Would you do this with your child?
- Thread starter dfthe1
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Specialeyes
Guru
- Location
- Essex
I think the FB question should not be 'what age should children...' but 'at what level of ability should anyone...': to which my answer would be 'more than is on display here' I'm afraid.
subaqua
What’s the point
- Location
- Leytonstone
i was a child of the 70s , i remember riding on the main road with stabilisers on my budgie bike, also the first bike without stabilisers, and my dad going berserk. not because it was the main road, but because of the distance from the house.
i think i hurt myself more when i tried riding the bike down the slide at Lyme grove playground, again done after stabilisers were off and i was about 7.
i think i hurt myself more when i tried riding the bike down the slide at Lyme grove playground, again done after stabilisers were off and i was about 7.
grumpyoldwoman
Senior Member
- Location
- WsM Somerset UK
My son wasn't allowed out on ''main roads'' on his bike till he had graduated to a ''full sized'' bike and was confident on it.
summerdays
Cycling in the sun
- Location
- Bristol
My son was on back roads from about the age of 5 (with me), and worked his way up to busier roads from there, but now he is a teen so the bike sits mostly unused!
Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
I don't see the slightest problem myself. The child is on the inside of her father so passing vehicles will not come close to her and it is not a busy A road anyway. No more dangerous than carrying her on a child seat on the back. If anything the stabalisers will make her less likely to swerve from a straight line.
Little H also...I've been teaching him some road craft over the past couple of weeks.
PS he's 6 in a week
jefmcg
Guru
I hope I am not being overly pedantic, but an A-road is a road that's number begins with an A. So the A46 is an A-road, but the B439 (which is the road between Evesham and Stratford) is not an A-road. If it's not labouring the point, it's a B-road.
I'm guessing from the subsequent posts that you mean "main roads", but that wasn't clear to me before.
summerdays
Cycling in the sun
- Location
- Bristol
Well my first reply did say "a busy A road", meaning in general.
MichaelO
Veteran
I thought I was "ahead of the game" with doing that with my 7 year oldLittle H also...I've been teaching him some road craft over the past couple of weeks.
PS he's 6 in a week
Obviously no stabilisers, but has been on portions of the A25 and A23 around here over the last year. Got to learn at some point.
I thought I was "ahead of the game" with doing that with my 7 year old
Obviously no stabilisers, but has been on portions of the A25 and A23 around here over the last year. Got to learn at some point.
Yep. He's been learning about which side of the road to ride. (but gets a little confused when I say everyone rides/drives on the left. See's a car from the other direction and ask's why are they on the right
) . Also how to approach and stop at white lines at a roundabout and junctions.He want's to learn hand signals but he's not too confident at letting go of the handlebars yet. But we're getting there.
He is very confident on the bike though and can handle it very well.
bladesman73
Über Member
Its only a problem cos we have a country full of morons who think the road is a substitute for brands hatch
summerdays
Cycling in the sun
- Location
- Bristol
Well done, he's got ages to master the skills, he'll be well ahead of most kids.Yep. He's been learning about which side of the road to ride. (but gets a little confused when I say everyone rides/drives on the left. See's a car from the other direction and ask's why are they on the right
He want's to learn hand signals but he's not too confident at letting go of the handlebars yet. But we're getting there.
He is very confident on the bike though and can handle it very well.
I once saw a kid from my bedroom window who obviously wanted to do it correctly but wasn't able to signal (same sort of age based on the size of his bike) He cycled along, stopped, looked behind, cycled a bit more, stopped and then signalled. Then turned right. He was on the road and Mum was walking behind on the road with a younger child in a buggie. The road was quiet so it was completely fine even without mum being on a bike.
I know that road and junction very well https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/Evesham+Rd,+England/@52.1782886,-1.7820916,19z
Personally - I would not even dream of letting a child that young and inexperienced on the road there, purely because you cannot trust the drivers to drive correctly.
On a side note, it looks like she could be about to take a tumble.
Personally - I would not even dream of letting a child that young and inexperienced on the road there, purely because you cannot trust the drivers to drive correctly.
On a side note, it looks like she could be about to take a tumble.
I did one of those online IQ tests once. After spending about 30 minutes answering all sorts of tricky questions, the site displayed a popup which said something like "Wow, you got a really high score - CONGRATULATIONS! To get detailed results, please sign up below. We accept all major debit/credit cards and PayPal" but I was too smart to fall for that scam so I never found out what my score actually was!
For my worst ever job the boss made every potential recruit take an IQ test, and he said he would only hire people smarter than him. I fooled him, though. I did really well in the test, but was the worst employee ever.
