Are bikes given as much as presents nowadays? I have convinced myself that bikes have increasingly lost favour with the young to computers..

I remember when this was all fields….

I remember when we just got a lump of coal and were glad of it. 🙂

15 years ago we sold nearly 150 bikes in Christmas week.w
Was nearer to 30 this time..

Surely most kids got their new bikes in the summer via the parents fraudulent B2W purchases?

I have convinced myself that bikes have increasingly lost favour with the young to computers..

well, having just presented my 14 year old daughter with the second hand trance that i got her from fleabay, and her saying that it is her “best christmas present” i would suggest that some still find the traditional cool, and secondly, i am feeling pretty chuffed!

Merry Xmas, i’m off to fit the cleats to her new SPD shoes.

My nipper gets a bike as and when she needs one. That said if she does get a bike outside of Christmas and birthdays then she doesn’t get a lot for the big day.

Dogs make better gifts.

mudshark – Member
Dogs make better gifts.

Mine struggles to hold a screwdriver and therefore makes cr@p gifts

I would say yes, cheap bikes (BSOs) are given as Christmas presents, bought from Halfords, Tescos, Sports Direct, Argos, etc.

the quality cycle retailers like Evans, Cycle Surgery and your LBS won’t do anything like the same volume of Christmas bike trade as those selling BSOs

Didn’t walk the dog until about eleven on this mild Christmas morning. Couldn’t help but notice not a single child outside play with anything, bikes, balls etc. Made me feel very old.

well, having just presented my 14 year old daughter with the second hand trance that i got her from fleabay, and her saying that it is her “best christmas present” i would suggest that some still find the traditional cool, and secondly, i am feeling pretty chuffed!

Some people are definitely luckier than others…

Hope one day, if I have a family, that any kids I may have would react that way to being given a bike for Christmas… 😀

I got my new bike for Xmas!!! My wife bought me a Cotic Soul frame for Xmas, I have been allowed to build it over the last week so that first ride was this morning- bloody terrific Xmas pressie but I did not see any one else out on a bike : (
Merry Christmas everyone
Ps teen James had new DH frame last xmas

My nephew has had a new bike just a cheap raliegh and moaned he had to go out and ride it because it was to cold!!! He wanted to play on a new xbox game instead!! i always remember whenever i got a new bike moaning that i had to come in for my dinner lol. i did warm my :(mrs that if i ever got a new bike for xmas that she wouldnt see me untill boxing day needless to say santa didnt bring me a new bike..

Yup, got my daughter a new bike, at 4 she doesnt give a monkeys what it is, so long as it has tassles, a doll seat and roughly a squillion Barbie or Disney accessories. And a matching Barbie helmet of course.

Went to my grans yesterday and was told of their tails of them helping the neighbours build upmtheir kids new bikes that needed bars turning front wheels fitting and pedals fitting

My gran saw my face turn and said i should probably take a quick look at them as they were being stored in the gaage at theirs

Death trap central ……parents are well off in good jobs bought the kids an ipad each and an absolutely horrendous and in my opinion unsafe bso for them ……. There was very little i could do not having my tools with me but a quick squeeze of the brake and the cable slid through the pinch bolt means they are going to suggest the parents take them to a shop to have them safety checked before the kids go out on em ….nothing like riding into a wall to put a kid off cycling for life ……

I echo what was said above about not coming in, back when computers were not the be all. There’s more adults on bikes these days though.

True – imdidnt even get a bike and i went out today

Saw 2. 8/10 year olds on bmxes with iphone/ipods blaring out riding down the street with huge smiles and a 6-8 year old girl in another part of town out on her tesco bso again with a huge smile

The kids that got bikes are the lucky ones !

yep , ive seen no kids around outside on bikes or owt – its like a ghost town

suppose they are all on the x box

Wife bought me a bike
I bought her a Wii
Best of both worlds? Mind you I do hate computer games. And I did buy her a bike a few months back.

“Santa” came to the younger foster kids that live with us, both got bikes. No video games this year. They have been pestering my all day about going mountain biking tomorrow. Is 8 and 10 too young to start?

