Tomorrows Champions.

I am not, not have ever been very interested in sports. But even I can not fail to notice how successful British cyclists have been in the Olympics and The Tour de France. So why is not cycling a School Sport? Start em young, I say. It would also indirectly encourage kids to cycle as a means of transport. It need not cost a lot of money, as kids could start with inexpensive bikes, and also use them to get to school. Perhaps the most promising kids could get sponsorship from local businesses?

There is a government backed cycle to school initiative, but the response has been very variable. One member has posted about a good response to this in his part of Suffolk, but in my London borough there's no sign of any youngsters doing it. Perhaps not surprising in view of the traffic levels.

 

The London cycling clubs do have active junior memberships though and some of the very young are already great cyclists at competition standards in their age groups. Only recently I read about one 11 year old breaking age group records, and a recent TV feature on the re-opened Herne Hill track showed many enthusiastic youngsters using it.

Hi Flecc. There are quite a few kids who cycle to school here in Boston. Standards of safety are generally poor, and it is considered "cool" to remove the brakes from the bike. What I had in mind was competetive cycling in school time as an alternative to football, cricket, and tennis etc.

That would be good, I'd have loved that alternative, though many schools wouldn't have the track/path facilities for that, so there would have to be a suitable track in the vicinity.

 

Removing brakes? That's fatalism for you, I hadn't realised the despair north of Watford had reached such serious proportions! In my steep hill area they'd only do a single one way trip with brakes removed and would have no need for a school place afterwards.

Loads going on for youngsters at the National Cycling Centre (Manchester Velodrome) including track riding and BMX National Cycling Centre We have plenty of youngsters cycling to school and an active training scheme in Primary Schools, however the goalposts keep changing on the latter.

Hi Flecc. There are quite a few kids who cycle to school here in Boston. Standards of safety are generally poor, and it is considered "cool" to remove the brakes from the bike.

What they want to be is junior hipsters with fixies. With no brakes, they'll soon be ex-junior hipsters without fixies.

Our local (senior) schools all use the towns BMX tracks - regulary see mini buses turning up with loads of kids most afternoons and they have a fleet of BMX bikes they all share.

 

BMX - Cycle Blackpool

Flecc, as usual, hit the impact operated friction fastener on the striking end - Schools, down here anyway, don't have the track or other facilities & no spare cash to provide same.

 

I wonder which budget it could come out of? There seems to be a separate one for most things & woe before the head that cross-budgets :-)

Regarding no brakes.

I live near the Clyne and Moos BMX sites. Most of the youngsters have those very small bikes with no brakes at all.

As there are some big hills around here I wondered how they managed.

What they do is stand up and put their right foot on top of the rear tyre locking the wheel!

I've also noticed them jumping the bike sideways to stop a bit like skiing.

A lot BMX bikes you see around don't have fittings for a front brake, just a rear. Quite different from the race BMX bikes we saw in the Olympics.

 

If you have a few minutes to spare this video shows some interesting views and the fixie brakeless riding technique. Whatever you think of the sanity of the riders or their behaviour, they have considerable skills.

 

Despite advancing years I still ride a fixie when the legs feel up to it - with a front brake, although it's rarely used. The bars are height adjusted for age though:(

 

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Despite it's considerable limitations, a fixie can be huge fun. Riding one on a banked velodrome track is probably the most excitement you can have on a bike - if you like the combination of fear and adrenalin high:rolleyes:

 

Alan