Bought my son a Cannondale F4!.
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Use it as a loaner bike. Take someone else riding.
I bought him the bike thinking he could experience the joys of my youth when i was still riding my all steel unsprung mtb packed with a chop suey of take off components. I loved that bike, despite having to skip many lunches to afford it. I havent owned a bike since the late 80s. To rectify the matter, and get his sizeable behind off the gaming couch, I just bought myself an mtb 2 days ago. We are going to try and revive his interest. Bing
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That's pretty much the story I've heard from almost every parent on every untouched high end bike I've gotten for my kid or friend's kids off craigslist for like 1/3 retail. The main difference, only ONE parent ever had a bike or talked about biking with their kid. Damn shame...good for you getting involved. I am a huge believer in parenting by example. Good luck.bing! said:
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Get rid of the game box and see how much more active he becomes. Video games and fast food are killing us.
rant over
rant over
If you want to get your kids riding you really have to set a good example and go with them. It also helps if you try to make each ride a mini sort of adventure. Make a game of it. Pretend that you're all going on a huge mission to conquer some mountain even though its just round the block. Take some tasty snacks and eat em over looking a prime view. Kids also love to feel like they're the boss. I'll often just say to my kids, "well you're in charge now that we're in the forest, I'll follow you, take any track you like".
BUT, nowadays with TV, computers and the internet kids have seen everything and if you don't fire your kids up when they're young its pretty hard to do anything that interests them when its older. I can remember taking my 13 year old nephew out to our farm, gearing up and hitting a huge ski ramp like jump on my MXer. After landing a few of these 30m+ jumps I had a chat to him and he said he was a little disappointed I didn't do any "tricks". I thought just seeing a bike fly 100ft through the air and a good 20ft off the ground would be sort of impressive in itself. Kids nowadays are a tough crowd
BUT, nowadays with TV, computers and the internet kids have seen everything and if you don't fire your kids up when they're young its pretty hard to do anything that interests them when its older. I can remember taking my 13 year old nephew out to our farm, gearing up and hitting a huge ski ramp like jump on my MXer. After landing a few of these 30m+ jumps I had a chat to him and he said he was a little disappointed I didn't do any "tricks". I thought just seeing a bike fly 100ft through the air and a good 20ft off the ground would be sort of impressive in itself. Kids nowadays are a tough crowd
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Get him "competiton" that he can beat!
I bought my son a new HotRock 24 for his 11th birthday ($384.00!!!!) We took it out once and had a pretty good time. However, his enthusiasm wasn't anywhere near where I expected (hoped) it would be.
Then I got the brilliant idea to get his mom a bike. I picked up a really clean Kona Blast (Ford edition) for $200. NOW my son had someone he could show up! It was beautiful to watch him show her the "right lines" and how well he could climb!
Now they both want to ride more and I couldn't be happier! :thumbsup:
I bought my son a new HotRock 24 for his 11th birthday ($384.00!!!!) We took it out once and had a pretty good time. However, his enthusiasm wasn't anywhere near where I expected (hoped) it would be.
Then I got the brilliant idea to get his mom a bike. I picked up a really clean Kona Blast (Ford edition) for $200. NOW my son had someone he could show up! It was beautiful to watch him show her the "right lines" and how well he could climb!
Now they both want to ride more and I couldn't be happier! :thumbsup:
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Well mine's still young but biking was always a part of what we do...trailer, followed by trail a bike, then riding solo, to a 20" mtb.
Part of what I always did was make the bike a means to get to something they were interested in. A saturday morn ride with just the 2 of us to get pastries at the neighborhood coffee shop. A ride to feed the ducks at the neighborhood pond. Sometimes we do a long paved trail along a small river...the destination is a couple of nice playgrounds and some low water crossing where we stop to play. Eventually it lead to mine and one of the neighbor kids just liking to play on our street, but first they have to associate a bike w/fun, not something they're forced to do. And I'd never pit an outdoor activity against the video game.
For the OP, you have to figure out what your kid would like outside the house and integrate that into a bike ride. Like others said, a ride to see a bunch of trees & rocks may not float his boat. A ride to a local ice cream shop, or even to a video game store perhaps. There's got to be something in it for him. Maybe, eventually, you'll get him out on the trails, but I think you have to associate biking with fun and then try to move to biking to enjoy the outdoors.
