#127 Little kids on bikes

Neil Pasricha

Babies stay put.

Set a newborn on a couch cushion, kitchen table, or pull-out bed and it just lies around making spit bubbles.

And sure, baby grows older, starts crawling, starts bashing into walls, but it isn’t until she begins riding a bike that everything really opens up. Yes, this is when it first becomes clear that: We taught them to control a machine!

Seeing little kids on bikes is watching them realize how far the world really goes. Pedaling around the block, racing to the store, everything seems closer together, and every day they want a little more. Soon they’ll be driving cars and flying planes to stars and zipping down highways, across oceans, and into brave new worlds.

When you see little kids on bikes make sure you smile and nod at these brave explorers.

Because today it’s the neighborhood.

And tomorrow it’s the world.

AWESOME!

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Photos from: here and here

24 thoughts to “#127 Little kids on bikes”

  1. “We taught them to control a machine!”

    Pretty sure that was the approximate shock and awe (and horror and dread and oh-god-she’s-going-to-kill us) type feelings that parents experience when they teach their teenagers to drive. ;)

  2. I saw a kid on a bike this morning!!!! and now i’ve just read this post. coinky-dink or what! and yes, i smiled at the little boy =)
    He looked about 4 years old and he was riding without training wheels. So impressive! The bike had a little flag pole and everything =)
    AWESOME!

  6. Aw…I love this one! Also awesome: little kids on skis! I think it’s actually technically impossible for them to fall down.

    1. As someone who never learned to ski as a kid, and now have grown to become an adult who is vaguely scared of the activity, I sure wish I’d learned to ski when it was “impossible for [me] to fall down!”.. From my few attempts as a full grown person, I can tell you that’s not true anymore!

  7. love this!! there is a special feel to riding a bicycle that still has some sense of wonder and fun even as an adult :) Awesome! And i <3 equating riding a bike to flying a space shuttle.

  8. I find your writing most skilled and this post in particular poetic. Both the feeling and observation of anyone mastering the bicycle is awesome.
    I’m not sure if you were being funny, so imagine others aren’t sure either.
    So I have to say, for those who don’t already know, some babies do roll! My new born nephew took us all by alarm and to the emergency room when he rolled off his change table and onto a hard wood floor. He had some serious injuries to his head! I know this isn’t isolated, some babies roll.

  9. I suppose a bike is a symbol of independance and it really gives us a chance to see the world – or our little corner of it, anyway – at our leisure.
    Nicely said.

  10. I saw a kid on his bike just this morning as I drove to work…and the look of determination of his face made me smile. Thx for the post!

  11. I’ll preface this with “Biking is happiness!” There’s no denying that learning to ride a bike is a great feeling any day! :)

    1. Yay, Hawksley Workman! Love him. But I think I’m having a seizure now…that guitar solo was intense!

  14. And don’t bikes just make us feel like kids too? I have used my bike a lot this summer, and every time I get on before or after work, I just feel like the sky’s the limit, like I can go anywhere. The same feeling of freedom you feel as a kid…

  15. My daughter is not much of a bike rider. She is even still on training wheels because she spends so little time riding she hasn’t learned to balance herself just yet.
    I remember my bikes. I basically lived on my bicycles. I loved them so much I’d spend the majority of almost everyday on them. One of my most memorable moments on a bike it when I was riding at night and a bat flew in my hair.

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