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OMG!!! Really? I have no problem with someone trying to earn an honest paycheck. I do have a problem with the fact that some parents are so ignorant that they can't teach their child how to ride a bicycle. My parents started me off with training wheels that had an adjustable height. Dad started off with the training wheels lowered all the way down. Gradually, he would raise the height of the training wheels and gauge my skills. Once he felt I had enough riding skills, he removed the training wheels and calmly and patiently got me riding without wheels. If I fell, I fell. No drama. The article said the problem with the kid mentioned in the article was fear. I wonder if the kid generated the fear on his own or did he pick it up from over protective and worrying parents. In my youth, parents accepted that kids had accidents. They fell down, they scraped their knees and elbows, and they sometimes broke bones. Parents didn't make every little boo boo a traumatic ER visit. If a kid is so fearful or unskilled that they require the aid of a professional coach to teach them to ride a bicycle, how likely are they to move onto motor scooters or motorcycles? How likely are they to become a very bad driver due to fears?
IMHO the fear is the parents, not the kids. I started riding with a tricycle and kept crashing every time I tried to turn. Getting a bicycle was a revelation not to mention a lot safer.
The way I see many adults ride bicycles, this is probably a good thing. Maybe a "coach" will actually teach them to obey traffic laws (like stop signs/red lights), to ride on the right side of the road and to show some courtesy for others on the road. These were all things we did when I road as a kid/teen, but seem to be lost on today's "adult" bicyclists.
OMG!!! Really? I have no problem with someone trying to earn an honest paycheck. I do have a problem with the fact that some parents are so ignorant that they can't teach their child how to ride a bicycle. My parents started me off with training wheels that had an adjustable height. Dad started off with the training wheels lowered all the way down. Gradually, he would raise the height of the training wheels and gauge my skills. Once he felt I had enough riding skills, he removed the training wheels and calmly and patiently got me riding without wheels. If I fell, I fell. No drama. The article said the problem with the kid mentioned in the article was fear. I wonder if the kid generated the fear on his own or did he pick it up from over protective and worrying parents. In my youth, parents accepted that kids had accidents. They fell down, they scraped their knees and elbows, and they sometimes broke bones. Parents didn't make every little boo boo a traumatic ER visit. If a kid is so fearful or unskilled that they require the aid of a professional coach to teach them to ride a bicycle, how likely are they to move onto motor scooters or motorcycles? How likely are they to become a very bad driver due to fears?
So what does a parent do that does not know how to ride a bike? My wife never learned so how could she possibly teach anybody how to ride.
I always knew how to ride but our son had the some fears he got from his mother and he took a while to learn.
So what would you suggest to parents who don't know how to ride. People who grow up in the city also learn how to drive much later in life because they have no need for cars.
I learned on my brother's bicycle and never had one of my own. I probably didn't ask. Can't remember. I preferred skating on our very long concrete driveway.
Maybe this belongs in the "Cycling" forum. Just a thought.
But speaking of coaching, I'm on my way to becoming a MSF RiderCoach™. Just a few more hoops to jump through, about 60 hours of instruction, and some supervised classes, and I'm in!
I figured it out in less than an hour on my own. I taught my younger brothers by shoving them down a hill. Sure we got all skinned up, but it was fun. I guess kids do it different these days.
I figured it out in less than an hour on my own. I taught my younger brothers by shoving them down a hill. Sure we got all skinned up, but it was fun. I guess kids do it different these days.
When I was a kid I used to push a bicycle around while my sister and cousins rode theirs. One day my uncle decided to push me around and then he let go, and at that moment I learned to ride.
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Some one has more money than parenting skills. That is a shame.
