How Building Bikes for Kids Builds Their Futures

Six ways biking sets kids in motion towards improved health and emotional well-being

What does it mean to build a bike and give it to a child? At the most basic level, the gift of a bike is shiny, new addition to their lives. But a bike is more than a toy. It’s more than a device. It’s more than a means for play. It’s even more than a way to exercise.

For under-resourced children, having a new bike of their own is a means of transportation not only from Point A to Point B, but a vehicle to transport their lives from sedentary to active; from isolation to community; and from dead end to endless possibility.

When it comes to children’s physical, cognitive, emotional and societal health, research provides proof on just how impactful exercise — and specifically biking — can be in a young person’s life.

Here are six positive ways that bikes set kids in motion.*

(click + in each section to read more)

• 1. Biking increases physical fitness

  Ready for the brutal truth? Most American children spend FIVE TO SEVEN hours a day in front of a TV, phone, computer, or other media device. Less than one-quarter (24%) of children 6 to 17 years of age participate in 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Most kids spend 5-7 times more time on their screens out-than in physical activity every day.

  But just one hour a day — 60 little minutes — of moderate activity can and does have substantial health benefits on school-aged youth. And, as it happens, biking is an excellent way to get that daily dose of activity! But there’s more …

  • Learning to ride a bike is a life-long (and life-enlarging) investment for children: Biking increases longevity, lowers blood pressure, promotes vascular health, and strengthens the heart.

  • Active transportation in the form of walking and cycling, significantly improves general health by reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.

  • There is a strong positive relationship between cycling and cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular fitness, favorable Body Mass Index (BMI), improved bone health, and improved cardiovascular and metabolic health.

• 2. Biking makes children feel happy and confident

  Learning how to ride a bike brings happiness, confidence and self-fulfillment through the experience of competence mastery. In other words: Bikes empower kids! Cycling is a source of feeling successful and a way for positive self-transformation.

  • Children gain esteem and self-confidence on the bike through the experience of freedom, autonomy and independence.

  • Biking is a way for kids to relieve stress and relax. There are meditative qualities to pedaling on a bike.

  • Navigating freely on a bike stimulates children! Kids love the feeling of adventure. Cycling in the outdoors not only engages kids’ bodies, but also their imaginations.

• 3. Biking has a positive impact on brain development and learning

  There is a deep connection between the functioning of the body and the functioning of the mind — between pedal power and brain power.

  • Biking is cognitive superfood! Exercise “charges” the brain’s neuro-electrical workings and leads to better cognitive functioning!

  • Biking increases students’ ability to concentrate. Research indicates that the effect of exercise on concentration is greater than the effect of diet on concentration.

  • Children with higher fitness levels activate more of the brain regions responsible for cognitive control , display greater cortical activation and corresponding cognitive performance, than kids with lower levels.

• 4. Biking improves behavioral disorders, such as ADHD

  Studies show that exercise can help children with behavioral disorders to increase attention, self-regulation and classroom functioning. Cycling helps kids to put the brain and body back into hormonal balance, which also regulates mood and behavior.” Cognitive improvements after biking were observed for students with ADHD on both the Simon and Trailmaking tests.

  • A study conducted by Specialized showed that after kids with ADHD started cycling, the riding positively altered brain activity towards more "normal" brain patterns, increased attention span, boosted mood, and of course, improved fitness and BMI. And it only took one ride to start to see those results!

  • Prominent ADHD cyclists, such as Adam Leibovitz, author of Riding Is My Ritalin confirms the findings about the benefits of biking to cope with behavioral disorders and recommends a daily dose of exercise instead of a daily pill.

  • Longer term, biking leads to an increase in positive mood and children’s ability to understand their own feelings.

• 5. Biking encourages community-building

  Cycling is an inclusive sport. Almost everyone, including overweight and disabled children, can learn to bike. There are bikes for students with special needs.

  • Biking with friends creates a sense of belonging.

  • Bikes are a means for kids to explore their neighborhoods, the local environment and to make connections with other community members in a way that riding in a car cannot.

  • Kids who walk or bike to school have a much better understanding of the geography of the place than kids traveling to school in car.

• 6. Biking teaches environmental responsibility

  Biking is kid-powered through sustainable (and free!) energy. It reduces traffic and pollution and enhances children’s environmental awareness.

