Best Option Bike For A Tall 11 Year Old Girl

mystic.bertie

i have 2 daughters 11 and 13, a few months ago i bought my eldest a raleigh mission unisex mountain bike, it has full suspension, recently i weighed it and its 18kg :shock: Its heavier than my 12 year old raleigh mountain bike which is 15kg :shock:

i bought a new carrera virtuoso the other day, which is really light by my old bikes standard, anyway this has shocked me just how heavy this raleigh mission bike actually is. She seems happy with it so should i just leave her be with it?

I have been thinking about buying my youngest a new bike, now im more aware or weight etc, she is over 5ft and 11 year old so a small womans bike would do her. So should i tyr and get her a light fast hybrid type bike or is the mountain bike still a good choice for a child who does a lot of pavement cycling and bumping up and down kerbs etc? I feel bad one of my daughters has a 18kg bike to run about on :shock:

is suspension bikes a good choice for children of this age or is it just unnecessary weight or does it provide them with some benefit of comfort?

explosifpete

I work in a bike shop and I often think the same thing, many kids bikes weigh more than the adults bikes which is crazy.
The best bike you can get for children is an islabike www.islabikes.co.uk.
These are expensive but due to them being designed for children they really are the best thing to get them riding more as they are light, roll well and every thing (brake levers for an example) is made for the smaller hands....There resale value is high so it's not as bad as it would first appear.
AS for suspension it really isn't needed, normally doesn't work and adds a lot of weight.

A hybrid would be a good choice but you may struggle to get one that fits, they have large 700cc wheels that on a small frame will hit your daughters foot as she turns so not ideal.
Hope that helps

mystic.bertie

explosifpete wrote:

I work in a bike shop and I often think the same thing, many kids bikes weigh more than the adults bikes which is crazy.
The best bike you can get for children is an islabike http://www.islabikes.co.uk.
These are expensive but due to them being designed for children they really are the best thing to get them riding more as they are light, roll well and every thing (brake levers for an example) is made for the smaller hands....There resale value is high so it's not as bad as it would first appear.
AS for suspension it really isn't needed, normally doesn't work and adds a lot of weight.

A hybrid would be a good choice but you may struggle to get one that fits, they have large 700cc wheels that on a small frame will hit your daughters foot as she turns so not ideal.
Hope that helps

thanks for the reply, i had a look at the islabikes and they look great but pricey too, i could not justify splashing out that much as the bikes wont be used that much, second hand would be best but as usual its hard to find the right bike as there is not a lot of choice of 'good' second hand bikes.

apreading

Do not get full sus - will be really heavy unless you spend alot on it.

She will almost certainly be ready for a small adults bike now - so really just look at the same bikes you would look at for yourself. If you have a Decathlon near you then they do some really good bikes. Carrera do some really good budget bikes too.

Rigid front forks will make it lighter - the budget coil suspension forks again tend to be heavy - but can be replaced with air forks quite cheaply if you get some second hand Toras for example. Air suspension is ideal for kids as the springs wont be soft enough for them to get any real travel and they are heavy - with air, you can tune them to her weight so they are worth having and they are much lighter.

If you take the weight of the bike as a % of the weight of the person riding it, then imagine the bike was twice as heavy if you are twice as heavy as your daughter - then think just how hard work it would be for you to ride! Weight makes soooo much difference for a child.

mystic.bertie

thanks for the reply, ill avoid the suspension bikes. Decathlon is 40m away from me, think is not all their bikes have weights in the specifications so unable to just get one delivered. Ill pop into halfords and see what their bikes are like.