in one afternoon when we took the training wheels off (around age 5). It helps that we live at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac where they could practice in the street. Now they're only allowed in the street when I'm outside, otherwise they must stay on the sidewalks up and down the street.

[Lara in Colo]

We live in a quiet, dead end neighborhood with no through streets so mainly those that live here are driving. You'd think this would be a good place for children---WRONG. People drive like maniacs and I almost never let the children ride in the street (there are no sidewalks).

One man told me he would call CPS if he saw my children in the street without me again (I was in the driveway and they were one house away). I swear that he would rather hit my children to teach them (and me) a lesson rather than drive slowly to and from his house (yes he also has children).

When I do let them ride, I put colorful children stuff in the middle of the street (tables and gates) to make people have to drive around them and SLOW DOWN AND WATCH OUT.

One teen drove by and commented to my 7yo about the table and she said it was there because the teen drove way too fast --LOL--dd7 really gave her the what-for. I wish that people would be less in a hurry and more in a neighborly way. Now that cars can handle better at high speeds, people drive way too fast. Although, honestly, I'm more afraid of the Do Gooders that would call this child abuse than I am the actual dangers of the street.

 

Lara

[MamaBirdX7]

Just a tip I've picked up -- it's easier for kids to learn to ride on a bike that is slightly too small. They seem to have more control and more confidence than if they are at all tippy.

[RoundAbout]

I just joined here so coming to this discussion a few days late.

 

I'm surprised that there has been so little mention of balance bikes and the new way to teach kids without training wheels. We started my son on a Hotwalk when he turned 2, and now at almost 4 he's gliding around like crazy with perfect balance and control for very long stretches. We started taking him out on a trail-a-bike at 3.5 to get him used to pedaling and so he could keep up with our adult level rides. He turns 4 next month and will be getting a real bike of his own for his birthday. No training wheels. No tricycles.

 

The great thing about balance bikes is the kids learn entirely on their own, at their own pace, and with little direct instruction. No pain, no tears and little falling. They just do whatever they are comfortable with. For older kids I recommend REI's video on teaching a child how to ride a bike.

 

DH and I are avid cyclists in case you couldn't tell :) and I'm very passionate about kids and bikes!

[MamaJeanne]

Most kids around here do know how to ride bikes, but I can definitely see how bike riding could be easily replaced these days. I don't see kids riding the neighborhood like I remember. Most of the time bikes are taken to bike trails or parks that have good areas to ride. We will often meet friends somewhere just to go bike riding. When we got a bigger car for our growing family I didn't realize that I would be taking bikes with us everywhere!

 

My second son did learn how to ride the balance bike way. We just took the pedals off of a bike that was a little small for him. He rode that thing everywhere! It was great because he could ride over grass, through sand, and down hills without getting frustrated from getting high-centered like he would when we tried training wheels. When we finally put the pedals back on, he just jumped on and went. It was amazing really. We got a lot of strange looks from people who saw him walking/running his bike, though!

[TX Bluebonnet]

My 7 year old rides his bicycle several times a week. He has five friends that ride several times a week also. It is so cute when they are all out there together riding around the cul de sac.

 

I really don't like our house and would love to move but it would break my heart to move my son away from the first real friends he has ever had. (We used to move a lot.)