Thomas wants a pink bike

I know the gender stereotyping thing has been done recently but I missed the boat on that.

He will be three next month. Has cut his teeth on his balance bike for a year or so and currently covets any bike with pedals. He is ready. Now, due to his size we are limited in what we can get for him. The obvious choice is an Islabike Rothan 14. However, I have recently discovered this little bad boy.
http://www.commencal-store.co.uk/PBSCProduct.asp?ItmID=14495050
I reckon this looks the bees knees.

So, having quiet time the other day while watching Strength in Numbers and I thought I would get the options on the Pootay so we could browse. He doesn’t know he is due a new bike yet.
Anyway, from the three choices of Islabike colours and the Commencal to choose from, he selects the pink Rothan.

Now, I do my best to resist gender stereotyping but getting grief from Mrs Wachowchow for telling her that I don’t want to buy him a pink bike. Purely from the point of view that it will have to do him for a few years and it may be that he gets indoctrinated into current standard thinking and suddenly think he has a girls bike, gets grief from a friend and doesn’t like it as a result.
My point being that pink is a gender stereotyped colour and any of the others wouldn’t be an issue. Notice no Blue option.

Am I being a dick and should I get the pink one for him?

Yes. But buy yourself a pink bike too so he can be “just like daddy”

Yes, and yes

Hmm, My next bike will be a yellow Transition Scout so by that reckoning the Commencal wins.
You can see where my loyalty’s lie.

Did I mention that the Commencal looks bad arse? Did you not look?

What scotroutes said – I’ve got a pink bike and that pretty much knocked on the head any issues the kids had with gender-stereotyped bike colours…

..unless they’ve just assumed I’m gay

Your instinct about him someday realising he’s on a girls bike one day and not wanting to ride it is correct.
Just get him the boys bike, because that’s what he is.

🙄

Bravo

powdercoating’s cheap isn’t it ?

get the pink

Mrs Semtex says:

Get him the pink bike. She wishes she was good enough to ride one!

She also really likes the line: “There’s no such thing as girl’s stuff or boy’s stuff. Just stuff owned by girls or boys.” But she is a bit militant on that kind of thing!

I hope to bring him up so when he is older, adult, that this type of thing will be brushed off and not be an issue.

My point being here that if I by a boy a pink bike it will come up, and fairly quickly, whereas any other colour and it wont even come up, like it shouldn’t, yet.

What’s wrong with pink?

pink is a girl’s colour. it is also not a very nice colour.

you may not have an opinion on it but there will be older children who will chastise your son for riding a pink bike. do you want to subject him to that?
fair enough, there are stereotypes in life that you need to stand up against and that your kids need to understand, this is not an important one.

While I generally agree with the anti-gender stereotyping sentiment, it is true that it doesn’t take much – including a single comment from another child – for a kid to suddenly refuse to use or wear something. And then it either goes unused, you replace it, or make them use it when they know they might or will get teased. Appreciate in this case it’s a three year old, but they’re still sensitive to other kids comments. So it’s not unreasonable for the OP to consider this point.

Op. Your lad isn’t a gender neutral experiment, whats important is that he’s happy riding his bike. The reality is that the vast majority of people, especially other children consider a pink bike to be a girls bike. Thats just how it is, regardless of what people on here think is right or wrong.

To be fair, it’s not exactly the girliest pink out there, is it? I’d almost describe it as purple…

(Assuming you mean the Cnoc 14, that is. If you were referring to the Rothan I’ve just had done up for my niece, that really is girly pink, and deliberately so!)

Interestingly, I bought some pink Hope brakes for Mrs Wachowchow’s matt black 5 spot some years ago and she didn’t like them, because it made the bike look girly!!
My friend now has them on his Spesh Enduro and loves them.

I am not anti pink. I just want Thomas to enjoy his bike without some tosspot putting him off it with their own prejudices.

So, aside from the pink issue, who doesn’t think the Commencal looks wicked fun?

Can you get it resprayed if he changes his mind about it? He might not even get any taunts from other kids so ti could be worth the risk.

I’m having 90s flashbacks…

i’m thomas; I’d like a pink bike.

