Hybrid Project

markos1963

Thinking of biding on this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0310412887
Would it be suitable size wise for my 12yo son who is 5'1" tall and has a 30" true inside leg?. I then want to turn it into a straight bar hybrid using suitable bars, rapidefire shifters and road wheels so he can have a fast road bike. Do I keep the drive train or do I need to change it as I want to fit an MTB triple chainset to keep the gearing low enough for a junior? Also do I need some sort of stop for the gear cables where the down tube shifters are?

whyamihere

How tall is he overall? I'd think it would be too big for him to be honest.

markos1963

whyamihere wrote:

How tall is he overall? I'd think it would be too big for him to be honest.

5 Foot 1 inch

whyamihere

Hmmm. He may be ok actually, especially with the flat bar conversion. A shorter set of cranks may be beneficial, which can obviously done when swapping it to a triple. These will convert the downtube shifter bosses into cable stops for rapidfires.
Assuming you don't have a bike he currently rides for a reference, I'd tentatively say go for it. If you do, however, take some measurements and get measurements from the seller to compare.

markos1963

whyamihere wrote:

Hmmm. He may be ok actually, especially with the flat bar conversion. A shorter set of cranks may be beneficial, which can obviously done when swapping it to a triple. These will convert the downtube shifter bosses into cable stops for rapidfires.
Assuming you don't have a bike he currently rides for a reference, I'd tentatively say go for it. If you do, however, take some measurements and get measurements from the seller to compare.

Cheers for that. He is currently riding a 24" wheeled junior MTB so its difficult to compare. I might get him down the LBS/Halfrauds to try a few for size. I thought as well that going flat bar would over come reach issues.

markos1963

I've just had a thought, should it be used with 650 or 700 size wheels?