This past weekend, we brought my 9 year old out to our local spot in Roswell, GA for some session it time. I love these short DH/dirt jump runs to get him some repetition for practice that also has a lot of fun factor along with it. We headed up Sunday at about 10:30 and I was pleasantly surprised…
There were more kids out there riding than I had ever seen.
As you can see by the video above…it was crowded. There was even a dad there watching his son do jumps on his son’s 16th birthday! Needless to say…he was having a great day watching his teenage son absolutely shred. I really hope that my son will want to spend his birthday in his teenage years hanging out with me on trails one day.
COVID brought a lot of crap along with it but there are some serious benefits that are becoming really apparent. There are more people riding bikes than ever before and we are seeing the younger generation really get into the sport. As with most things, there are positives that come out of negatives and if that means more families are enjoying the outdoors…that is a good thing. It isn’t a good thing for inventory but it is a good thing for families and upcoming generations.
There was a time before all of this that I really had a hard time with the fact that I didn’t see kids playing outside anymore. They were all glued to screens or overworked in sports. When COVID forced the slowdown of life…the kids started coming out of houses and their schedules to ride bikes. Now we see most of the neighborhood kids out riding.
I don’t want this to sound like a “anti team sports” pitch. Our son plays baseball, basketball and other team sports. There is a huge benefit to team sports and we really believe in our son trying out as many as he can. We also try to find a balance. Baseball in typical baseball season (and basketball). Then we like to bike together and wakesurf during the summer. What we don’t do is super intense travel schedules in elementary school. We want the experiences and learning without having to just pick one sport.
I could be wrong…but I feel like COVID kind of level set that for a lot of families. Now their kids are enjoying different sports like mountain biking when they wouldn’t have otherwise. We are seeing high school and middle school biking teams expand and the trails are filled with more families riding. It is awesome to see and the next generation is going to continue to push the sport forward in ways we couldn’t have imagined.
Are you guys seeing the same thing? Are there more kids out riding bikes than you have seen in recent memory?
1 comment
Yes, absolutely! I went to our local bike shop (in ND) last summer and it looked like it had been robbed- there was nothing in there. I spoke to the owner and he said bikes were sold as soon as they came in. I also noticed a heavy increase in people out on trails. I don’t live in a very bike friendly community- so hopefully this is bringing awareness to our lack of trails and maybe will make biking a little more acceptable around town.