Maybe it’s a city vs suburb thing? Or maybe more upper middle class neighborhoods vs less affluent? Though even when I’m in the Lincoln Park or the South Loop, I don’t remember seeing them. Lots of scooter, though.
I THINK the Striders can be modified to add pedals.
Yeah, the younger kids - say grade school - seem to gravitate to scooters. There is a little girl right across the street. Every morning a gaggle of 3-5 little girls ride their scooters to her house and leave them on the front porch as they walk the final stretch to the grade school a couple of blocks away.
I’m really happy my 8 yr old grandkid took to biking so readily. As someone mentioned upthread, it seems odd that kids these days do not appreciate the freedom that a bike clearly meant to me, my sisters, and my wife. Likely a chance in the culture, where today’s kids are driven from scheduled activity to activity, whereas we just went “out” and did whatever we could find to do.
My sister and I regularly ride 25-35 miles on a path that passes <1 block from their house. Last year we started taking her with us for rides of up to around 10 miles. And we keep slowly increasing her endurance. Really fun. Looking forward to the first ride of the year with the kid over spring break.
I didn’t get the actual reference, but it seemed obvious to me that it was a humerous quote, rather than a troll?
I was joking about the thread title. Nothing else. I didn’t expect many to get the reference as few Dopers were likely heavily into urban music in 1997. Sorry. Carry on.
I was writing suburban reggae in those days…
It seemed obvious that it was a quote of some kind - the quote marks gave it away. Also, it rhymes. Once I googled it, all was clear.
Hey I got it! I’m not “heavily” into urban music but I am in Chicago and that was pretty much everywhere (“99 Problems” by Jay-Z) if you went to house parties/college parties in the late 90s. I was in college at the time. It was definitely a big frat house song with certain fraternities.
(My memories are similar, and I had a roommate who played them 24/7 in the late 90s. But I’m confusing songs or albums if it is true it came out later in 2004. I could swear it was earlier.)
Same. I didn’t even bother Googling, it was obviously a quote.
(@xtenkfarpl: No Woolworth’s, No Cry? )
Nitpick: I was always taught that the proper bicycle seat height keeps your leg slightly bent, rather than “stretched all the way”, when the pedal is at the lowest point. A fully straightened leg is less efficient for pedaling, and potentially injurious to the knee.
My dad knew that, but he didn’t want to constantly be changing the seat for a growing boy. Riding on my tippy-toes was what I got used to until my early teens.
Coming back to this to ask how one starts off / gets going if their feet don’t touch the ground? Honest question, no snark. We were looking at my bike yesterday, trying to decide what to do and realized my feet don’t touch the ground at all in regular shoes (as opposed to the thicker soled shoes I usually wear).
I’ve always started off by leaning my weight on the toes of my left foot, pushing the right pedal with my right and then lifting my body the rest of the way onto the seat (if that make sense).
Granted I haven’t been on a bike in about twenty-five years but I rode a lot as a kid and had to use a bike as my sole form of transportation for almost two years at one point in my adult life. Maybe I was riding a child’s bike? (mostly kidding).
Forgive my confusion, but who said anything about feet not touching the ground? And, just about however high the seat is, if you lean to one side or another, won’t one foot eventually touch the ground?
What you describe can easily be done with your rear sitting on the bike seat. As you press down on the pedal, you push up off your toe so the bike is straight rather than leaning. If your knee is slightly bent with the pedal down, the bike does not need to lean very much to have your toe touch to steady yourself while stopped. Even easier is if you stop net to a curb or something like a traffic device, where you can place your balance foot up on the curb/base of the device, lessening or eliminating the need to lean when stopped.
No, please forgive me. I think I’ve somehow misinterpreted some of the posts upthread. To try and clarify, I do understand about leaning to the side with your foot to catch you when you stop but in my case, my foot is far enough away from the ground that the bike has to lean wayyyyyy over.
Say your leg is slightly bent at the knee with the pedal down. The pedal is - what - 4" off the ground at its lowest point. So you only need to combined straighten your leg/point your toe/lean enough to gain 4". Not sure why you would need to lean wayyyy over.
https://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-male-cyclist-riding-bike-stopped-rolling-sand-clear-summer-day-image30020538
https://www.dreamstime.com/young-woman-stopped-bike-ride-young-woman-stopped-bike-ride-waterfront-near-sea-sunny-summer-day-image117835146
Or just get off the seat to put your foot down.
(Oh my gosh, you’re right! It was 2004. That does sound more correct now that I think about it. There’s a little continuity gap in my timeline, as I lived abroad from 1998- end 2003, so my Chicago timeline skipped. So it was after college. Gosh memory is a funny thing. Still, the song was ubiquitous whatever I was doing at the time in Chicago. That was around the time of the Grey Album, IIRC, which was a Danger Mouse project that mashed up Jay-Z’s The Black Album with the Beatles white album. The 99 Problems mashup was with Helter Skelter.)
Definitely do not try to sit on the saddle while the bike is stopped! 
Try standing astride the frame with both feet on the ground. Use your foot to rotate the pedal to a convenient angle, say around 45 degrees forward of straight up, then press down hard, which will simultaneously lift you up and get the bike going.
Why not? I do it all the time. Maybe I’m not fully sitting on the seat as when I’m riding, but the seat (not the frame) is definitely between my legs, one foot is on the ground/curb, and the other foot is on the pedal slightly forward of the up position.
I feel I must be misunderstanding something.