A. Be pleased
B. Get some rubble bags and a chest freezer on the way home

Basically free to good home bikes someone has left out on the way to nursery including a Ben 10 halfords machine and some other crap. Now this has saved us a few bob no doubt but it does rob me of the chance to dominate this area and get some toddler status symbols in the shed. Do i kick up a fuss and point out the numerous ways in which these inferior bikes will prevent my offspring from ever becoming the world champions I’m determied to force them into being or do ijust think **** it.

Or C. This frees up more ££ for MY bike. 🙂

or D be happy she didn’t pick one up for you as well.

Mmm, plough the philosophical furrow on this one I think (and break the Ben 10 with a hammer)

Nope, you just smile and tidy the bikes up.
The kids will be chuffed to bits and its saved you some dosh.
No point spending tons on something your cycling mates will be impressed with, when all the kids will do is throw them about, leave them in the back garden in the rain and ghostie them in the park.
Kids arent precious about their bikes IMO. Let them get the joy of cycling first then throw £ at their bikes in later years.

She’s going to be chuffed with her opportunism skills. So will your kids. Don’t be the only miserable bugger in your house.

Let them leave them out in the garden, won’t be long before you need to buy them some nice bikes. win win.

Edit: beaten to by bigyinn

Aye, she’s done well. I suppose.

Got my eldest a Specialized as her very first bike thinking a proper Aluminium frame would in some way enhance her enjoyment and appreciation of cycling, she couldn’t have given a crap…
Now loves her shonky, Halfords, boat anchor now though…

Youngest will be graduating from balance bike to the Spesh soon and I expect will be similarly unimpressed by it…

Cheap crap kids bikes are much better than no bikes at all, enjoy the family rides…

Enjoy the family rides while you can. I’m just about to sell my kids bikes as they aren’t into it.

Get them working and use them. We ended up with a Spider-Man bike under similar conditions and after a quick tinker it all worked fine and was perfect for my son to ride to school on and leave unlocked outside the shops.

He then ended up with a better bike which was kept for the little family rides that we do..

As long as they are functional and safe don’t get bogged down in the bling, save that until they are older and will (may) appreciate the benefit of a more expensive bike.

I know where you are coming from op we did it slightly differently missus brought a cheap bike from tescos boy rode it for about 4mtns and it became a pile of #### solid tyres that slipped on normal Tarmac etc brakes that were made of cheese etc etc I kept VERY quite following birthday brought a Raleigh not mega bucks but quite a bit more than the rubbish from Tescos can’t keep the boy off it now (helps that I also got a trailgator for it and fitted hitch to my pub bike)now I can do a ride and unhitch him to ride under his own steam and hitch him back up when tired everyone’s a winner 😀

Monkey jnr has has Cnoc 16 for hitting the bigger parks and longer rides in general … He also has a second hand Halfords jobbie for racing (and colliding) around with his mates.

I helped out with my daughters year 3 bike ride. A ~2 mile pootle, including some mildly technical rooty single track and a couple of tunnels under the railway bridge and by the river. There was the usual selection of bikes from bling Islabikes and Specialiseds, BMXs, to supermarket specials. Everyone had a good time in the rain apart from one lad on a “stunt bike”. His supermarket BSO had twitchy steering and wouldn’t go in a straight line, had lousy brakes, and plastic tyres. The poor lad fell a couple of times (once into nettles) and nearly ended up in the river. Sorry for the ramble, but…nice bikes are nice (we know that), heavy framed bikes are OK if the steering and brakes work, and beware of anything with “stunt” written on it.

The kids wont give a shit. A bike is a bike to them. They will love it just the same.

Bought my 4 year old lad a Cnoc16 for his birthday to replace his Disney Planes BSO.

Fits him perfectly but he hates it, probably used it twice since February and would rather go on his battered old bike that looks like it’s three sizes too small under him.

With hindsight coke and hookers (for me) would have been a better idea.

The Ben ten is a piece of shite.

it is frustrating to be given crap (my dad who is a cyclist has lumbered us with a chinese off the internet trike !!) but the bikes won’t be that bad, I’ve seen the ben10 ones but as long as the tyres are pumped up hard and you can get the brakes to work they’ll be ok (strip anything unneccessary off them), they’ll grow out of them fairly fast so time to decide what to get next

OP needs to send her the message by buying her next present at the charity shop! 😡

Ghosties in the park LOL. I remember those, just leap of the back at full chat yes? preferably towards your mate, see how far it gets before falling over snapping a brake lever etc. Good old days 😀

My mum bought my son a balance bike. I was quite upset, because it was a E30 spiderman POS. no bearings, just plastic flanges, solid tyres,bad welding the lot. I wanted to buy him his first bike, it was quite a big deal for me, but he loves it, rode it until it broke and now wont give it up for a proper bike (that I bought!)

kids eh!

Well got home an commenced inspection and I can report the following:
1. She got the youngest a plastic trike – no worries there
2. The Ben 10 is way too big and the brakes are shagged Hurrah!- but recoverable with some transplantation from 3. Booo.
3. The other ‘thing’ she got has no pedals, cranks or chain, a seized freewheel, rusted brakes, snapped outers and punctures.

So all in all she has collected me a trip to the tip. WHich I can say I’m quite happy about (our tip recycles bikes BTW so if any bits can be they’ll get put to use). Will keep the Ben 10 with a few modifications cos the eldest will quickly grow into it.

5.5/10 for wife scavenging skills

get her a bra and panty set for christmas out of the local clothes bank? 😆

it is frustrating to be given crap (my dad who is a cyclist has lumbered us with a chinese off the internet trike !!)

I’m tellin’ dad.

DAAAAAAAD!

I dunno. I suppose people try to do the right thing but they don’t always get it right. I’m crap at getting people stuff I don’t know about too.

Kids on bikes is a good thing though 😀