It's pretty rare to have any thread that is started, on any forum, stay exactly on track. Your impression of what this thread is about is apparently the risks associated with powered bikes and are they worthwhile for small kids..... if you are so concerned about context and staying on topic, why do we then need to know that you and your wife have ridden bikes all your life, your wife didn't get her first car till she was 22, and you've got your first car in 13 years..... so what? What's that got to do with small kids and quad bikes....... swings and round abouts.
First of all, thanks for your considered response, Rotare. Why mention that my wife and I ride? Because I feel that it gives some weight to my comments because I also have a 3yo, a 4yo and a 7yo, all of whom have asked at various times if they can have dirtbikes. In other words, I know about bikes, and kids. I also know about the kid/dirtbike combination, as I have had a bit to do with motocross clubs. And I've seen plenty of stupid parenting on display.
I suspect that some of the people here either have no kids, or their kids already have dirtbikes and they are unhappy that people like me are not validating the choice they made.
Why? Cause I chose not to. I thought the conversation in this thread was getting a bit serious and a bit heated, so thought I might tell you something that I experience recently, that I thought was funny.... you know light hearted. Sure, it wasn’t specifically about kids and quad bikes, nor was it meant to be serious. But I thought people may take a step back, take a deep breath, maybe have a laugh and get the gist of what I was saying..... So in regards to my previous post, replace references to me, with my 4.5 year old, and replace the seemingly risky things I do everyday, with them learning to ride a push bike without trainer wheels, climbing over a fence, building a tree house or having a pretend sword fight with a branch from a tree with their brother..... any of these seemingly innocent things kids do, everyday, have the potential to cause an injury or death to a kid. Doesn’t just take a quad bike.
All fair points, and again I apologise, I didn't intend to cause offence. I don't apologise for taking the subject matter seriously, however - although to others it seems to be boring, or a good opportunity to make personal attacks because I'm not making them feel good about their choices.
My kids ride bicycles and I'm in the process of getting my 4yo son involved in BMW racing. Will he get hurt? Sure he will. I'll hate it each time, but I won't stop him from racing if that's what he wants to do. But there is quite a difference between racing a BMX bike and riding a quad bike without adequate supervision... another contributor mentioned that in his/her view the statistics aren't compelling because they lack context and that is a fair comment, but again in my experience
the one common factor is poor supervision. Which is the point that I am trying, and clearly failing, to make.
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