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Bikes: It's summer time and time to ride

© Wayne Dawe

(Note: The Internet is a dynamic place and web sites can come and go quite quickly. This is one of my older and some of the links may not work anymore. If you find that this is the case I invite you to look at some of my more recent articles. My links section has my favorite links from past articles and is checked regularly for non working links. Wayne)

I don't know about where you live but where I live it's finally gotten warm enough for us to get outside regularly. One of my sons recently had a birthday and his grandparents bought him a bicycle so my thoughts have recently turned towards the topic of bikes. Bicycles are great for both kids and parents. I was recently in Holland where no one has to tell the people how great bikes are because it seems that everyone uses them. Not too suprisingly I didn't see very many fat Dutch people in my travels around the country. I have been hearing reports about how the fitness level of kids is generally dropping in North America and I'm not that surprised. Every day I drive by a high school on my way to work and end up stuck in the traffic jam of parents dropping off their kids. When I was going to high school if you didn't take the school bus or walk, you rode your bike. Only on very rare occasions would our parent drive us to school.

I can see that a light bulb has come on above someone's head - didn't he say a few lines back that he drives? What kind of hypocrite is he anyway, sitting in his gas-guzzling car complaining about kids getting driven to school? I'd love to ride my bike to work except that a combination of construction that has been going on for years, a lackof safe riding space (no paved shoulders or bike paths) and no showers available at work means I schlep off in the car everyday. I'd love to get rid of the car and its associated costs. Well, enough preaching. I bet you're wondering if I've got some bicycle links for you. Of course I do.

SheldonBrown.com, teaching kids to ride has a great article on teaching kids about learning to ride. The Graphical List of the Official Bicycle Manufacturers Website is just what it says, and so is The Arc's Q&A on Bicycle Helmets. Helmets are VERY important. I feel off a bike once and got a concussion. Always wear a helmet when riding.

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