As said, it’s not even pink. I would. If he truly got put off using it then a respray could be a fun project to do together.

Pink was considered a boys colour long before it was considered a girls colour. It was a strong colour more suited to boys than girls who had blue which was somewhat more delicate.

WW1 came along and the rise of blue sailor uniforms put an end to that and the colours swapped over.

A bit like Walkers with Salt & Vinegar/Cheese & Onion crisp packets.

^^ what he said.

I wanted a pink bike when I was little boy but my parents could only afford what was available second hand. I did get bought a pink model bike though 😀

I’d love a pink still now TBH

I owned a pink On One 456 SS with brown, or bumsmoke, Hope parts all over it. I did take a lot of friendly banter, and some quite offensive non-banter, over it. My retort was if they were so insecure over their masculinity that it made them uncomfortable then they were obviously not man enough.

I would then try to ride them in to the ground. Most of the time it worked.

***This approach may not work for a 3 year old.

better to bring up a child that knocks out the first person to take this piss out of his bike or him.

Pink bikes are bad ass. End of.

Thing is, presuming you’re reasonably handy with a spanner, you can always strip it down and get it powdercoated for not very much, if he decides one day that he really doesn’t like it.

But yeah, you should definitely get a pink bike too. See the first point above- you need no other reason.

better to bring up a child that knocks out the first person to take this piss out of his bike or him

🙂

I wouldn’t get him the pink for all the reasons already mentioned. I made the mistake of asking my then 4 year old what colour he’d like his next bike to be and it changed on an almost daily basis.

Nice spot on the Commencal
I was about to order the Isla Cnoc (in lime green) for grandsons birthday next month, order now placed for the yellow Commencal

I would’t have put him on the purple/pink as one it only takes one comment to make the bike unrideable unfortunately.

On the other hand, He’s a two/almost three-year-old. If you’re really bothered about it you could just explain to him that they’ve got none left of the pink one, and ask which of the other two he wants.

I speak from experience of having a just-turned-three boy whose favourite colour is pink. Although tbh we didn’t have this particular dilemma as between the six LBSs in town they didn’t have any pink bikes in his size when we got him his bike for his 3rd birthday (ended up with a Giant Animator, but I think that was a mistake and we’ll be moving to a 14″ pretty soon).

I think I’d be happy buying him a pink bike if he decided he wanted one, thinking sort of along sten1’s point of view – except perhaps teaching him to deal with mickey-taking without violence (at least, not initially)…

My boy is 2.5
His fave socks are pink and he loves the wizard of oz.
Should I be worried ?(mahoosive wink!)
Buy him the bike he likes.

Get this one[/url].. its pink and its awesome!

**shipping costs may be prohibitive

Just buy him the bike he likes in the colour he likes? It’s really no big deal

Rachel (who has never had a pink bike…)

My daughter would only have a blue bike…..not pink, BLUE.
Sam Hills bike from a couple of years back, its pink

My eldest lad picked a pink Camelbak better bottle.
Its just a colour.

I love my pink bike…

Listening too hard to your kid. Very trendy….

Nuffin wrong with pink

He wants a pink bike, get over it. Next month he’ll probably want a different colour.

Ken – other than the wheels clashing horribly

you may not have an opinion on it but there will beolder children who will chastise your son for riding a pink bike. do you want to subject him to that?
fair enough, there are stereotypes in life that you need to stand up against and that your kids need to understand, this is not an important one.

Sadly this is in my view good advice. I am male, I ride a pink bike, I am nearly 40 and give not one chuff what anyone thinks of that and my cycling and non cycling friends are adults who will have the odd good humored dig.

No way I would send one of my two boys out on a pink bike because of the potential bullying from other older children who I have no direct control over.

I had a pink Raleigh Apex as a young teen.. could have chosen the blue or green lower spec versions, but the pink one had a girvin flex stem and a titanium handle bar!
Not sure if I got ‘bullied’.. but it was certainly a source of entertainment for others.. perhaps it was healthy and made me learn that its ok to be the subject of humor 🙂
Now I think about it.. some people did think I might have been a bit gay.
Got me through school and uni and I still have it in my parents shed!