Certainly with Cadel Evans Tour de France victory and September in Australia being the "warming up" month, this year at least, the sales figures for "bush bikes" could go through the roof. There are a number of "givens" living in Australia. One of these is that kids get a bush bike, and its normally a birthday or a Christmas gift. Cycle shops keep going even when the economy is tight as parents will go to great lengths to get their child this Australian childhood icon.
That got me thinking about my own childhood and the bush bikes I rode as a kid and my own children – we were a typical Australian family on both counts. The first bush bike I can recall as a child was what was known as a "free wheel" bike where the chain mechanism was singularly attached to the wheels. There were no pedal brakes. The best way to stop was was foot on the tyre or do the royal jump! We were good at the royal jump.
Riding home from North Mackay State School on one occasion, I must have been eight years of age, one of the school girls on her bike, turned right in front of me, and we crashed. My left wrist was broken, a spell in hospital, a cast, and a few weeks later I was riding with the "best of them" again. From my memory, I think that particular push bike, on my mother's instructions, was sent packing, and everyone's push bike from that time on had a pedal brake. Back in the 50's only the rich kids had push bikes with fancy handle bar brakes.
A generation later with our own children, bikes were the order of the day. There are two stories any number of parents can relate to about our son (we also had three daughters, but they were all dainty riders and very discreet, shorts or long pants when they went riding).
The first story related to a Spring school holiday to the Gold Coast from Sydney where we were living at the time. The rides, known as Thunderbolts, somehow captured this six year old's imagination, Come Christmas time, the Santa request was a Thunderbolt set up in the suburban back yard.
It turned out down the street someone was selling an old push bike and I figured that with a paint job, new tyres, a bit of flash here and there, it would be an ideal "Thunderbolt" bike. And it was! One of the guys in our church was a bit of magician when it came to restoring and creating a supped-up six year old's bush bike.
The second story, our son on one occasion crashed (keeping the family tradition alive) and this meant a quick trip to the doctor to stitch up a nasty gash above the knee.
Today's bicycles are something else. The gears can be controlled so that the rider can pedal without too much difficulty even up very steep hills. The light weight yet super strong frames are something out of the Space Shuttle. A friend of mine who is into all things fitness, said he's wanting for the Ben Hur bicycle to come out, with retractable spikes so that when a vehicle comes too close, he can do massive car tyre damage. Me, I'm watching those push bike wheels from now on.
But what if you were stopped at the lights, and a cyclist came up beside you, bent down and pulled his Bible from the a bible holder on bike's main spar, and offered an inspirational verse for the day! What a good idea!