Make 9 year old learn to ride a bike?

[SherbettAnna]

So DS is 9 now and hasn’t had a bike since he was about 4-5 (with training wheels) and he had a balance bike aged about 4.

We don’t live somewhere where he can just ‘ride his bike’ in the garden or outside the home. A bike wouldn’t fit in my little car so we would be limited to walking to a nice area he could ride to (I would walk him) once per week at the weekend. Wouldn’t be able to ride to school.

He isn’t bothered about a bike.
(He swims/ plays football x2 per week so it’s not like he’s not active).

I don’t know if I should spend money on a bike so he can learn to ride it eventually by practicing every weekend - only as I think he should be able to ride a bike.

YABU- Don’t get him a bike.

YANBU- he is 9 he should be able to ride a bike GO AND BUY ONE

All opinions welcome thank you.

I'm 33 and I can't drive or ride a bike. Tried to learn to ride the bike several times in childhood and they all ended in horrible crashes (into a pond, a tree, over a fence of a retirement home). My mum went on and on about it being essential and every kid needs to know, but that didn't make it any easier, if anything I just felt pressured into doing something where I would inevitably hurt myself. Also I'm dyspraxic so I just don't think it is an activity that everyone can enjoy. And the idea of using it for transport in this country with our awful infrastructure? Nah.

Learning to swim to a basic extent I see as essential because it might save your life, cycling is not the same.

Yes I have a funny thing when Im on a bike that the thing Im trying to avoid I head straight for, always have, as a child, as an adult.

We have four bikes in our shed.

DH uses his every so often
DS1 used his loads before he went to Uni (and got it nicked)
DS2 used to go out on his but hasn't for years and probably never will again
I've used mine twice in the last five years

I'm glad we can all ride but I would never use a bike if I could run/walk/drive instead.

The Netherlands have their excellent cycling network partly due to political leadership in some places (see Groningen) and partly due grassroots campaigning about child victims in road collisions (the StopDeKinderMoord campaign). It’s really paid off for them as not only is it easier to cycle but their roads are much better than ours too due to the focus on safety. The cycle routes really increase children’s freedom. There’s a very readable (& heartbreaking) account in Peter Walker’s book Bike Nation.

OP - you have choices (depending on finances):

1. buy folding bikes
2. buy a rack for your car
3. complain to your councillors as your Transport Department is letting you down - if you want to refer to government guidance on cycle routes, it’s is in LTN1/20 (you don’t need to read it all - the basic principles are enough for an argument).
4. look into local courses to teach him to ride by your council or by organisations like British Cycling, Cycling UK or the Walk, Wheel, Ride Trust (previously known as Sustrans)
5. Go on a holiday where you can ride bikes

Bikeability depends on your council - my council runs it only for children with their own bikes (which I think is unfair).

You can’t predict if your DC will need to cycle or not - my parents discouraged cycling in my teens due to road danger, then I studied somewhere where I could cycle & have cycled ever since. It’s cheaper than driving & public transport & means you can cover larger distances than walking. It’s also useful for shorter journeys where there is no bus route.

I've managed 60 years without riding a bike....not sure it's an "essential life skill" at all.

I think it’s an essential life skill too. Second hand kids bikes are very cheap and maybe you could get a bike rack for your car?

How can it be an essential life skill when so many of us manage to navigate life perfectly well without it?

What's with all these posters in their sixties and seventies proudly announcing they've never learned to ride a bike, and have never seen any need to do so? No wonder we're a nation of couch potatoes.

Wtf?? Are they 'proudly ' announcing it or just saying and contributing to the range of views and experiences??

None of mine were overly bothered til around age 8 or 9 and then taught themselves in an hour or two. If you can get to a very quiet, flat place and take the pedals off so he can practice like a balance bike for a while, then when they can glide for 10 seconds without needing to put feet down for balance, pop the pedals on again.

Round here there's free or very cheap bikes up on marketplace all the time. Might not be what he would choose if getting brand new but at least wouldn't have pressure of "we paid x for this and need to get out money worth!"

We walk. How far do you walk and how often?

Nobody’s “proudly announcing”, by the way. Just disputing that riding a bike is an essential life skill when it patently isn’t. Unless the meaning of essential has changed without me noticing.

Cycling is not an essential life skill. What can't you do if you can't ride a bike? People can still walk, get buses and drive cars, right? Unlike swimming, not being able to ride a bike is not going to potentially kill you either.

Track down a second hand bike OP and see how he gets on, but if the kid hates it then I wouldn't push it.

There are other forms of exercise, you know. I haven't owned a bike for 30 years but I can run 10k without stopping.

All of ours can ride bikes, we have spent £100's on bikes, helmets etc.

None of them have ever wanted to go for bikes rides as an activity. All sporty, healthy boys but they'd rather walk / run / play a sport / go for a hike than ride a bike. We have done rides as a family but all much prefer a hike.

None of them have ever used them for essentials travel. Oldest 2 are independent and get themselves around perfectly well.

What makes you think that not riding a bike = "couch potato". I am a size 10, eat healthy and have a physically demanding job. I see no appeal in riding a bike.

It's a skill everyone should learn. It's now or never, learning as an adult is so much more difficult.
If he's had a balance bike it won't take long for him to learn.

I think he should learn, there are second hand bikes on gumtree

My youngest sister was never taught, we'd moved from a more urban area to a farm when she was a toddler so we weren't out on bikes as much and it sort of just got missed. We didn't realize until she was a teenager. Her now husband taught her in her 20s. It's pretty appalling I think that she was never taught and I think probably reflects how my parents were as parents albeit they were very stretched with 5 of us.

All you need is a carpark out of hours, a playpark, a large field. My son learnt at 7 and that felt pretty late tbh

Bikeability is great for late starting riding

That poster clearly not recognising that we're a nation of couch potatoes due to an obesity epidemic in the younger generations in any case

It's actually a really useful skill for meeting people when you're older. It's been the most social things I've done as an adult and there's lots of different types of riding. Lots of pump tracks popping up and that's an entirely different skill.

Now I don't walk well, it's really helpful to be able to ride a bike.

Can we stop having the 'essential life skill' debate back and forth. Obviously everybody is going to have a different opinion on this.

If he's agreeable to learning I recommend doing this. Being able to ride a bike is a useful skill to have and cannot be picked up at short notice later in life. Who knows when he might meet friends who want to go out on bikes or get a job where commuting by bike is the best option.

It’s a skill that enriches your life and is easier to learn when young, irrespective of people agreeing that it’s a life skill.
People not being able to do something isn’t proof a skill isn’t important. Some people can’t swim, drive or read, after all.
I‘d get a secondhand bike and teach him over easter. Then I‘d let him decide whether he wanted to keep the bike or not, or consider getting a folding bike for the family.

I'm fairly certain the obesity epidemic is not confined to younger generations.

And I’m fairly certain it’s not because some people don’t ride bikes.