My youngest son is 16 and still spends hours each week on a bike (BMX or mountain). It helps that we have a BMX track about a mile from our house and great trails out our back door. He wasn't interested until he was about 10 years old and a bike became his mode of transport to his friends houses, and other activities. It was definitely an independence thing and not because his parents were into it! We never pushed our kids into cycling but when they asked, we did get them decent bikes, I think ****ty equipment could make a kid hate cycling. It's easy to find good used kid's bikes here.