New training bike....

[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/04/29/trike.bike.ap/index.html

My question:

Obviously it would be expensive, so would the cost be wroth the very few falls it takes a kid to "get" riding a 2 wheeler? It took me all of 15 minutes and just a couple of falls to get things right.

Seems to me yet another lame attempt to take all the "pain" out of growing up. The problem with this approach is that IMO it creates wimps.

Example: anyone tried lately to tell a kid they have to walk a few blocks to school? You'd think they were being sent to Siberia

Dr. Mordrid

[Wombat]

I don't know if I'd use this thing, but it did take me quite a while to learn how to ride a bike. I was on one training wheel for a while.

[Brian Ellis]

I dunno: it could be fun going through muddy puddles on that: the front wheel will cake the front of the kid's jeans but the real joy would be that the two rear wheels will direct a streak of mud up the back of the T-shirt. YOOOOOPPPPEEEEEEE!

When I was a kid, in the dim and distant past of last century, trainer wheels didn't even exist. I learnt on a friend's bike: 15 minutes got me wobbling down a quiet street (all streets were quiet during the war, with fuel rationing!). A few falls after that but, what the hell, that was what it took.

And kid's could and did go out, even at night in the blackout, without getting molested, raped or shot at. And we had to use our feet, otherwise we would have reached nowhere.

[Kurt]

It looks good though

However, I'm not sure I'd want to get one that's (for the intended safety purpose) useless after 15 mins...

[IM_Riktar]

TO use it for first time riders is completely STUPID. I agree with Doc: Learning about falling down and getting back up is as important as mastering the riding of a bike.

There is a better use for this: For older folks (You can start including me in this category) who are starting to lose their sense of balance. I'm sure college types who prefer to bike instead of drive would appreciate this contraption for that wobbly-ride home from the pub to the dorm.

There are lot's of good reasons to have one of these. The worst one I heard is from the advertisement!

[Jammrock]

Boooo ... spoils all the funof learning it the hard way. Of course, I was only on training wheels for 5-minutes.

[agallag]

There's nothing like learning "the hard way". I remember when I learned "the hard way" that it's a bad idea to steer your bike with your feet. After skidding about 4 feet along the street on my face, it's a lesson I never forgot.

If kids never hurt themselves, where will they get their "when I was a kid" stories from?

[xortam]

... When I was a kid, in the dim and distant past of last century, trainer wheels didn't even exist. ...

Hell ... when I was a kid they didn't even have the wheel. You just made due with boulders and soaked your crotch in the cold stream afterwards.

[RichL]

One of the most important things about riding a bike is learning how to fall off.
The amatuer can fall gently over at 5mph and kill themselves - the expert can smash into a brick wall at 30mph turning the bike into shrapnel and walk away with a skinned knee and a mild sprain to the wrist, because they bailed before impact.
The true pro's can come off a motorbike at 150mph, skid across the grass into a wall of old tyres and walk nonchantly away patting out the flames on their overalls.