When you were a kid, I'm going to bet that you loved building things. Taking them apart, putting them back together, doing your best to figure out how they worked. Or maybe just putting together LEGO kits was more your speed; that's cool, too. Most kids, from multiple generations, were (and are) exactly like this.
Putting that together with the omnipresent thought of 'how do we get more kids into bikes,' something finally clicked into place in my brain. It feels like an idea that someone should have already had by now, honestly. A thing so obvious, I'm not sure why it hasn't happened yet.
By now, if you have kids in your life, or you know anyone with kids, or you even just pay attention to science/engineering-focused podcasts and YouTube channels, then you probably already know about KiwiCo. It's a company that offers subscription boxes where you can get cool STEAM projects—that's an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics—aimed at different age ranges of kids delivered on a one-time or monthly basis, so kids can build cool stuff with the help of instructions.
It didn't exist when I was a kid, but I have loved it had it did. This is totally the kind of thing that would be up my street, in so many ways. Grown-up me is still like this, too; let's be honest. And if you're a serial DIY-er like me, I'm sure you can relate.
Currently available KiwiCo kits include ones that help you build robots (delivery, walking, and more), build a kinetic light-up speaker that works, put together moving electronics, and more.
Know what they don't have, though? A tiny, working engine. More specifically, a tiny, working motorcycle engine. Want to be more future-forward and go EV? A tiny EV motor to power a tiny EV motorbike could also involve teaching electronics skills! Or split the difference and go with a tiny hybrid engine setup!
The possibilities are pretty endless, and could solve multiple problems at once. Get kids interested in bikes, learning something new, and stoke curiosity about problem-solving and doing mechanical/electronic things, all at one time. Parents who ride and are so inclined could also work on this with their kids as a fun family project, and it'd be a really cool win-win for multiple generations.
I'm putting this idea out in the world both because I'm surprised it doesn't already exist, and because I think it should. What about you? Would you be into kits like this for the kids in your life if they existed? Let me know in the comments.
