Kids road biking

Anonymous

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being pants, 10 being great), how easy (product choice/product availability/cost) do you feel it is to get children (aged around 10) into road biking?

baudman

How do you "...get children (aged around 10)..." into anything?

It really depends upon the child - as well as their prior experiences, the rides and mentors they have accessible to them. For some, they'll love it. For others, they'll hate it. For an annoying number, they'll try it for a while and then something else will come along.

I don't think there's a magic number, formula or scale.

Anonymous

Sorry, maybe I did not explain what I meant properly.
I was only talking about the bike/kit, and assuming the child wants to do it.

baudman

[Sound of penny dropping]

A-ha... well, there's certainly plenty of kit out there. But, seeing how it doesn't sell quite as well as BMXs or (generally cheap, heavy) MTBs, it'll be priced accordingly. That being said, there's plenty of players out there doing smaller wheeled roadies for kids. 22", 24", 26" wheels. So the more that do it, the more mainstream it'll become.

Just a thought - Check out Planet-X, they have some on sale this very minute, I believe!

Anonymous

Thanks for the tip ;-)
Yes I saw those. Look really nice but I had just got a Felt.
It's about £130 more than I paid for the Felt but I may have been tempted had I seen it first.
Its my daughters so green colour of the Felt is a bit more fun too. Have not compared spec but weights are both good.

Not sure I would agree on there being plenty of kit around though. Not just bikes, but clothing too.

baudman

Well indeed it could be different in the UK, but in Aust we're getting more bike shops stocking kid's sizes. (Sorry, assumed we'd be following UK's lead). And indeed, many of the high-profile teams are creating kid's sized gear.
http://www.rapha.cc/team-sky-kids-wiggo-replica-jersey/

Anonymous

Glad things are picking up in Aus.

Not my experience in the UK.
We have 3 bike shops in town. The best one used to stock Moda but has recently stopped.
The other good one advised me not to bother with anything smaller than 700c wheeled road bikes, and the third refused to accept that junior road bikes even existed.

Online is slightly better. Generally having one model, but virtually no kit in kids sizes.

Its funny that we have just held a successful Olympics and are constantly told about 'inspiring a generation, but that generation that were inspired by the track and road cyclists will just have to wait a couple of years until they grow a bit

othello

For clothing, the best place for kids stuff really is Decathlon. They do kids cycling gear from age 6 upwards, and you can get padded tights, padded shorts, tops, jackets, gloves etc etc. Actually pretty well made, and certainly more than good enough for a growing child you will move on to the next size pretty quickly! Plus they are cheap!

othello

baudman wrote:

That being said, there's plenty of players out there doing smaller wheeled roadies for kids. 22", 24", 26" wheels. So the more that do it, the more mainstream it'll become.

Totally. It will take a while, but it will come. Manufacturers test the market, people start buying, manufacturers extended range to meet demand...

A good example of this is Moda, who are a fairly small UK outfit. They have done their Moda Minor and Major (24" and 650 wheel) road bikes for a couple of yearsLovely bikes, in fact my son had one for a while. I hardly saw any around until the past 12 months when they have started to be come more popular, and they are up against Islabikes at a similar price bracket remember. Moda have now released a cross version of each. They wouldn't have done that without seeing a market and kudos to them for giving it a go.

Anonymous

I will pop into Decathlon when I see one. Only been in one in France a few years ago.

My cycling club do kids sizes so bib shorts and jerseys are not a problem, and great value too.
She has most things now. Just need some long finger gloves really. Ladies XS are still a little big.

Nag man

i have been to a decathlon store in france , good stock of chid cycle stuff
but i was dissapointed with th uk stock , & have found that its best to tru children in the kit rather than order online
as sizes vary so much ....