From: ccsdhd@sunlab1.bath.ac.uk (Dennis Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.misc
Subject: Re: What Age to start riding?
Date: 29 Sep 92 16:53:24 GMT
Organization: Bath University Computing Services, UK

In the referenced article, jdr40@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (John Ritter) writes:
>My 8 year old son is really interested in riding. He sees me leave all
>the time so I guess he figures he needs to get interested. I would like
>to get a tandem with a childs stoker kit but my wife would die is I spent
>that much on another bike. I asked my local bike shop and they can get a
>road bike with 24" wheels and 15" frame that would be about the size we
>need. My qestion is, is 8 years old too young? Can a child this age handle
>gearing or should we stick to fix gears for now? Obviously I wouldn't try
>to take him along on my club training rides, I can't quite see an 8 year
>old hammering along at 25 mph pulling a whole group. I would like to take
>him on leisurly rides of 20-25 miles. Is this distance reasonable? Anyone
>have any experience with their kids?

I'm afraid you may be a little late to turn your child into a champion
cyclist.  The Jesuits have a saying along the lines of "Give me a child
until he is seven and he will be mine for life".  The same is
applicable in many other walks of life.  Early influences have a
lasting effect.

I always wondered where I went wrong, being no more than an average
cyclist.  I discovered the reason in a searing flash of insight a few
years ago.  Such clarity of vision only occurs in very rare instances.
I feel proud to have experienced such a momentous event.  The only
thing I can compare this inspiration to is Archimedes running naked
through the streets shouting "Eureka, I've found it".  Apparently he
had jumped into the bath and found that, if it was rather full, the
water slopped over the rim.  This discovery is now immortalised as
Archimedes' Principle, or something like that.

Of course it is now far too late for me to amount to anything.  But
I'll pass on this priceless nugget of wisdom so you can all learn from
it.

What I discovered was in the window of a junk shop.  It was a small
child's chamber-pot with **bicycles** emblazoned upon it.  And not just
any old bicycles.  It had the following around the outside:

1.  The Otto Di-cycle of 1880.
2.  Mr Meys Machine of 1870.
3.  The Smithville Mono-cycle Railway of 1889.
4.  Crofts Punt Operated Machine of 1877.

I'm not sure what the Gonizzi Brothers, cycling acrobats of 1885, must
have done to deserve having their image decorate the inside of a
kiddies potty.  Possibly they used some of the new-fangled pneumatic
tyres on their penny-farthing, and thus earned the eternal approbrium
of their fellow velocipedists.

Oh course I am now the proud owner of this potty.  I keep fruit in it
while I'm waiting for my second, third, fourth ... childhoods.  Yes, I
have thoroughly washed it out.

I realised when I saw this potty that I'd never seen such a wondrous
thing before.  Now if *I* had been trained on one as a child, I'd have
surely grown up to be an Olympic or World champion cyclist.  Remember
the Jesuit saying at the start of this article ?  You can all forget
about titanium parts, disc wheels and aero helmets etc.  That is being
wise after the event; it is trying to graft new shoots onto suspect
stock.  The key to cycling success is proper childhood toilet training
on a proper cyclists' potty.

Armed with this new-found knowledge and the article as evidence, I
broached the subject with my parents.  Why had I been deprived of the
use of such a valuable artifact when I was in my most formative years ?
I thought this was quite altruistic of me, passing on priceless
practical knowledge that would be of benefit to grandchildren.

The response wasn't quite the adulation I had expected.  I had only
been home a few minutes and yet my mother made a point of ringing up
the butcher and cancelling the fatted calf.  She also poured my cup of
tea away, told me not to unpack and very waspishly asked me when I
would be leaving.  I still don't understand this at all.  Perhaps
someone could explain it to me.
-- 
Dennis Davis, BUCS, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
D.H.Davis@bath.ac.uk