Wish for Wheels doesn’t just give bikes to kids, we give them the potential for all these life-enhancing social, physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits along with the experience of our Build & Give Program.

When you give a bike to a child at a Wish for Wheels Build & Give Program you are telling them, “I see you. I believe you deserve a bright future. You are appreciated and valued.”

 The smiles on the kids’ faces say it all. For many, it’s a day they will never forget: The day they got their first bike!

And for the Teams who participate in Wish for Wheels Build & Give team-building events, the experience is unforgettable, too.

While building the bikes is fun and memorable team building experience, placing that newly-built bike directly into the hands of kids who have never had a new bike —or who may have never ridden a bike — is a feeling like none other. Watching “your kids” pedal around the parking lot or playground on the bikes you just put together is life affirming.

And that’s just the beginning … the impact of the Wish for Wheels Build & Give Program keeps unfolding as those kids grow up with greater possibilities to realize their full potential, physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually. All that from a bike? Yes, that’s what giving kids bikes can do.

• *These statistics were originally published by The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition and the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation Thanks to the author, Katja Seipman, for the excellent Biking Fact Sheet.

• Citations

  [1] https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000355.htm

  [2] https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/facts.htm

  [3] https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf#page=46

  [4] Jenny Herbold: Mountain Biking: It’s Good for Your Heart. In: Singletracks, January 7, 2017,https://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-training/mountain-biking-its-good-for-your-heart/

  [5] Oja (et al.): Health benefits of cycling: a systematic review. In: Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 2011:11, pp. 496-509.

  [6] Ibid

  [7] Chaang-Iuan Ho: Beyond environmental concerns: using means–end chains to explore the personal psychological values and motivations of leisure/recreational cyclists. In: Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2015.

  [8] Ibid., and Jessica L. Fraser-Thomas: Youth sport programs: an avenue to foster positive youth development. In: Journal for Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Vol. 10, 2005 - Issue 1, pp. 19-40.

  [9] Quoted in: Elizabeth Jose: Strong women start on a bicycle: How girls-only bicycle empowerment programs can help urban girls grow up to be strong women. Thesis at New York University, 2012.

  [10] John Ratey: Spark: The Revolutionary Science of Exercise and the Brain. Little, Brown and Company, reprint edition 2013. In: Bruce Barcott: It's All in Your Head. In: Bicycling, February 4, 2013, http://www.bicycling.com/training/fitness/its-all-your-head

  [11] Bruce Barcott: It's All in Your Head. In: Bicycling, February 4, 2013,

  http://www.bicycling.com/training/fitness/its-all-your-head

  [12] Ibid

  [13] Ibid

  [14] Bruce Barcott: It's All in Your Head. Loc. cit. Relating to the research of Charles Hillman, Neurocognitive Kinesiology Lab, University of Illinois.

  [15] Phillip D. Tomporowski: Exercise and Children’s Intelligence, Cognition, and Academic Achievement. In: Educational Psychology Review, June 2008, 20:111.

  [16] John D. Cowden: Pedaling Away from Behavioral Problems in School. In: NEJM Journal Watch, January 9, 2017. Online: http://www.jwatch.org/fw112428/2017/01/09/pedaling-away-behavioral-problems-school

  [17] Molly Hurford: More Over Standing Desks: Kids Learn Better with Pedal Desks. In: Bicycling, September 1, 2015, http://www.bicycling.com/training/health-injuries/move-over-standing-desks-kids-learn-better-pedal-desks

  [18] Specialized funds biking research, programs for kids. In: Bicycle Retailer, March 25, 2015,

  http://www.bicycleretailer.com/north-america/2015/03/25/specialized-funds-biking-research-programs-kids#.WVZ_EMbMzUI

  [19] https://www.bicycling.com/news/a20012097/cycling-for-adhd/#:~:text=The%20study%20showed%20that%20after,course%2C%20improved%20fitness%20and%20BMI.

  [20] Specialized funds biking research, programs for kids. In: Bicycle Retailer, March 25, 2015,

  http://www.bicycleretailer.com/north-america/2015/03/25/specialized-funds-biking-research-programs-kids#.WVZ_EMbMzUI

  [21] Special needs trycicles and bicycles for children and adults, https://www.especialneeds.com/shop/mobility/special-needs-tricycles-bicycles.html

  [22] Ibid

  [23] Ibid