Advice on junior road bike

scottarm

took my daughter for a 15 mile run with the local club last week, I got her an old 5 speed to use but its seen better days and she struggled with the weight and frame mounted gears

I'm thinking of getting her a second hand / cheap bike as she really enjoyed the trip (probably due to the cafe stop) and no doubt will outgrow it in no time

is there a any decent cheap junior bikes out there she's11 and about 5 foot in height (at the minute)

cheers

Scott

ride_whenever

Felt do some pretty amazing kids road bikes, both on 650c wheels and 24" as well

g00se

Islabikes are the daddy - but you'll be pushed to find a bargain one second-hand.

No harm in looking though.

Dawes do kids road bikes too: Dawes Espoir.

Pseudonym

if she's 5ft, you might get her on a small 700c. The Dawes Espoir is a good bike, but she will probably outgrow the 26" wheels fairly quickly...

hammerite

Another vote for the Isla - review of the Luath and Dawes here. http://www.ctc.org.uk/resources/Magazine/201109056.pdf

The Luath 26 is just 8 speed I think (single chain ring). If you go up a size you get a double chainring. We got Jnr the 8sp, he's just about 5' now, but was a tad shorter when we got it, but he was only 9, and wasn't using gears properly, so a double chainring would've been pointless.

He has got the hang of gears now though.

stokey1964

My kids have had many bikes, both mountainbikes and road.

My only advice to to buy something decent. It will cost your more but when they grow out of it you should get most of your money back.

Kids bikes seem to fetch stupid money.
Have a look for a second hand Giant T-Mobile 24", Trek KDR1000 etc

My daughter now has a OCR 2 in XS with 650cc wheels

Over the time that they have the bike when it comes to sell on you should loose very little money.

The Trek KDR1000 they had sold for more on Ebay than I paid for it and that was after 18 months

Simon

Pseudonym

stokey1964 wrote:

Kids bikes seem to fetch stupid money.
Have a look for a second hand Giant T-Mobile 24", Trek KDR1000 etc

unfortunately, those are precisely the ones that fetch the stupid money.....besides, if she's 5ft, 24" will be too small....

scottarm

thanks for the replies, to be honest I'm looking at budget priced stuff, potentially b'twin

scott

hammerite

I looked at the BTwins when I was in Decathlon the other week. The two I picked up (Triban Jnr & Triban 3) seemed incredibly heavy, even though they're advertised at being 10.5kg.

cwm

how much you looking to spend dude,

got a small boardman comp fi i bought 2nd hand at the beginning of the year for my son,
he rathers mtb and ending up doing about 50miles on it,
just fitted him at 5 foot

scottarm

about 200ish cash is tight at the min, ive been looking on ebay but i'm in belfast so need the bikes to be posted

addicted to Langbar

There are a couple on here that are just over £200.00.

http://www.rutlandcycling.com/34397/Bar ... -Bike.html

cwm

unfortunately tiss quite a bit less than i would be looking for dude,
and the posting of a bike scares me to bits.

jejv

11, 5' - growing.

Junior is 16-17. 11 is "Youth C". The racing gear limit would be ~75 inches (6.05m rollout) - IIRC. That's a reasonable guide for a top gear if she's mashy. If she's spinny, there's no need to worry about the top gears being too high, unless she's going to race or TT, but low bottom gears would be good. Crank length matters too.

A small rigid 26" MTB with 32mm slicks and 6-speed 14-28 x 24-34-42 would work, and you might find such a thing on ebay or even freecycle.

We got one in exchange for a Victoria sponge cake. It needed a new bottom bracket. Slicks came when the back tyre wore to the carcass.

She's not too short for a big wheeled bike. But it takes some tinkering to get a comfortable semi-roadie riding position on a big-wheeled bike with MTB controls. Getting the gearing low enough could be interesting on 8-speed. A small-framed hybrid could work. Sometimes last year's model of small-framed hybrids are sold off cheap, and you can get a bargain. These things come with 48-38-28 x 11-something, which gives a silly high gear, and jumps in the midrange.

With either of these kinds of things, there are off-road tyres too. Spare set of wheels ?

Islabikes. Hmm. Not really trying hard enough to justify the price. An SRAM 11-32 goes 11-12-14-16-18-21-26-32. I wouldn't want a cassette that jumpy. Would you ? 9-speed 11-32 is better. 8-speed 13-32 or 13-30 would be super. If she did triples and 9-speed, maybe. She doesn't really do youth gearing restrictions, but then, maybe that's just the market that she has to serve. To put that another way, if your kid wanted to race or TT an Islabike, at the ages she suggests, you'd need to block off a few gears.

simon_e

Islabikes Beinn/Luath are the tops, with good reason. They look relatively expensive up front (if you're comparing to cheap, shoddy bikes) but worth every penny, and resale value is extremely good.

Wide ratio cassettes aren't an issue and less hassle than double/triple chainring. Only 2 teeth jumps in bigger gears is no worse than my commuting bike and coupled with small chainring steps will be pretty small. She's eleven FSS, not trying to win u16 time trial!

There is no brand that sells bikes with gears restricted for BC racing, that's the owner's concern. Anyway, if an 11 year old is mashing big gears they are doing it wrong.

Rigid hybrid or 14" MTB is a good call, flat bar brakes & gears will be easier to get to manage, and Specialized Fat Boy slicks or City Jets will help it roll.

For a standard road bike I would suggest Giant OCR/SCR or similar. XS (43cm, 700c wheels suits 5'2" and up) or better still, XXS (39cm 650 wheels). But bear in mind the brake levers, cranks etc will be adult proportions and 700c wheeled can feel a handful for young children, even tallish ones. The 43cm SCR has toe overlap, which I wouldn't recommend for a child either.

scottarm

cheers guys still looking in the local adds we'll see what turns up

scottarm

has anybody got a specialized dolce elite??, there's one advertised locally

Scott

EastTexasRider

Hi Scottarm:

You asked at the outset of this thread (a bit dated....but maybe you're still wondering....) if anyone made a decent cheap Junior Road Bike.

Yes, there are some choices, but not many in the 'budget friendly' category.

Here is one, that is budget friendly ($ 200 USD ) that I review on my blog:

http://affordableroadbikereview.wordpre ... ng-riders/

I can't say about shipping them to the UK.

They're available Stateside here via http://www.Amazon.com or http://www.Bikes4Families.com.

(I will say I'm curious about how easy it is for our UK brethren to order from http://www.Amazon.com, etc...)

Anyhow, please ck out my review / overview on our blog - please comment, if you have the time & inclination !

Hope it helps some to choose a Junior Road Bike...

David / EastTexasRider

scottarm

cheers since posting she is now on her 3rd bike after taking to racing

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=67805

didn't mind spending the cash when shes cyccling 150 plus a week (and shes 12) and has given up Ballet and Gymnastics, I'm actually financially better off!!!