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.

My cousin never rode one. There has been nothing noticeably unusual about how her life has proceeded.

Not exclusively, but it may be a contributing factor. It's no secret that the UK is absolutely car-daft, and has been since the 1960s.

I'd definitely teach him. We lived in a city ans have since moved to somewhere with much more space. Its a life skill thats been amazing for him!

Sport England wants to increase how much people walk & cycle for travel due to its potential to improve the nation’s health & fitness.

No-one has to cycle if they don’t want to - but at a policy level it’s good for health & managing transport. It’s also really useful - I live where we have good public transport & I can walk & drive, but there are still journeys that are easier to do by bike for example where there are are gaps in the bus network. Sustrans Scotland did research years ago that equated cycling to work with a pay rise (I think it was 8%). That’s definitely worth having.

I think we also need to recognise that many children today lack the freedom that those of us who grew up in the 80s / 70s / 60s / 50s etc took for granted. Unless a child lives in a LTN (aka a cul-de-sac) it’s hard to them to play out / ride bikes / walk & cycle around because of the way that adults drive. This is what is at the root of the OP’s dilemma. Children are castigated for this - criticised for not knowing the green cross code, spending too much time online etc. - but it’s really a problem that adults created & could solve fairly easily, and given the current dire headlines re obesity & child mental health there are really good reasons for doing so.

I mean make is a strong word but I’d say take him to a couple of days out where he gets to have a go. I couldn’t ride a bike till I was 20 and I’m not going to lie it was a bit awkward at uni when I had to tell my new mates actually “no I can’t go on the lime bikes unfortunately they don’t have stabilisers”.

It does enrich your life. It is easier to learn when young although another poster above has given me a different perspecgtive on this concept that you cant learn as an adult or its difficult to learn as an adult, I think I was wrong about that and its not really any different to learning as a child now that I think about it.

People are not disagreeing its a skill or that its useful or helpful or enriching and good for exercise. No one has said is not important at all. But under no definition can it be deemed as essential. Ie you cannot function without it.

Just an aside about folding bikes in case its relevant to OP, we have worked our way through a number of these, some quite expensive, some cheapy, we find them very hard to operate all the levers and things (cant think of the word for the things that fold over and put the bike in place), you need stronger hands than we have and good fine motor control which I dont have.

Get yourself a bike too and a roof rack and go on bike rides together !
im a mum of 3 boys. It’s a great thing we can do together. (I’m no good at football)

OP I wouldnt suggest a roof rack at all. We had one for a while and it involved us needing a step stool to carry round in the car to get up on the roof, enough room in the car park to be able to get by the side of the car and swing round to put the bike down, and same in reverse

We got tow balls fitted in the end and now have rear racks, much better all round.

We have non ebikes and ebikes too. Even the non ebikes became too difficult in the end to remove from the roof. Fine if you're some strong young man with a carbon skinny bike

Not so good for a couple of sturdy hybrid trekking bikes!!

Its definitely something worth teaching your child even if cycling isn't something you do in your family because he might very well want to be able to bike places when he's older (especially useful for getting around at university). Is it possible to borrow a bike to teach him?

As for the life skills debate, in my country's version of the red book there's a chart to tick off when your baby/toddler/preschooler reaches each milestone and one of those milestones is riding a bike so its considered an expected skill here at least (also skiing and skating were milestones ) and depending where you live it can be a very very important skill. It absolutely is an essential skill in my town because the children need to bike between school sites in upper school (can walk between two of the sites but you will be late to the next lesson and there's no chance of walking the 7km to the PE site in time for your lesson!)

I'd definitely teach him to ride soon somehow, whether you borrow a bike or buy one. How about a second hand bike rack for the car? I didn't learn as a child because my parents thought it unsafe (think they probably couldn't afford a bike) and then as a teenager I was too embarrassed to try in public or with stabilizers because 'everyone can ride a bike, eye roll'. When my husband took the kids cycling I tried briefly as an adult but couldn't get my balance and was a bit of a wuss. Now at my age I'd break something. But it held us back on holidays etc I've always wished I could ride.

I think it’s an essential skill. Both my adult DDs and my DH use a bike for commuting. Most teenagers I know cycle to school. Mine did. I think it’s much more essential than learning to drive.

Then I’ll pose the question to which nobody has an answer once more: if it’s an essential skill, how is it that a significant section of the population manages to navigate life successfully without it? Riding a bike wouldn’t have helped me when I was doing a 100 mile round trip commute, driving certainly did.

I think if you have a place to keep a bike and a place to ride it, it’s nice for your kids to know how to do it. But if you have neither or it’s logistically complicated then it’s fine. Your child can learn later on if it becomes important. I don’t think it’s something to feel guilty about if you can’t make it work. Loads of people around me wouldn’t have anywhere to keep a bike or anywhere to ride it so there’s no reason to stress about it.

My grandson loves his bike and cycling around the park with his friends. It's a feeling of freedom you don't get when you have feet on then ground. Where do his friends cycle? When he sees them, he'll want to do it. You'll need to buy a cycle rack. Thinking about it, buy a cycle yourself. I'm 73 and still love to get out on 2 wheels. You can enjoy rides together.

So a very quick google brings up this article suggesting 92% of UK adults can ride a bike vs 75% who can drive. No idea how reliable that source is but just anecdotally that seems realistic to me.

Whether we use the word essential or not, it’s clearly a skill you can safely assume most people you meet will have.

It is certainly always preferable to have any skill than not to, and this is a particularly easy one to tick off the list in childhood, so unless there are major barriers I don’t see why you wouldn’t.

More people can cycle than drive

So it’s not essential. I was hoping we’d get there eventually.

Buy him a bike.
String a rope three feet up, down your garden,
Remove the tyres from the bike and he can ride the bike along the rope in the garden.

I saw this in a circus, and it was great.

Does he want to?

I can’t ride a bike. My co-ordination and balance are…. off! Plus I’m not bothered enough to keep try. I’ve never felt particularly disadvantaged.

It is essential if you don’t have a car or can’t drive.

Agree with others that swimming is more important than cycling, for safety reasons.

My child's school does a cycling programme for year 5's every year, so it's worth checking if your child will be expected to do anything like that through school. If so I'd want them to learn to avoid being embarrassed in front of their peers.

Would have been better when he was younger but 9 is better than 12, 15 or never.

In my eyes, riding a bike is like learning to swim or how to tie your shoe laces. It just opens up more opportunities and makes life easier.

Same article says 72% of adults have access to a household car and can drive but only 37% of adults own a bike, so that suggests to me that a very large portion could cycle but choose not to.

Yes I think that is probably quite likely. Choose not to or don’t have the opportunity day to day for whatever reason, or both.

How as a blanket statement?

I didnt drive or have a car until my mid 30s and we moved out of London so needed to drive.

That’s probably a reflection on the lack of cycle routes in many areas.

But - as is currently happening in London and Paris - build it [safe cycle routes] and they will come…