I would be out on my new bike but I’ve got no pedals to go on it. The thread on the pedals, which are on my hardtail, is slightly off so I don’t want to damage the cranks. 🙁

Well I gave my son one today. He lovedit!

I gave one of mine a bike this morning

Spotted on my street today ,while I was out :-

2 BMX

1 road bike (Fuji frame I think)

1 MTB (Cube something)

1 balance bike …Wood

Ok,it’s a main road ,but if that’s a sample of what’s going on round the town,then that looks pretty healthy to me .

Happy Xmas 🙂

Neighbour chaps on the door at 11pm last night pleading for help to assemble his sons bike ( he was too merry and is useless at mechanical stuff anyway).

Spent the next hour trying to get the POS together and running smoothly. I failed !

Buckled plastic wheels straight out the box. Brakes with more flex than a rubber band. Was amazed the forks were on the right way round.

How it can meet british standards i do not know. Unsafe at any speed !

My little girl was pretty stoked with her second bike. I’m not too impressed that the levers do not have any reach adjustment this time. Will frig it some how though as her hands are tiny still.

My daughter got a Puky balance bike, you’ll not see her out on the streets till she’s at least 2 though :p

easton havoc stem and bars rather than a whole bike.

Got my two 16″ wheeled Specialized Hotrocks. Of all their presents they keep coming back to them and sitting on them. Hopefully take them out on them tomorrow. Think they make great presents, but perhaps Christmas isn’t the best time to give kids bikes as presents with the weather not being great.

Got my 9 year old daughter a bmx (she already has a mountain bike). We spent an hour in the park this afternoon taking turns on it practicing manuals. Both crap, more practice needed. Going to take her round the new Leigh Woods trails on it tomorrow morning if it’s dry, reckon it’ll work quite well on them.

We got our 4 yr old a balance bike 2 Christmas’ ago, and today she’s been over the moon with the new bike we just gave her. Can never have too many bikes in my opinion. Long may it continue 🙂

Yep. My three year old has been asking for a bike “with pedals” for the past six months. He loves his 12″ wheeled balance bike, so we got him an Islabike Cnoc 14. It’s still a little bit big for him but he was dead chuffed with it. (Less chuffed when he discovered he couldn’t just jump on it and blast off into the sunset like some of his more precocious friends, but we’ll get there…)

We chose that Christmas and birthdays would be ‘smaller presents’. Bikes (and other expensive things) are bought as needed for the family to share or person to use and pass on…

I bought Mrs PP a Kona King Kikapu a few years ago. Custom built, full XT, Rebas, King, Hope, Mavic, Easton Carbon etc

She actually got a tad emotional when I gave it to her, she still has it, still rides it. Makes us both happy. 🙂

Don’t think I’ll ever get another bike as a present after my wife bought me a beautiful matt black Trek Fuel 90 as a combined Christmas / impending 40th pressie – I took it out round our local trails on Boxing Day and came back with an impressive ding in the top tube!

I got my lad a Mongoose BMX for his birthday and a Ridgeback MX24 for his Christmas . He also got a helmet , camelbak and Gloves and is nipping my head about going to Glentress on Tuesday. Its all good though.

No new bikes here, but they were out on their old ones. Next door’s 7yo girl had a new bike though. Was planning on building a mini jump ramp for Xmas, but decided he had plenty of stuff (and general Xmas prep chaos got in the way), so have another 3 weeks to work on it until his birthday.

I think my oldest will be ready for a new bike before next Xmas/birthday though, so will probably just upgrade in the summer (his cousin is also conveniently just about to outgrow the next size Islabike).

This year has been a particularly hard time for LBS selling bikes for Christmas. Sure there were a few being sold but not the quantity’s of last year which in its self was a tough one. You only need to look at the amount BMX’s still in the shops. Like people have said, £200 on a bike or a Wii or PS2. Most parents would buy the latter as it keeps the kids quite. This isn’t a criticism its just changing times. I find most people who buy their kids bikes are cyclists in some for or another.

Two new bikes here! One for the 6yr old, balance bike for the 2yr old and a telescope wrapped up for the 5 yr old. Down at the BMX track this am, no other bikes (new or old) in sight.