RickTheUncivil
Old School Grand Master
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This is a slow burner this one.
As I guess many of you do too, I have kids. And probably also like you, I am keen to see my kids enjoying cycling as much as I did when I was young / do now.
For my boy when he was just starting ‘She’ insisted on making a hoo-har about ‘Santa bringing him his first bike because that’s what everyone should have’. Then when he was ready for a 14/16” wheeler ‘She’ insisted that the boy could choose his bike, and of course his choice was directed by the toys that came clipped to the back (in this case a nerf gun) rather than it being an actually good bike :facepalm:
In fairness, these abominations didn’t put him off and while he may not have been lighting up timing boards or pushing the boundaries of bravery (yet) he did alright. But at this point I started to leave ‘Her’ out of the equation. Happily, a friends’ lad had outgrown his 16” wheel Dawes Barracuda which was donated, great, one for home (the Dawes) and the Apollo could be kept at Grandmas – we visit a lot, it was worth it. The Dawes had an alloy frame to the Apollos pig iron, alloy rims, v brakes etc, not a bad bike really. The boy saw the benefits too and preferred the Dawes.
When he was lined up for a 20” wheeler I took matters into my own hands again and before 'She' could interfere I picked up a Kona Makena locally for not much money, gave it a once over and when the time came, off he went. Now he was really starting to pedal.
Then he grew again. Barely a year later he was looking ungainly on the Kona, so we started planning the next step up to 24” wheels. Now as he was a bit older I included him in the process – see <here> for more on that project.
But anyway, back to business. The younger of the offspring is more of the girly variety, She is only just starting out on her bike, and as befits younger siblings, she's gonna get the hand-me-downs. For the kiddy sizes this will be fine, the 12” wheels are a sort of unisex zoo animals theme that these young’uns apparently enjoy. For 16” we have the Dawes and 20” the Kona, both in a non-gender specific colour so ‘She’ can’t argue.
But when we get to the next step, probably 24” wheels again, what to do? I’ll tell you what we do – Dad takes over and makes something ace, that’s what happens!
And with barely 4 years to get ready (and given my slow project progress history) I’d better get started.
As I guess many of you do too, I have kids. And probably also like you, I am keen to see my kids enjoying cycling as much as I did when I was young / do now.
For my boy when he was just starting ‘She’ insisted on making a hoo-har about ‘Santa bringing him his first bike because that’s what everyone should have’. Then when he was ready for a 14/16” wheeler ‘She’ insisted that the boy could choose his bike, and of course his choice was directed by the toys that came clipped to the back (in this case a nerf gun) rather than it being an actually good bike :facepalm:
In fairness, these abominations didn’t put him off and while he may not have been lighting up timing boards or pushing the boundaries of bravery (yet) he did alright. But at this point I started to leave ‘Her’ out of the equation. Happily, a friends’ lad had outgrown his 16” wheel Dawes Barracuda which was donated, great, one for home (the Dawes) and the Apollo could be kept at Grandmas – we visit a lot, it was worth it. The Dawes had an alloy frame to the Apollos pig iron, alloy rims, v brakes etc, not a bad bike really. The boy saw the benefits too and preferred the Dawes.
When he was lined up for a 20” wheeler I took matters into my own hands again and before 'She' could interfere I picked up a Kona Makena locally for not much money, gave it a once over and when the time came, off he went. Now he was really starting to pedal.
Then he grew again. Barely a year later he was looking ungainly on the Kona, so we started planning the next step up to 24” wheels. Now as he was a bit older I included him in the process – see <here> for more on that project.
But anyway, back to business. The younger of the offspring is more of the girly variety, She is only just starting out on her bike, and as befits younger siblings, she's gonna get the hand-me-downs. For the kiddy sizes this will be fine, the 12” wheels are a sort of unisex zoo animals theme that these young’uns apparently enjoy. For 16” we have the Dawes and 20” the Kona, both in a non-gender specific colour so ‘She’ can’t argue.
But when we get to the next step, probably 24” wheels again, what to do? I’ll tell you what we do – Dad takes over and makes something ace, that’s what happens!
And with barely 4 years to get ready (and given my slow project progress history) I’d better get started.
