wheelreason

I know a guy who survived a 100 foot fall off a bridge...

Maelochs

I Strongly disagree with this premise.

For a lto of kids, bikes are lousy transport. Anyone who lives where winter is an actual season, knows this. Bicycling is weather-dependent, and also, time- and distance dependent, and also load-dependent.

I speak as a person who was a car-free commuter for decades, who used a bicycle as basic transport from about age six , who as done sport, pleasure, and utility riding. Bikes are a severe hardship.

if it is very hot, you need half an hour to cool off after a ride, and will need to wash and change clothes ... great if you have scheduled a bunch of job interviews. If it is pouring rain, you are soaked.

If the destination is 20 miles away, it is a 90-minute ride ... and 90 minutes back, which means a huge chunk of your day is spent riding----which s great, because I love riding, but which sucks if I want to actually do some stuff that day. Cars average three times as fast around town, at least, and five times as fast on interstates. if you need to go a long distance ... or if you just need to make half-a-dozen short trips, running errands that day ,... instead of knocking out your errands between ten a three, you start at nine am and finish after dark.

If you live in rural areas where towns are many miles apart, and houses also, bikes are worthless because it takes an hour to get anywhere. Bikes are fine in suburbia ... so long as you don't need to go to the city, which not only takes too long ... it is a great place to donate your bike to a thief.

If you need to haul some gear to where you are going .... good luck,.. Imagine being a football or hockey player, trying to pack lunch, clothes, books, and all your sports gear and having to ride around town with it---in cold weather, pouring rain, or snow, with roads covered with packed snow and glare ice, and road width cut by a third by snow piles on the edges.

Try getting construction equipment ... a fifty-pound bag of concrete or a couple bags of mulch, some tools including a long-handled spade and a gravel rake, a couple gallons of paint .... good luck.

Try carrying some 8-foot two-by-fours .... or a twelve-foot 2x12. Try carrying an eight-foot section of four-inch PVC pipe.

These are things I have done, so I know what I am talking about.

Also, for high-schoolers .... try getting a date.

And to add to all that ... if you live in an area with a lot of hills .......

Bike use is not more widespread because every aspect of bike transport is hard work, in every sense of the word.

Bikes can be great transport ... but the reason they are not more popular isn't that people don't know how to maintain them. People don't know how to maintain cars, and cars are exceedingly popular, to the point they are considered almost essential.

I have nothing against the idea of a high-school class on bike riding, bike-building, bike maintenance ... but I question two important aspects ... demand and utility. I don't think many kids Want such a class (else they would be asking) and I don't think it would help many kids.

What I hear is kids complaining they were never taught to manage money, make budgets, understand interest rates on credit cards ... the transport-related complaint I hear is no one taught them to change a tire. I have never heard a kid complain because the school didn't offer a course on bicycles.

There was a guy on this site, Jim from Boston, who was a year-round commuter ... studded tires, a hundred layers of arctic gear, he would ride every day year-round. His co-workers didn't say, "Wow, I never knew bikes could be so useful and versatile!"

His co-workers would say, "You rode to work in This weather?"

The best advertisement for cycling should be people enjoying cycling. However, non-cyclists interpret cycling as unpleasant work at best, and pure insanity most of the time.

indyfabz

My point exactly.

I knew a guy who was partially eaten by a grizzly, which then cached his body.

indyfabz

I used to get that when I commuted year-round, even in the cold.

Didn't bother me one bit. Indeed, it confirmed what I already knew: That I was a badass.

mstateglfr 

Perhaps HS classes shouldnt be entirely set up to lead kids to careers, but there is hardly any harm in encouraging kids to learn skills and trades that expose them to possible careers later on.

My school district has multiple HVAC classes, multiple architecture and engineering classes, plumbing classes, aviation classes where you can gain certain licensing, an auto maintenance garage with 14 lifts, a Marine Biology lab, auto body repair shop, woodworking classes, and a lot more.
Even if kids dont pursue a building and maintenance trade like plumbing or electrician, that doesnt mean those classes shouldnt exist. They give kids experience handling real life issues and absolutely manage their minds(your stated initiative) thru learning skills, problem solving, and traditional learning subjects- math, chemistry, etc.

mstateglfr 

1- no school focuses on one topic for an entire day. So if it takes 2 school days to learn, then thats 14 school day periods for the curriculum. As stated earlier, that is a section within a subject. This is an incredibly common way to teach in MS and HS- 2-4 weeks spent on a specific topic then move to the next topic within that subject/class.
2- bicycle maintenance teaches basic maintenance that is applicable to life- maintaining basic items around the house, for example. It also teaches simple machine use since bicycles are made up of simple machines- levers, wheel and axles, and pullys. Further, bicycles are an excellent way to teach physics since it is visible and most kids ride or have ridden one. Force, drag, speed, etc etc and all that can be tied into the maintenance curriculum in an age appropriate manner.

SpedFast

I took a course in Cross Country Skiing when I was in high school. It didn't set me up for the Olympics, but I've had a great time using my skills in Search and Rescue after leaving the service and it instilled a lifelong love of the outdoors. Too many kids today are out of shape and spend all their time playing video games. If a bike course in school instills a desire to ride, it's all good!

Jughed

Same here.

indyfabz

This is America, pal. It's always about money.

