Giving Your Kids the Gift of Bikes

I’ve told the story a dozen times by now. When I was eight years old a BMX bike appeared in front of our artificial Christmas tree and changed my life. With the holidays in full swing, I got to thinking about ways to give your kids the gift of bikes that go beyond the bike in front of the tree.

Before we start, let me acknowledge that this project is fraught with peril. If you’re a parent and a cyclist, this whole process of encouraging your kids to ride bikes is terrifying. What if you screw it up?

There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that there are a lot of influences on your kids’ life path, and you’re only one of them. It’s not entirely in your control whether they love bikes or not. The good news is that, if your kid doesn’t take to bikes, it’s likely not your fault, at least not completely. A kid’s imagination is going to be captured by something. The competition for their attention is fierce, and bikes, and your love of them, are only one competitor in a crowded arena that includes video games, on-demand entertainment of every stripe, social media, etc.

But let’s talk about kids’ bikes briefly.

If you have the means, a bike can be a transformative gift. There are a number of companies focusing on bikes for children worth checking out. Prevelo springs to mind. Woom is another one. Guardian is a third that gets good reviews and offers affordable options. A good kids’ bike is night and day better than a bad kids’ bike. Pay attention to companies who specialize in this narrow but important category.

My advice, if you’re buying a bike, is to meet your kids where they are. I tried to replicate my own first bike experiences with my kids, and it didn’t really work. As I said, they live in a different world than we did. If you’re going to buy your kid a bike, make sure you understand what might excite them about a bike. Don’t get them the bike YOU think is cool. Get them the bike THEY think is cool. Ask questions. Listen to the answers. Sounds easy, but isn’t.

So that brings me to other gifts that can help.

I have a son playing elite club volleyball and contemplating a college playing career. His love for volleyball didn’t come from me or my wife. It came from watching anime. Yes, anime. He watched an anime series about a high school volleyball team, and he decided it was the sport for him. He had played soccer, baseball, flag football, hockey, ridden bikes, etc., and he chose volleyball based on an anime called Haikyu. 

And there are cycling-themed anime series you can watch with your kids. Try the super popular Yowamushi Pedal or Hill Climb Girl. Just the way BMX kids like me looked up to Evel Kinevil, kids today might be inspired by the kids or even the “pros” they see in anime.

Finally, we get to that old saw that “time is the best gift of all.” One mistake I made with my boys was not setting aside enough time to ride with them. I was too busy doing the rides I wanted to do. If your kid is getting a bike for Xmas or already has one but isn’t riding it as much as you’d like, consider gifting them some number of bike rides with you.

One last word here, a thing I learned about midway through being a dad. It doesn’t matter if your kid likes to ride bikes. The mission, I think, is not to convert them into a miniature version of yourself. What matters is that they find SOMETHING that lights them up. The process of finding that thing or things is almost always a mixed bag. That’s ok. As committed bike riders it’s not our job to produce more committed bike riders. It’s just for us, as parents, to give them reasonable exposure to this thing we love to do.