Part of what I always did was make the bike a means to get to something they were interested in. A saturday morn ride with just the 2 of us to get pastries at the neighborhood coffee shop. A ride to feed the ducks at the neighborhood pond. Sometimes we do a long paved trail along a small river...the destination is a couple of nice playgrounds and some low water crossing where we stop to play. Eventually it lead to mine and one of the neighbor kids just liking to play on our street, but first they have to associate a bike w/fun, not something they're forced to do. And I'd never pit an outdoor activity against the video game.
For the OP, you have to figure out what your kid would like outside the house and integrate that into a bike ride. Like others said, a ride to see a bunch of trees & rocks may not float his boat. A ride to a local ice cream shop, or even to a video game store perhaps. There's got to be something in it for him. Maybe, eventually, you'll get him out on the trails, but I think you have to associate biking with fun and then try to move to biking to enjoy the outdoors.
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Hang in there. He just might come around. Especially if he continually see's how much YOU enjoy it. Remember, there is a fair amount of suffering one endures for our sport. Kids don't like to suffer, so you'll have to come up with someway to sell it to him that makes the pain worth it in the end.
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I'm 15 but I don't like video games...I ride. I'm sort of in the same boat with you. Except, well, I'm trying to get my dad to ride with me. He knows I have an interest in biking bigtime, yet he doesn't want to have fun with it like I do. My mom is getting a roadie bike hopefully by the weekend which is cool, because now I will kinda have a riding partner, after my official riding partner broke his neck back in April on a ride. I want to buy my dad a bike, but I have a feeling it won't be used. I'm in the same situation as you parents wanting to get your kid to ride with you. I guess I really broke the mold :lol:
The only advice I can offer to you is just let him play his video games as he does now, but don't ask him constantly if he wants to ride if he is playing video games. That'll just piss him off. Make riding together a weeknight thing between you two. If I was in your exact position I would say something like "after you finish your homework, maybe you and I can go for a little bike ride. Would you like that?". Don't mention video games and riding in the same sentence when talking with your son. Mentioning riding as opposed to gaming, to him seems more of like an attempt to pull him away from the video game, than an attempt to have some good old quality time with pops. Just my bit of advice as I can better understand the mind of a kid nowadays. If you want more advice, don't hesitate to ask. I'm all about getting people involved in riding.
-Andy
HOLY CRAP! ITS 4:45a.m.!!!! I should be getting some sleep :lol: :lol:
The only advice I can offer to you is just let him play his video games as he does now, but don't ask him constantly if he wants to ride if he is playing video games. That'll just piss him off. Make riding together a weeknight thing between you two. If I was in your exact position I would say something like "after you finish your homework, maybe you and I can go for a little bike ride. Would you like that?". Don't mention video games and riding in the same sentence when talking with your son. Mentioning riding as opposed to gaming, to him seems more of like an attempt to pull him away from the video game, than an attempt to have some good old quality time with pops. Just my bit of advice as I can better understand the mind of a kid nowadays. If you want more advice, don't hesitate to ask. I'm all about getting people involved in riding.
-Andy
HOLY CRAP! ITS 4:45a.m.!!!! I should be getting some sleep :lol: :lol:
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Another line of thinking is to see whether there is some other physical activity that interests your son. Mine likes to run, so I supported him when a friend got him involved in a 5k run. And I support his archery hobby, though I guess archery isn't really an aerobic activity like biking is.
Got my sons (5yrs and 10yrs) involved in BMX first and now I can't get them off of the bikes. They now bug me continuously to go MTB'ing and we race BMX twice a week and practice once a week. My oldest just completed a velodrome camp and loved that as well. I guess I will be spending time there as well!
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OMG! I hope he's going to recover fully.hardtailkid said:
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Some kind of object or reward seems to drive the kids. My son is 12 and his favorite reasons to bike are short track mtb races, good trail rides with a promise of Coke afterwards or something else with an edible reward. Interestingly a bit of showing off helps too, his friends just got decent bikes this summer so he likes showing off in the woods with them. Oddly enough he does ride an expensive bike since my wife decided that her Trek Fuel EX8 was too tall for her so he got the dualie while she reclaimed her hardtail.
I'm seeing a similar pattern with our 7 year old daughter who "rebelled" by refusing to ride a bike until she figured out that she was being left behind while we did the fun stuff.
I'm seeing a similar pattern with our 7 year old daughter who "rebelled" by refusing to ride a bike until she figured out that she was being left behind while we did the fun stuff.
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