I took an anatomy and physiology class in high school, that included the dissection of my very own cat. I became neither a a doctor nor a veterinarian, but I thoroughly enjoyed learning what I did. Not only that, when it came time for my heart surgeries, I could easily understand what the doctors were saying and had enough education to ask questions.

But the craziest "Why am I even learning about this?" experience had its roots in junior high. We read about something called the Deerfield Massacre of the French and Indian War in social studies class. I remember thinking "This will never have any relationship to my life.". As things worked out, not only did I end up going to high school in the town where the event occurred, my dorm room freshman year was in the very building where some of it took place.

indyfabz

Funny. I tried ski jumping in high school. Only thing was, I couldn't ski. Seriously.

During the fall trimester, I got kicked off the water polo team when the school realized I had a congenital heart defect. I ended up working on trail crew to fulfill my athletics requirement. It was comprised of non-athletic student/"nerds". Four days a week we would go up on the mountain and work to get the ski facilities ready for the winter. That's how I solidified my love of the outdoors. And fall is one damn fine time to be working outdoors in the New England woods. Became the school's only four-year varsity rail crew member. Even got a varsity sweater.

PeteHski

Here in the UK, primary schools offer cycling proficiency courses. Most kids have bikes anyway, but it teaches them the basics of road safety. There is no bike maintenance element involved.

Maelochs

In London it takes no skill to get your bike stolen. Even the mayor managed to do it ......

Pratt

Although I am not an economist, wouldn't training a lot of kids how to do bike maintenance drive down the value of the trade by increasing the supply of that labor and simultaneously decreasing the demand, since more people could/would do it themselves?
Might be good for Park Tools though.

Eric F 

In my area. MTB racing is growing as a sport among kids. Good friends of mine are the head coaches for the MTB teams at 3 locals high school. Ever year, they are seeing more participation . Some are already racers, some have some riding experience, and others are new to cycling. In addition to learning riding skills, and developing fitness, they learn about bike maintenance and repair.

mstateglfr 

No.

1- just because someone can do something doesn't mean they will. I built a 6' privacy shadowbox fence 18 years ago, but I can confidently day I won't build another in my lifetime if I have any say.
2- learning bike maintenance can translate to many other skills- general understanding of following directions, for example. Understanding gear ratios and where else that exists in life. Chemical interaction of conflicting metals. The confidence to know bigger tasks can be learned and mastered- like oil changes or vehicle brake swaps. Etc etc.
3- many will do small maintenance once they have skills, but still leave larger issues to a shop.
4- learning to repair an older simple mechanical drivetrain with external cables is nothing like a internal cable hydraulic bike or electric shifting bike. Just because someone can clean, grease, and adjust a hub doesn't mean mechanics at the local shop should scared of being fired due to lack of work.

adlai

None of my posts said anything about bicycling as a career choice. I know the industry is tough. But I pretty much self taught myself on bicycles and that was a missed opportunity for the school system. A lot of the AP courses in high school were junk, and it's becoming obvious that a lot of what is taught in college is also junk.

Koyote

Theoretically, yes. But it would depend on the number who subsequently choose careers in bike wrenching.

50PlusCycling

Being a small business owner can be lucrative, but the bike business has always been a low-margin thing which is why bike mechanics earn starvation wages. A bike shop owner is going to have more than a few sleepless nights when the bills come due every month, and he’s going to have to put away what he makes in the good times to keep him out of bankruptcy in the bad times. I know the business well, and remember when the court sent deputies to the shop where I worked to seize whatever assets and inventory that could pay off creditors. Don’t get into the bike business unless you are canny, and know how to squeeze blood from a turnip.

wolfchild

With all the information that we have today on internet it's pointless to enroll in bike maintenance classes. It's so easy to go online and find everything you need that's related to bike maintenance...The first time I worked on my bikes was way back in 1983 when I was just 13 years old. I decided to convert my bike to a singlespeed. No internet back then, no books on how to work on bikes... I used a hammer and a punch to split a chain and join it back, didn't even know anything about bike specific tools. It worked. Shortly after that I repainted my bike with a rattle can paint....Bikes are very simple, you don't need to go to school and take courses. Any person who is mechanically inclined can work on bikes.

adlai

You can literally say the same thing about everything taught in high school and college.

A bicycling class is a great experience for young kids which could hook many on a lifetime of cycling and all of the benefits.

wheelreason

While the '80s sucked for various reasons, not having bike books isn't one of them.

rsbob 

One person’s junk is another’s invaluable treasure and vice versa

rsbob 

If you ever need a medical specialist, I would hope they are better than self taught or have more than a bike mechanics level of expertise. Education is not a bad thing especially when it comes to critical thinking and going beyond generalizations.

rollagain

I strongly second this.

Not too long ago I was on a ride and came over the crest of a hill to find two teenage girls riding side-by-side--headed the wrong way in my lane. I said, "You're on the wrong side of the road."

One of them said, "Uh, actually, no." At this point they were drifting across the road to avoid me because I was not yielding, and I replied, "Actually, yes. You're on a vehicle and you're required to obey vehicular traffic rules."

I didn't hear any more out of them, and I didn't care; I just hope they went home and googled it. Thing is, they should have known.

wolfchild

The thing about teenagers and school kids is that they have no interest in bikes or anything cycling related or anything that requires using tools, Their main interests are modern trends such as social media, smartphones and latest fashion trends...I wonder how many of them would actually attend a class on bike maintenance if the schools offered it ?...probably not even one.